Biological and Environmental Sciences

Chair: Indiren Pillay

Professors: Dave Bachoon, Andrei Barkovskii, Melanie DeVore, Y. Ellen France, Ashok Hegde, Kasey Karen, Kalina Manoylov, Al Mead, Sam Mutiti, Indiren Pillay, David Weese

Associate Professor: Matthew Milnes, Christine Mutiti, Bruce Snyder, Allison VandeVoort, Kristine White

Assistant Professors: Dominic DeSantis, Sebastien Portalier, Arnab Sengupta, Angela Walczyk

Senior Lecturer: C. Daniel Burt, Kwan Christenson, Leeann Kelley, Lori McGalliard, Emily Parrish

Instructor: Robert Allen Lecturer: Bailey Duxbury

Please see GCSU’s Campus Directory for department and faculty office locations, phone numbers, and email addresses, and the department website for additional department information.

Mission

The Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences supports the liberal arts mission of Georgia College by practicing excellence in teaching, scholarship, service, and student success. The department provides transformative and high-impact learning experiences through undergraduate curricula in the biological and environmental sciences and graduate curricula in biological sciences. Students gain an advanced understanding of living organisms and the ecosystems with which they interact through competitive research and scholarship and build public understanding and community engagement of the living world by collaborating with local community, state, regional and international entities. The department is committed to supporting the University’s mission and creates an environment within the campus community that values diversity of intellectual thought, experiences, and identity. The department embraces inclusivity to advance excellence through diversity, global responsibility, and sound ethical principles.

Career Information

The Biology and Environmental Sciences majors are designed to give students flexibility to prepare for a variety of career or graduate education tracks. Special advisement is provided to those who plan to enter education and professional schools to help students meet prerequisites for those programs. Internships afford majors the opportunity to learn by working for an industry, agency, or institution in a scientific capacity.

Department graduates usually go into one of four career tracks: industry, for example as microbiologists, food and drug technologists, environmental consultants, laboratory technicians, biotechnologists and scientists; state and federal government, for example as entomologists, environmental scientists, plant pathologists, zoo curators, horticulturists, agronomists, fisheries, wildlife and forest conservationists; or professional self-employment as physicians, veterinarians, dentists, optometrists, environmental attorneys, landscape architects; or K-16 educators, from the junior high school to college level. A small number of graduates pursue careers as academic scientists becoming faculty at masters and doctoral degree granting institutions.

A biology or environmental science degree qualifies graduates for immediate entry into some of these careers and enables them to qualify for others (especially in government and industry) with little additional work. The degree also qualifies graduates to apply to professional schools (i.e. medicine), graduate schools, and higher-level jobs in government and industry.