Welcome

The Department of Biology is a community of teacher-scholars, with faculty representing the full breadth of biological specializations — from molecular genetics to landscape/ecosystem ecology.

Our goal is to provide hands-on experiences through classroom laboratories and undergraduate research.  Our faculty and our 45 graduate students welcome our undergraduate majors to engage in independent research ongoing in 23 labs, plant, animal and fungal research/teaching collections, a greenhouse, a sixty-seven acre Nature Preserve adjacent to campus and larger land holdings in the area, as well as access to extensive globally significant surrounding state and federal parks and forests. 

We seek to enable our graduates to gain sound scientific knowledge, learn the skills needed to create new knowledge, the excitement and appreciation of scientific discovery, and the ability to convey that information and enthusiasm to society.  We are dedicated to engaging students in outstanding teaching and we believe that our research and discovery inform the science that we teach.

Mongo, the Corpse Flower

Mongo, the Corpse Flower

Appalachian State University's Titan Arum, or "corpse flower," is expected to bloom this November at the Department of Biology's Greenhouse. The bloom will be the plant's first since it arrived in Boone over a decade ago.

Department Spotlights

Faculty & Staff

Mike Gangloff in a boat on a river

Why did you become a biologist (and specifically the type of biologist you are)?

I was pretty much born a biologist and once I had moved on from classifying toy cars to dinosaurs, my...

Alumni

Dr. Nicole Hughes

What do you currently do?

I am currently an Assistant Professor of Biology at High Point University (in High Point, NC), and teach courses in General Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary...

Graduate Students

Leigha Henson, biology graduate student from Griffin, Georgia, received a 2023 LI-COR Prize at the Botanical Society of America's Botany Conference in Boise, Idaho, for her poster "Light and Moisture Content as Determinants of Photosynthetic Activity in Southern Appalachian Mosses from Open and Shaded Habitats." Photo by LI-COR Environmental on LinkedIn

BOONE, N.C. — Leigha Henson, biology graduate student from Griffin, Georgia, received a 2023 LI-COR Prize at the Botanical Society of America (BSA)'s Botany Conference in Boise, Idaho. Awarded by the...