The University of New Mexico

Department of Biology

With classes and research spanning genes to ecosystems and beyond, we are home to major research programs like the Museum of Southwestern Biology, the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LTER), the Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology (CETI), and New Mexico Natural Heritage. 

As a leader in funded research and scholarly productivity, our graduate and undergraduate students learn about research by doing it. 

Undergraduate training programs in the department like U-RISE at UNM, the PREP at UNM program, and the Sevilleta REU sites program, as well as Graduate training programs like the Museum Research Traineeship, provide additional opportunities for students to engage with research. 

Please look around to see all of the activity across our department and find a place for your own study of Biology!

About the Department of Biology

The Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico is one of the largest academic units in the state. The department faculty is comprised of 32 tenure track faculty and 9 faculty lecturers, training more than 1,300 majors and more than 100 graduate students.  The operation of the department employs nearly 100 staff and research support positions. Our research activities generate $9–13 million per year in research funding and more than 100 papers per year.

We have deliberately fostered the concept of a single, large, interactive department conducting research and training graduate students across the spectrum of modern biology, one that blurs traditional boundaries and favors collaborative and multidisciplinary approaches.  We have strong programs in ecology and evolution that embrace diverse research in ecosystems ecology, plant population and community ecology, behavioral ecology, metabolic ecology and collections-based studies in the Museum of Southwestern Biology. Lying in intermediate positions are integrative programs in parasitology and comparative immunology that cut across traditional disciplines, and at the cell/molecular end of the spectrum are programs in genomics, fungal biology and Drosophila development that also build on evolutionary themes. In addition to Biology majors, we serve students preparing for careers in the allied health sciences who take our non-majors courses en route to other programs on campus.