波特兰州立大学

In our cutting-edge labs, you will conduct research, learn grantsmanship, gain teaching experience, and pursue an academically rigorous program that will allow you to succeed beyond graduate school.

We cultivate our students to become confident, exploratory scientists in their own right. Our graduates design and conduct research that pushes the limits of knowledge and often nets our student's publication in leading peer-review journals.

Our graduate programs offer several tracks — from the general master’s programs to the biology teaching program to the doctoral track — that allow students to hone in on their scientific passion.

BIOLOGY MASTER'S DEGREE: WHY PSU?

Our department’s supportive faculty maintain nationally and internationally recognized biology research programs that brings meaningful scientific discoveries into the graduate classroom.

In our collaborative program, students are in frequent contact with faculty. Our weekly seminar series also offers students the opportunity to meet and learn from professionals from outside the PSU environment. Research facilities such as greenhouses, natural history collections (botanical, and both invertebrate and vertebrate), and the Center for Life in Extreme Environments serve as resources for much graduate research.

Faculty receive research funding by high-profile organizations, such as the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Howard Hughes Foundation, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

WHAT CAN I DO WITH A MASTERS'S DEGREE IN BIOLOGY?

A graduate degree in biology offers a solid foundation in the sciences that can provide an avenue to careers in medicine or to a profession as a scientist.

Many of our graduates also pursue careers in wildlife management or conservation. Undergraduate degrees with an emphasis in molecular biology, cell biology and/or microbiology also have the potential to enter fields within the biotechnology sector. And for students of all areas of Biology, an undergraduate degree is a virtual prerequisite for continuing graduate degree programs that then open opportunities at the next level.

Graduate Program Learning Outcomes

1. Advanced Knowledge: Graduate students will have and be able to apply advanced knowledge in specialized areas defined by their graduate program.

2. Methods: Graduate students will have and be able to apply skills in appropriate methods of analysis, whether quantitative or qualitative, or both, to collect and integrate information in ways consistent with the highest standards of their discipline.

3. Research: Graduate students will conduct research that results in an original contribution to knowledge, according to the standards of their discipline, including as appropriate both independent and collaborative research, and in conformity with all standards for responsible conduct of research.

4. Pedagogy: Graduate students will participate in training for teaching and apply their skills in the classroom consistent with their disciplinary norms, in undergraduate or other settings in their own or other disciplines.

5. Communication: Graduate students will have and apply skills in scholarly communication, applied in oral, text, and digital formats consistent with the highest standards of their discipline.

6. Professionalism: Graduate students will engage with the structure of their discipline and their intended career placement as professions, including the legal and ethical dimensions of these professions and the responsibilities involved to a variety of stakeholders