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TRAILBLAZERS IN learning
and DISCOVERY
Providing opportunities in the lab, classroom and field
Who We Are
Whether they learn in the lab or at one of dozens of agencies and museums in Washington, D.C., GW students have every opportunity to make biology their own. They can anchor their studies in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History with a collaborative program in systematics, or follow their passions to fieldwork in the Amazon Basin, the Gobi Desert or islands in the South Pacific.
Students and researchers alike enjoy the university’s cutting-edge research spaces and the Wilbur V. Harlan Greenhouse, an open-air classroom that also grows plants for active research projects. Beyond the Foggy Bottom Campus, biology faculty members lead community-service projects and collaborate on one-of-a-kind initiatives with fellow scientists at institutions like the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.
Join the Graduate Programs Virtual Open House: October 19–30
Registration is now open for GW's 2026 Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) Graduate Programs Open House! The virtual event features program-specific information sessions and opportunities to interact with current graduate students, faculty and our admissions team. Attendees will receive an application fee waiver.
The Biological Sciences Department will host a virtual information session for prospective graduate students on Tuesday, October 20, at 11 a.m.
Well-Rounded Education
In the Classroom
In The Ecology and Evolution of Organisms, students create personalized service projects that link social ills to their larger cultural and ecological contexts. Student topics have ranged from rural dog rescue to oyster conservation.
In the Community
Associate Professor of Biology Keryn Gedan brings her student researchers to the marshes of Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Students employ drones and machine learning tools to document the creeping advance of ghost forests—swaths of standing dead freshwater-dependent trees that can’t survive in salty marshes.
In the Lab
In Associate Professor of Biology Arnaud Martin's lab, the team studies the evolutionary genetics that have shaped color pattern diversity on butterfly wings using cutting-edge tools like CRISPR, the genome-editing technique. As a fellow in Martin's lab, sophomore Martina Tsimba (right) manipulated butterfly eggs.
In the Summer
Every year, a small group of students funded by the Wilbur V. Harlan Research Fellowship conduct independent research. They spend the summer receiving training and mentoring from graduate students and faculty. For Sarah Shamash, BA '23, the Harlan experience led her to change her career trajectory from medicine to ecology.
Biology by the Numbers
$8 Million
Awarded in Research Funding
4,000+
Hours of Community Service Performed by Biology Students in the D.C. Area Each Year
100+
Years of Collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
No Fossil Fuel Money Resolution
"Biology is not just found in a textbook. … The food we eat, the cars we drive, the diseases we have — everything we interact with is biology."
Tara Scully
Associate Professor of Biology
Director of Sustainability Minor