Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology: role of endogenous and environmental signals in the regulation of gene expression and differentiation; construction of molecular linkage maps; evolution of developmental gene regulation; developmental biology in invertebrates; plant-microbe interactions; signal transduction in plants.

Physiology: comparative physiology and neurobiology of marine invertebrates; physiology of nutrient resorption in plants; plant stress physiology; physiology of mycorrhizal fungi; physiology in extreme environments; cellular neurobiology of aquatic invertebrates.

Ecology, Systematics and Behavior: fisheries biology of decapod crustaceans; population ecology and evolution of aquatic invertebrates; ecology and physiology of plant nutrient dynamics; ecology of terrestrial fungi; invertebrate behavior and neuroethology; ornithology; systematics of marine invertebrates, especially Mollusca.

Functional morphology and biomechanics: functional morphology of feeding and locomotion in fishes; biomechanics of marine plants and animals.

Faculty: Click here for a list of faculty members and their research.

Prospective students are encouraged to contact faculty directly to discuss their research interests.

Facilities: Laboratory Facilities include access to the University's electron microscope facility, ultracentrifuges, scintillation counter, electrophysiological equipment, electrophoresis equipment, PCR facilities, animal and plant culture facilities, darkrooms, greenhouses, herbarium, confocal microscope, high-speed video, and an atomic absorption spectrophotometer.

Field Facilities include 1000 acres of the W. Alton Jones Campus (35 minutes from the Kingston Campus) that are reserved for research, and a wide diversity of habitats (estuarine, rocky intertidal,

coastal and freshwater ponds, marine and freshwater wetlands, sand dunes, mixed deciduous forests) located within short distances from the main campus. Boats, standard and specialized sampling equipment are available.

Animal Care Facilities include incubators, growth chambers, aquarium rooms, and access to running seawater systems for marine organisms.

Admission requirements: GRE and undergraduate degree. Candidates lacking undergraduate courses in organic chemistry, physics, mathematics through introductory calculus, and fundamental courses in biological sciences may be required to make up these deficiencies without graduate credit.

Program Requirements: Research thesis, BIO 581, BIO 582, BIO 695

Application Procedure: Applicants wishing consideration for financial aid must submit applications, transcripts, Graduate Record Examination scores, letters of recommendation, and requests for financial aid, including teaching assistantships to the Department of Biological Sciences no later than January 15 for fall admission or September 15 for spring admission. Foreign students also must submit scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). It is important that applicants describe their research interests in the personal statement, and it is highly recommended

that applicants contact professors with whom they might be interested in working directly (see note below). Appointments are made and applicants notified on an ongoing basis. Normally, applications are accepted for September admission; January admissions may be granted if the applicant has verified that a major professor would be willing to accept the student. Application forms are available online at: http://www.uri.edu/gsadmis/gsform.html

Other information about programs and procedures may be obtained from the University Catalog,which is available for view and download at: http://www.uri.edu/catalog/

Prospective students are urged to contact individual faculty members for further information regarding ongoing research and availability of space in individual laboratories.

Graduate Awards and Financial Support: M. S. degree candidates in good standing are assured of a minimum of three years of support, including tuition remission, usually through teaching assistanships.

Graduate Teaching Assistants participate under supervision in the instructional activities of the department. Not more than 10 hours per week are spent in classroom contact. Stipends for the 2005-2006 academic year were $11,506 and include health insurance. Some fees must be paid by the student. Teaching Assistantships do not include support during summer months, but opportunities for teaching assistantships or lectureships for summer courses may be available.

Graduate Research Assistants are assigned to individual research projects sponsored either by the University or by outside funding agencies. On supported research contracts and grants, graduate research assistants are judged to be employed half-time and

receive a stipend which is normally equivalent to the appropriate stipend level of a graduate teaching assistant plus a supplement to offset the costs of tuition and registration. Additional remuneration is given for work done during summer months.

University of Rhode Island Graduate Fellowships are supported by the Graduate School and provide a stipend for the academic year together with the remission of tuition. Fellowships are awarded to graduate students in recognition of high achievement and promise as scientists and scholars; senior graduate students are most successful in obtaining these fellowships. They are intended to enable students to pursue graduate research full time without rendering any services to the University. Graduate Fellows are required to be full time students and may not engage in additional remunerative work without special approval of the Dean of the Graduate School.

Courses Offered: The Department of Biological Sciences offers a variety of courses at the graduate level. In addition to more formal courses, each semester seminar courses tailored to the interests of graduate students are held. Graduate students also have their own seminar course where research ideas and presentations can be discussed in an informal setting. The department has an ongoing colloquium program where visiting and URI scientists discuss their own research.

Interdisciplinary Study: The Graduate Program in Biological Sciences provides abundant opportunity for interaction with other departments and programs. Departmental courses may be supplemented by courses in the Departments of Chemistry; Computer Science and Statistics (College of Arts and Sciences); in the Departments of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (College of Engineering); in the Departments of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Fisheries, Aquaculture and Veterinary Science, Natural Resources Science, and Plant Sciences (College of the Environment and Life Sciences); the College of Pharmacy, and in the Graduate School of Oceanography.

Graduate Students have opportunities to work with regular and adjunct faculty at the Narragansett Research Laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service Laboratory; Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, Massachusetts), the American Museum of Natural History, as well as on research projects in the southwestern United States, Belize, and Puerto Rico.

For further information: Applications are expected to be obtained and submitted online if at all possible (see link above). Requests for paper applications and for other general information on graduate study should be addressed to:

Dean of the Graduate School,
Quinn Hall,
      University of Rhode Island,
      Kingston, Rhode Island 02881.

For particular information regarding graduate programs offered within the Department, please contact:

Other sites of interest: Graduate Study at the University of Rhode Island [includes pages about graduate study and application procedures].

For more information about this site, contact biosci@etal.uri.edu