Challenges of the future and the tools needed to meet them will be increasingly understood in their biological dimensions and contexts. The continuing growth of Earth's human population is currently coupled to expansion of non-sustainable technologies in agriculture, industry and extraction of natural resources.

During the last decade, we began to recognize the emerging, unprecedented challenges in food and materials production, health maintenance and environmental quality that this growth is creating on a global scale. Lasting progress will be achieved only through development of technologies that can be sustained within the context of global biological systems. The biological sciences must provide both the understanding and the tools needed to meet the challenges and opportunities before us today and in the future.

The Michigan Tech Department of Biological Sciences aspires to provide one of the best programs in the Midwestern U.S. contributing to meeting these challenges through undergraduate and graduate education and research. Best is understood in terms of both quality and efficiency.

At the undergraduate level, we want the majority of MTU undergraduates to have at least one course in biology to provide some biological science literacy for their lives as adults. For Biological Sciences majors, we want to ensure forward-looking, comprehensive curricula that meet the highest national standards. This must include instruction and laboratory experience in each of the principal areas within biological sciences, and supporting course work in mathematics, physics, chemistry and communications.

In addition, we want to provide undergraduate majors with the support necessary to build careers beyond the undergraduate level in employment and graduate and professional schools. At the graduate level and in research, we want to support the education of biological science professionals up through the Ph.D. degree and at the Postdoctoral level.

Two areas of graduate study and research identified for growth are ecology/environment with emphasis on the Great Lakes Region, and biochemistry/microbiology/molecular biology with emphasis on environment. Within the Michigan Tech community, the Department of Biological Sciences aspires to continue and expand its leadership role in interdisciplinary education and research.