Plant ecologist Joanna Weremijewicz has been awarded a $700,000 CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation for her work on The Role of Common Mycorrhizal Networks in the Establishment, Environmental Change, and Persistence of an Invasive Plant Species in the Tallgrass Prairie. This prestigious award recognizes Joanna as an early-career faculty member with potential to serve as an academic role model in research and education.

Our immersive, research-rich biology and biochemistry programs are located in the new Wentz Science Center--come check us out!

NCC Biology majors engage in genuine research from their first day. In BIOL 195, first-semester freshmen and transfers investigate West Nile virus in local mosquitoes. Here, they're presenting posters on their work at the end of the semester.

Students become biologists as they engage in research with faculty mentors. Stipends are available for full-time research in our summer program (learn more and apply here), or students can do research for course credit during the academic year. Capstone courses also offer a taste of research through independent projects.

A $5,000 grant from the Dart Foundation will allow the Biology Department to purchase two dissecting microscopes with streaming video capability to support BIOL 195 and other courses.

Tri-Beta, our biology honor society, sponsored a trip to Starved Rock State Park to see waterfalls and spring flowers.

North Central biology students have an experimental restored prairie right on campus thanks to the efforts of Dr. Greg Ruthig and other Biology and Environmental Studies faculty. Dr. Ruthig recently received a $5000 grant from Bayer's Feed A Bee program, supporting the prairie's role in providing habitat for native pollinators.

Lauren Bode (left) and Ana Cvetkovic received a $500 grant from the Illinois State Academy of Sciences to provide supplies to support their research with Dr. Greg Ruthig on water molds that infect amphibian eggs.

North Central College is now a partner in the Chicago Botanical Garden's budburst project, a citizen-scientist project to monitor effects of a changing climate on plants in our area.

Summer research students are pictured presenting their work at a poster session early in Fall term, the culminating event in our annual Summer Undergraduate Research Colloquium (SURC). Students may also present the results of their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCURor at regional or national professional conferences.

North Central students interested in fields such as ecology, botany and zoology have opportunities to work in the field at local or remote sites. Pictured here are Greg Ruthig and his students, who traveled to Africa for a recent field course, Natural History of Bioko Island.

ArbNet has recently approved North Central College as a Level One Arboretum. A campus-wide tree survey conducted by student researchers collaborating with Biology faculty was instrumental in achieving this designation.

Ana Cvetkovic, Prerana Shrestha, and Lauren Bode published their research on a frog die-off due to amphibian pathogens and presented their work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.