Department of Biology

What is Biology?

Biology is the study of life, from single molecules to whole ecosystems – and at UofL, it’s starts with relationships. The community you join here starts early, with faculty, staff and the students at your bench, and it’s why students thrive. In your first year you’ll do real research in a course-based lab, and from this experience some students even publish with faculty before they graduate. Our award-winning teacher-scientists study everything from genomics to urban ecology, and they welcome undergraduates into that work.

Almost 60% of our majors are headed for medical careers and another 20% for dental or veterinary school, biology opens doors well beyond the clinic. You have room to shape the degree around your goals: earn a certificate that includes two semesters of internship experience, get a head start through our accelerated master’s, or major in biomedical sciences or ecology and build lab and field skills that transfer straight to a career. Every biology major is paired with a faculty mentor who looks out for your courses, your career planning and your time here. Wherever you’re headed in the life sciences, there’s a path for you. Explore it.

Career Prospects

Where Your Passion for Life Becomes Your Professional Purpose

A Biology degree gives you more than scientific knowledge — it gives you the analytical foundation, laboratory expertise and critical thinking skills that today's most in-demand careers are built on. Whether you're headed to medical school, a research lab, a biotech firm or the field, your training in the science of life opens more doors than most students expect.

Healthcare and social assistance is the fastest-growing sector in the U.S. economy, projected to add roughly 2 million jobs through 2034. Biology is your foundation for entering it — and for leading within it. Our graduates go on to become physicians, researchers, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, environmental scientists and more.

You'll graduate with hands-on laboratory experience, research skills and the scientific literacy that professional and graduate programs demand. Our graduates turn their curiosity about living systems into careers that heal, protect and advance humanity.

Explore Career Pathways in Biology