The Field

Microbiology is an attractive area of study because of its central position in the study of basic life sciences, its close connection to medical fields, and its direct role in biotechnology. The program of study for Microbiology majors offers broad training both for students who plan to enroll in graduate or medical/dental/veterinary school, and for those who will seek positions in biotechnology research or with hospital, university or government laboratories upon graduation.

Because it focuses on the study of viruses, bacteria, and the immune system, microbiology has a long history of close contact with medicine and other health professions. The recent explosive growth of biotechnology depends heavily on using microorganisms to produce biomedical and industrial products, and so has created a large demand for correspondingly trained personnel at both the B.S. and more advanced levels. The revolutionary advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of basic biological phenomena have been largely accomplished using microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria. This has drawn microbiology to the center of such basic life science fields as molecular genetics and cell biology, as the principles and approaches developed using microorganisms prove applicable to all levels of biology.