In 2010, "U.S. News and World Report" ranked Stanford University as the top location for biology. Stanford offers a bachelor's or combination bachelor's and master's in biology. Stanford's major research areas include molecular biology, plant biology, population and evolutionary biology, and marine biology. Students who focus on marine biology have the ability to study at the Hopkins Marine Station while those who concentrate on population and evolutionary biology can study at nearby Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.
Department of Biology
Gilbert Hall - Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
650-723-2413
stanford.edu
Harvard's Life Sciences program--which includes biological anthropology, biomedical engineering, human evolutionary biology, molecular and cellular biology, neurobiology, chemical and physical biology, organismic and evolutionary biology, and human developmental and regenerative biology--ties for the second spot in "U.S. News and World Report." Harvard allows students access to over 1,000 labs across campus and nearby locations affiliated with Harvard. Research is heavily promoted by Harvard, including chances to do research abroad. In 2010, Harvard won the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly work or research.
Life Sciences Department
Harvard University
Massachusetts Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-1000
harvard.edu
Just across town from Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, also shares the number two spot in "U.S. News and World Report" for biology in 2010. In 2010, MIT's staff included four Nobel Laureates, 29 National Academy of Sciences members and 11 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. Students have the chance to use research facilities at Koch Biology Building, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, the Broad Institute and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. The biology department also offers weekly seminars on Tuesdays throughout the academic year, featuring researchers from various areas of biology and medicine.
MIT Department of Biology
31 Ames Street, 68-132
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
617-253-4701
mit.edu
The third college to share the number two spot on "U.S. News and World Report" is located on the opposite coast. The University of California, Berkeley, or UCB, has 12 different majors for biology, including molecular biology and bioengineering. UCB offers seminars on various topics in biology three to four times a week during the school year. UCB also has it's own nanosciences and nanoengineering institute, along with labs specifically to research stem cells or energy biosciences. In 2010, UCB launched a biotech incubator with the intention to birth multiple biotech start-up companies by students and alumni.
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Biology
Berkeley, CA 94720
510-642-6000
berkeley.edu