Thank you to everyone who attended our Biology Faces and Places.  We had a lot of fun and learned a great deal about our amazing Biology Department.  Special thanks to Professor Gretchen North who handed out succulents to any who wanted one, Professor John McCormack and Jonathan Williams for their wonderful tours of the various collections. 

 

Here’s some info on the Biology Department: The Biology Department at Occidental College is housed within the Bioscience building which is contiguous with the Moore Laboratory of Zoology. Facilities include the bird, fish and mammal collections (70,000 specimens) of Moore Laboratory, greenhouses, facilities for microscopy (scanning and transmission electron, confocal, and fluorescence), a tissue culture suite and a fluorescence activated cell sorter, fully-equipped molecular biology laboratories, field vehicles and four research vessels for nearshore marine studies and SCUBA diving.

 

The Moore Laboratory of Zoology's collection of birds and mammals, containing 64,121 specimens is among the world’s largest research natural history collections. Also, the Moore Laboratory has the largest collection of Mexican Birds in the world. Private tours of the Moore Laboratory can be scheduled through Professor John McCormack (mccormack@oxy.edu). Greenhouse - http://faculty.oxy.edu/gnorth/ The greenhouse, on the roof of the Moore Laboratory and adjacent to the Bioscience Building is used for several faculty and student research projects and houses tropical and desert plants - from orchids and venus fly traps to agaves and yucca. The biology department is composting its food and paper waste and has a bin on the roof to fertilize the plants.

 

The Vantuna Research Group has been monitoring and researching the marine environment of Southern and Baja California since 1966. The VRG is dedicated to studying long-term and large spatial scale processes in the Southern California Bight. This research program features both the longest continual time series studies of rocky reefs in the world and the largest spatial scale studies of reefs in the bight. Thus, we are experts in marine monitoring, time series analyses and spatial modeling. They currently are working on baseline monitoring for the Marine Protected Areas that will go into effect in January 2012.  The VRG has also just put in a new aquarium tank that will house animals and algae for courses and research at Oxy.