Study living organisms in the laboratory, classroom and field.
As a biology major or minor, our curriculum will give you a broad background in biology while providing for specialization in your particular interest.
You’ll also gain extensive experience in testing your own hypotheses and designing your own experiments. You will carry out scientific investigations in the lab, the field and the classroom.
Biology majors pursue graduate work in biology or the health professions, or enter careers in government, business, law, journalism, secondary school teaching, environmental consulting, conservation organizations or biotechnology.
What You’ll Study
- Evolution and ecology
- Genetics, cell biology and bioinformatics
- Animal and plant physiology, developmental biology, animal behavior and conservation biology
- The process of biological inquiry
- Field and laboratory research methods
Researching at Pomona
Tropical Ecology Conservation
While studying abroad in Costa Rica, Isabel Ramos ’25 participated in a tropical ecology conservation program that stationed her at a regenerative dairy farm to investigate the impacts of rotational grazing on arthropod communities.
Studying Plant Physiology
Jacob Ligorria ’23 analyzed current scientific literature regarding telegraph plants, plants that move their leaflets very quickly, and identified the most prominent gaps in our understanding of leaflet motion to suggest future avenues of investigation.
What I love most about the biology major is its flexibility in allowing you to explore various topics. From conducting behavioral experiments with crickets to bird banding at the Bernard Field Station to learning how to use Python for conservation applications, I’ve gained experiences across diverse fields, ecosystems, and research techniques.