Biology Professors Rich Hardy and Rich Phillips have been named 2025 AAAS Fellows. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals, has named seven Indiana University faculty members to its 2025 fellows’ class, a lifetime honor within the scientific community.
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Indiana University biologist Maria P. Fernandez has been awarded a five-year Maximizing Investigators Research Award (MIRA) grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study how circadian clock neuron networks develop and form functional connections.
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The study, co-authored by Michael Wade, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, addresses a stubborn misconception that has lingered in the field, namely, that natural selection acts almost exclusively on individual organisms competing for survival and reproduction.
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Indiana University has named six faculty members – including Biology Professor Jay Lennon – as Distinguished Professors, the most prestigious appointment offered to honor faculty whose outstanding scholarship, artistic or literary distinction, or other achievements have won significant recognition by peers.
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A new study led by Orie Shafer, Indiana University biology professor and a Linda and Jack Gill Chair at the Gill Institute for Neuroscience, with IU postdoctoral fellow Abhilash Lakshman, Ph.D., and IU undergraduate student Reed Evans, is reshaping how scientists study sleep by revealing that fruit flies experience multiple distinct sleep states rather than a unitary state.
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Assistant Professor of Biology Cristina Landeta was awarded $25,000 from the Lawrence Blatt Endowed Fund for Translational Research. Landeta is developing new antibacterial therapies for disarming disease-causing bacteria. Her team is creating stronger inhibitors that block the natural resistance to antibiotics, presenting an alternative approach to address the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
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Department of Biology Professor Clay Fuqua and his research team have been funded for a four-year project via an R01 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. This project focuses on the role of enigmatic metabolites called pterins that are common to all living systems.
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Indiana University's “coral corral” is maintained by associate professor of biology Julia van Kessel. She and her startup cofounder, teaching professor of chemistry Laura Brown, use the lab to teach IU students and the public about the challenges facing coral worldwide. Their innovative approach to student research fights aquatic pathogens posing threats to marine and human health.
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To tackle critical national security challenges, drive innovation and support U.S. global competitiveness, Indiana University has awarded eight IU research teams with the IU LAB National Security Biotechnology Challenge Grant. Among the eight recipients were Roger Innes, IU Distinguished Professor of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington, and Jay Lennon, professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Our faculty, research scientists, and graduate and undergraduate students are exploring everything from ecosystems to microbiology and developmental biology; evolution to cell biology; molecular biology to systems biology, bioinformatics, and genomics. Together, we explore the breadth of biological questions and experimental systems.
Our faculty members are world-class researchers and teachers who share an excitement for the life sciences. The multiplicity of expertise and scientific approach, combined with our exceptional collegial culture, is what makes IU Biology stand out and has made IU a premiere place for performing research.
The IU Department of Biology is a community of academic scientists, teachers, students, and staff from a wide range of cultures, nationalities, races, and social backgrounds. We are committed to maintaining a culture of respect and kindness and to supporting each other in our academic and professional pursuits.
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