PRIORITY deadline for Biological Sciences, for Fall admission, is February 15
Important Links: Application Deadlines - Graduate School
How to Apply to the Graduate School
Annual Graduate Student Progress Form
Please visit the NIU Graduate School for more information.
There are two graduate programs in the department, leading to master's or Ph.D. degree in the Biological Sciences. Students interested in obtaining a Master of Science degree may select from two options: thesis and non-thesis, or two specializations (Human Anatomical Sciences or Bioinformatics). Students interested in obtaining a Ph.D. degree may apply to our doctoral program.
Dr. Thomas Sims
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Biological Sciences
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
tsims@niu.edu
815-753-7873
Freyja Rasmussen-Johns
Graduate Secretary
Department of Biological Sciences
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
faltepeter@niu.edu
815-753-7800
The NIU GRE, GMAT and LSAT test prep program is available to NIU students and alumni at a discounted rate. All instructors are NIU facutly.
Chris Yahnke (M.S., 1993; Ph.D., 1999; P.L. Meserve, advisor) was elected Chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, in June 2007. He is an Associate Professor and Curator of Birds and Mammals there, and teaches mammalogy and comparative anatomy. When not involved with administration, he maintains research programs in Big Bend National Park, Texas, where he and his students study desert rodent communities (see photo above), and northern Wisconsin where he conducts research on species overturn as it relates to global climate change. The Department of Biology has 23 faculty and about 700 biology majors. The department has a strong organismal biology emphasis owing in large part to one of the largest natural history collections in the state. Chris and his wife, Bridget, still have many contacts and friends in Paraguay, where they both worked for the San Diego Zoo while Chris worked on his dissertation research. He will be returning to Paraguay in August to work with his colleagues at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural and then will be attending the X International Mammalogical Congress in Mendoza, Argentina.Chris knows where all the former NIU Huskies are at UWSP and recently hired Kim Cherry-Vogt (Blackstone lab) as an adjunct faculty for the coming academic year.