Hope College Biology Department

Every semester, Hope College Biology students take their learning far beyond campus. This fall, four of our students are studying around the world:

🌿 Rainforest, Reef, and Cultural Ecology — Australia
🇪🇸 Semester in Alicante — Spain
🎭 Direct Enrollment at the Gaiety School of Acting — Ireland
🐧 People, Environment, and Climate Change — Patagonia and Antarctica

We are excited to see how these experiences broaden their perspectives and enrich our Biology community when they return!

Schaap is blooming!

Congratulations to Hope student Alexa MacKersie who won FIRST PRIZE for best undergraduate poster at the Yeast Genetics Meeting in California!

The greenhouse currently has a gorgeous Venus Flytrap in bloom!

Our SHARP students had some fun with a cookie decorating contest. Science is sweet!

Our Biology department would like to welcome Professor Jill Oberski to our faculty! Professor Oberski is an entomologist and evolutionary biologist who takes inspiration from the vast diversity of animal life on Earth. She enjoys introducing students to beautiful and bizarre creatures in classes like Invertebrate Zoology and Biology of Insects. 🪼🪱🦋

Her main interest is the pattern and process of evolution in insect systems: How have tiny changes over millions of years led to the complexity and variety of forms we see today? To explore these questions, her research program centers around myrmecology, the study of ants. 🐜

Dr. Oberski can also be spotted curating the Hope College insect collection and collaborating with the Van Kley museum. She's looking forward to teaching entomology research methods and watching her students develop their own biological fascinations!

Say hello to one of our newest members of our Biology Department!
Dr. Laura Westrate joins us as an Associate Professor and is looking forward to working with students this fall in the genetics classroom, as well as in the lab studying how proteins are organized and trafficked through the endoplasmic reticulum.
Fun fact: When she's not in the lab, Professor Westrate is often in the kitchen trying new recipes and running her own edible experiments at home!

BIO and NSCI students had a great time playing mini-golf!

Hope College Professor Christopher Barney recently published The Hope College Department of Biology: The First 50 Years. You can read this most interesting piece at this link:
https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/faculty_publications/1543/

SHARP student kayak trip! 1st of 3 trips with the Outdoor Discovery Center!