The highly ranked UW–Madison Department of Integrative Biology is proud to serve more than 1,700 undergraduates in four majors— neurobiology, biology, zoology, and molecular and cell biology. Our award-winning faculty provide students with courses and hands-on research opportunities in disciplines spanning molecular and cell biology, neuroscience, development, ecology, evolution, and conservation in diverse plants and animals. We are home to the UW Zoological Museum, a renowned center for research and education dedicated to the preservation and study of vertebrate and aquatic animals. The opportunities provided by your donations are life changing, preparing the next generation of biologists to find solutions to real-world problems spanning from medicine and human health to ecosystem conservation and sustainability.
Priorities for the department include supporting undergraduate and graduate award programs, boosting infrastructural improvements to attract faculty talent, and maintaining a modern, world-class research and education experience. Your donation will support our growth and mission in a myriad of ways including:
- Fortifying outreach programs. Your gift can support our K-12 outreach and our teacher training programs. Faculty in iBio engage in outreach through the Advanced Placement Summer Institute for AP Biology teachers, science expos in middle and high schools in the Madison school district, the annual Darwin Day event at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, and many more.
- Attracting and retaining world-class faculty. By offering competitive start-up packages that fund lab costs, equipment purchases, and research, we can continue to recruit and maintain top-notch researchers and teaching talent.
- Flexible funds for new education initiatives. Your gift can support our teaching agenda in numerous ways, enabling educators to add new course modules to large service courses like Introductory Biology for majors, take students on field trips in upper-level classes, or enable access to modern tools in our teaching labs.
- Establishing new award funds to support fieldwork for dissertation research. Collected materials and metadata housed in the Zoological Museum will provide lifetime benefits to the research community. Digitization of our records enables researchers to access data from anywhere in the world.
- Extending support for graduate students. By providing funding beyond traditional mechanisms, your support can give the precious gift of time to graduate students, helping them dedicate themselves fully to research and develop their intellectual independence.