Biology Facilities
The Department of Biology is located in Starcher Hall with 58,000 sq. ft. in a four-story building with classrooms, museums, offices and research laboratories.
Roof-Top Greenhouses
The three large roof-top greenhouses and the adjacent preparation area occupy more than 6,000 square feet. The prep areas contain a variety of large and small environmental chambers.
Animal Care Facility
The animal care facility includes rooms for aquatic organisms, aquatic bird rooms, observation rooms for behavioral study, a number of rooms for holding small mammals and birds, and three service/maintenance rooms. The animal care coordinator, Elvira Tkach, oversees the basic husbandry for the various species used in research.
Other Research Facilities
- Herbarium
- Controlled environmental chambers
- Vertebrate and invertebrate research museums
- Tissue culture
- Common instrumentation and data analysis rooms
- Molecular biology laboratories
Check out our shared facilities and field stations.
Equipment
The Department has received numerous grants for research and equipment, such that nearly all of the specialized instruments presently required for our research are available. Notable recent departmental additions include:
- UVP Autochemi Gel documentation system
- Microm HM550 Cryostat
- Real Time PCR System
- Automated DNA sequencer
- Fluoview Confocal Microscope
- Microbrightfield Instruments design-based Stereology System
- High-precision (less than one cm) Leica global positioning system
Highly specialized instruments not presently available in Biology have been made available to our graduate students by other nearby facilities such as the Department of Chemistry, the Medical School, the USDA Human Nutrition Laboratory, and the UND Energy Technology Center.
Field Stations
The mission of the Biology Field Stations is to provide relatively-unaltered model ecosystems for education and research. Collectively, the Biology Field Stations offer many of the major ecosystem types available in the region, including wetlands, prairies, riparian woodlands, and streams.
- Forest River Biology Area
- Oakville Prairie Field Station
- Mekinock Field Station
Computing
A wide array of computers, software, and peripherals is available for use at a variety of locations on campus.
- The Department of Biology supports a Data Analysis Room that houses microcomputers, software and peripherals. Up-to-date software is available for word processing, data base management, graphics, statistical analysis, and spreadsheets.
- Students, faculty, and staff all have access to broadband accounts (free for educational purposes) that allow access to email, supercomputer facilities, and remote use of library resources at UND's Chester Fritz Library, institutions of higher education in North Dakota, and numerous systems available on Internet.
- UND has a high performance computing cluster at the Computational Research Center.
Chester Fritz Library
UND has the largest research library system in the state offering a wide variety of research tools. The Chester Fritz Library together with the School of Medicine & Health Sciences Library Resources and the Thormodsgard Law Library contain over two million volumes and offer access to thousands of online resources. The Energy & Environmental Research Library and the F.D Holland Geology Library are also available to biology students.
The University's libraries participate in ODIN, the On-Line Dakota Information Network, whose members include the academic libraries, major public libraries and many public school libraries in the state. ODIN provides statewide library networking and computer support services. The Libraries also network with other research libraries around the world, providing the latest in scholarly research through interlibrary loan agreements. UND's Libraries offer computer workstations, modern study areas and consulting services.