Biology (BSc, iBSc)
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Biology was the pioneer science at York, offering the first undergraduate and graduate programs in the 1960s.
Biology studies living things and the discipline defines a living creature, technically called a living "organism", as one that has a metabolism and reproduces. Biologists study living organisms from many different angles, including behaviour, evolution and ecology as well as cell and molecular biology and genetics. Biologists study all different kinds of species from plants to insects, viruses to humans. Biology can also be combined with other fields. For example, biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology and biopsychology are all important fields related to biology.
Biologists can be found working everywhere — on and off the planet:
- in a variety of environments to investigate ecosystems;
- in the laboratory to examine how organisms work;
- in the microscopic world to explore cells and the submicroscopic to explore molecules in cells;
- in space to study the effect of space travel on organisms;
- back in time to investigate the history of life.
The Biology program, York’s longest-established scientific program, is home to internationally-recognized teaching and research faculty. It offers you a diversity of courses from across the discipline, providing you with the flexibility to choose courses from many different areas or to specialize in a particular field of life science. In your upper years, you can choose to specialize in such areas as:
Our Biology program has more lab hours than most other programs in Ontario. Graduates go on to successful careers in medicine, dentistry, research, teaching, industry. Biology at York will prepare you for careers in medical and biological research, environmental assessment and restoration and management or policy development at all levels of government.
What makes this program unique:
- York’s teaching faculty are internationally renowned, tenure-track professors who maintain active, cutting-edge research programs. This research excellence means that you are exposed to the most recent developments in the constantly changing fields of Biology. This includes Dr David Hood, Canada Research Chair in Cell Physiology, Dr. K Andrew White, Canada Research Chair in Plant Biotechnology & Structural Biology and Dr. Bridget Stutchbury, Canada Research Chair in Ecology & Conservation Biology.
- York is home to IRIS (Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainabilty), the Centre for Research in Biomolecular Interactions and the York Centre for Vision Research.
- The first year Biology course offers peer-mentoring tutorial sessions run by some of our best senior undergraduate students, so you'll have ample opportunity to get all your questions answered. You'll also get the opportunity to work side-by-side with professors in their research laboratories through summer research programs, work-study programs and honours thesis projects in our many labs and research centres.