The sky's the limit!
Career paths in the biological sciences include:
- research
- health care (medical, dental, veterinary, pharmacy)
- environmental management and conservation
- education (colleges and universities, primary and secondary schools, science museums, zoos, aquariums, parks and nature centers)
- biotechnology
- forensic science
- politics and policy
- business and industry
- economics
- mathematics
- science writing and communication
- art
Source: American Institute of Biological Sciences website.
Find answers to many frequently asked questions on the AIBS website.
See the University of Michigan Program in Biology Careers webpage for more great career resources and information on pursuing various career paths.
Impact of major on career path
Interactive graphic (hover over a major to see results)
Check out these features on graduates of the Program in Biology who are working in a variety of fields
Malloure’s research: not just for the birds
Gliding along the Everglades in an airboat, the racket made by the repurposed airplane engine drowns out the natural sounds of the tropical Florida wetlands. Wind blowing through the sawgrass, the shrill cries and laughing cackles of gallinules, the grunt, grunt, grunt of the pig frogs, the non-stop rattling trill of the marsh wrens, and the unnerving sound of thunder from a storm that is a little too close.
Earlier this year, graduate Brian Malloure (B.S. EEB 2011) monitored the populations of storks, herons and egrets throughout the Everglades with Dr. Peter Fredrick’s lab at the University of Florida. Read the full profile in EEB's newsletter, Natural Selections (Fall 2013) beginning on Page 1 >>
Students then and now
From Natural Selections (Fall 2011) celebrating the 10 year anniversary of EEB:
{then} Emily Moran is a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) in Knoxville,Tenn., where she is investigating the impact of increasing CO2 and ozone on inter-genotype competition and plant-insect interactions in aspen forests.
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{now} Nick Perri is an undergraduate at U-M in the Program in Biology. He recently worked with EEB graduate student Brian Sedio in Professor Chris Dick’s lab investigating community ecology of Panamanian Psychotria, a genus of tropical trees.
Carbon forestry pioneer
Awakening to the sound of gibbons howling at the rising sun in the forests of Central Kalimantan, stepping in fresh tiger scat in southern Sumatra, and working with local forest villagers who tied up logging machinery with heavy vines to retaliate against an illegal logging attempt in Borneo. Just another day in the life of U-M alumnus Gabe Eickhoff.
Eickhoff received his bachelor’s of science degree in biology and anthropology in 2003 and has just begun working as an advisor on climate and forestry with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in Laos. Previously, he worked in Indonesia.
Read the full profile in Natural Selections (Fall 2010) beginning on Page 5 >>
