Department History

Howard University was founded in 1867 during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Botany and Zoology, along with Medicine, were established during this era to represent the life sciences at the university. The Department of Zoology was established in 1907 under the leadership of its first chairman, Dr. Ernest Just, who held this position until 1938. Botany, first offered as a course at Howard in 1867, was later established as a department in 1922, with Dr. Thomas W. Turner as its head. Both departments eventually found a new home in the Biology Greenhouse Building in the 1950's, and developed specializations in a variety of fields, including: Botany, Cytology, Embryology, Genetics, Parasitology and Protozoology.

The Departments of Botany and Zoology both began M. S. graduate programs in 1930. The Botany M.S. program, begun under the leadership of Dr. Charles Parker, produced nearly 300 M. S. degrees. Fifteen alumni have gone on to earn doctoral degrees in Botany (17% of all African-American Botanists), and 53 have received doctorates in other biological disciplines. The M. S. program in Zoology, established under Dr. Just, produced more than 300 graduates, many of whom have continued on to earn their Ph.D. degrees.

The Ph.D. graduate program in Zoology, the third doctoral program at Howard University, was founded in 1958 under the guidance of Dr. Harold E. Finley. The department was the second largest producer of Ph.D's at Howard and has awarded doctoral degrees to over 125 students who represent more than 12% of the total living African-American biology Ph.D. holders in the United States. In addition, the department represented an essential training site for students from other historically black colleges and universities that do not have doctoral programs.

In light of parallel developmental pathways, existing collaboration in research and teaching among botany and zoology faculty, duplication in research emphases and courses, shared facilities, and the possibility of establishing a more streamlined, modern biological sciences program, the Departments of Botany and Zoology, along with elements of Geology and Geography, merged to form the Department of Biology in July 1992.

The major goal of the merger was to develop and ensure more uniform and unified program of instruction for both the plant and animal science disciplines at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The merger would also serve to facilitate research by removing departmental barriers, especially with regard to the two major research foci of the new department: cell and molecular biology and ecological and environmental biology.