Students interested in agricultural-focused areas of biology may now bring that interest into a major at Iowa State. The College of Agriculture has added an agriculture biology major to appeal to students interested in crop science and livestock production. The major will still include pre-veterinary medicine students, but isn’t limited to medical fields.

“Many issues that face human society are related to biological problems. Biology is very diverse,” said Jim Colbert, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology.

Colbert said one of the things many people do not realize is there is a wide range of things people can do in biology, not just attend medical school.

“There are a huge number of different ways a biology major could choose to go,” he said. “There are a lot of opportunities, a very broad range of opportunities. It is great preparation for med school or vet school, but there are also many other things that can be done with it,”

David Acker, associate dean of global agriculture programs, said he agreed.

“The agriculture biology major can open up lots of career opportunities,” he said.

He said agriculture today is not one discipline, but includes many disciplines which work together.

The program includes approximately 35 students. Many are freshmen, but some have transferred from the Liberal Arts and Sciences biology program.

The agriculture biology major also gives students who need to be in the College of Agriculture to receive scholarships or for other reasons the chance to have a biology-focused major. For this reason, Colbert said he is expecting the number of agriculture biology students to grow in the future.

Jeremy Chamberlain, freshman in agriculture biology, said he came to Iowa State from Minnesota because of the major.

“I was looking through Collegesearch.com, looking specifically for zoology programs and Iowa State popped up a few times with the agriculture biology program,” he said.

Chamberlain’s specific interest lies in herpetology, which is the study of reptiles and amphibians. He said he chose the agriculture biology major because it was a good general major before applying to graduate school.

Iowa State has offered a general biology program for 30 years. Biology, however, has never been an official major. The program has been a cooperation between the ecology, evolution and organismal biology department and the genetics, development and cell biology department.

“The two departments cooperate to offer an inter-departmental biology program,” Colbert said.