Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

OEB News

The infamous Jackalopus karelliemi, a.k.a. ”Liem’s Jackalope,” made an unexpected appearance at the opening of the newly renovated Great Mammal Hall in the Harvard Museum of Natural History on October 16, 2009. The perpetrator remains unidentified and at large. The prank honors the memory of Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology Karel Liem, who was a master practical joker.

NPR's Science Friday has featured a video that Cassandra Extavour made about multicellularity. Watch video.

Yael Aminetzach, a postdoctoral researcher in the Hoekstra lab, shows that venomous shrews and lizards evolved toxic proteins in the same way. Harvard Gazette

L. Mahadevan receives a MacArthur Foundation 'genius' grant for his work on the science behind familiar objects and everyday events. HarvardScience

Farish A. Jenkins, Jr. is awarded the prestigious Romer-Simpson Medal at the September meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Bristol, UK. The society's highest award honors sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence in the discipline of vertebrate paleontology. SVP Annual Meeting website

OEB Faculty Spotlight

Hopi Hoekstra More

OEB Strategic Partners

The Broad Institute is a research collaboration of MIT and Harvard, created to bring the power of genomics to medicine. Dan Hartl, Anne Pringle, Maryellen Ruvolo, Pardis Sabeti and John Wakeley are associate members of the institute.

Visit the Institute's website

OEB Research in Focus:

Biomechanics & Physiology Epinephelus niveatusWhole body skeleton of a grouper (Epinephelus niveatus). A valuable commercial food fish, it can grow to weigh over 50 lbs. and has been on the IUCN's threatened species list since 1996.
More about OEB research in Biomechanics & Physiology

Current Research Areas

Groundbreaking research in the life sciences is now more interdisciplinary than ever and it is often the case that OEB faculty work in more than one of these areas.

Undergraduate Study

The OEB concentration provides opportunities for students to study biological diversity in the field, whether close to home or abroad.

Contact OEB advisors

Graduate Program

OEB Graduate students participate in collaborative forefront research in their chosen area of study.

How to apply

Harvard University