Day: March 1, 2012

In 2012 the Department of Biological Sciences celebrates its Fiftieth Anniversary

In October 1961, the Michigan Tech Board of Control approved the formation of a Department of Biological Sciences. The Department began independent operations on July 1, 1962, with five faculty drawn from other departments at Michigan Tech.

The narratives assembled and linked from this page describe some of the history of the department.

• Robert T. Brown, one of the original members of the department, wrote in 1973 a draft of the history of the department:
  Link to early history of the department (Brown).
• James D. Spain, the founding department head of the department, has recently written an account of its establishment and first eight years:
  Link to early departmental history (Spain).
• Jack C. Holland has written a brief narrative about the beginning of the department’s activities in Medical Technology- Clinical Lab Science.
  Link to account of development of clinical lab science (Holland)
• Spain has written an extended narrative describing the beginning of the department’s research program in aquatic ecology in 1968, when he returned to doing research after his term as department head.
  Link to early aquatic research activities (Spain)
• Spain has also contributed a personal narrative of the beginnings of the departmental program in computer simulation of biological phenomena
  Link to early activities on computer simulation (Spain)

Many of our alums may not remember, but the Department of Biological Sciences began at MTU in 1962, meaning that 2012 is our official 50 year anniversary. Several Emeriti and Current Faculty (Dr. James Spain, Dr. Robert Keen, Dr. Thomas Snyder, and others) are putting together a brief history of the Department, where it was, has been, and is currently going. We (myself, Patty Asselin, Jeff Lewin, Emily Betterly and Alice Soldan, among others) are working on festivities to celebrate the 50th anniversary at the Alumni Gathering scheduled for August 2-4, 2012. We’ve already developed several activities that we hope will be of interest to alums from Biological Sciences for those dates. Please stay-tuned, more information will be coming out later, with individual mailings and the Spring 2012 newsletter.