Sarah E. Durand  

Sarah E. Durand, Associate Professor of biology, received a dual 4-year BA/MA degree in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Pennsylvania for a field study that examined shorebird foraging patterns in the intertidal zone along the Maine cost. Her doctoral degree in Neurobiology and Behavior was conferred by the Center for Molecular and Behavior Neuroscience of Rutgers University for a dissertation on novel auditory pathways in the avian brain, which received the Dean’s Dissertation Award for Excellence. For her postdoctoral work, supported by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship, she studied the parrot forebrain system for vocal learning at the University of Maryland. 

Dr. Durand has published in and reviewed for the Journal of Comparative Neurology (JCN), co-authored papers for Nature Reviews Neuroscience and the New York Academy of Science and has reviewed grant proposals for the National Science Foundation.

By way of the NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate grant to LaGuardia, Dr. Durand mentors research students in both ecology and neuroscience, with two students in the latter group winning "Best in Neuroscience" awards at the national conference for minority research students, ABRCMS. She is currently assisting development of the new major in Environmental Science that emphasizes collaboration with local high schools, community organizations and government agencies and she directs the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program at LaGuardia.

Welcome to the Department of Natural Sciences!

Natural Sciences houses Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Currently, the Department offers Associates in Science (AS) Degrees in Biology and Environmental Science.  Faculty are actively involved in research in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics both on and off campus.  Students interested in the Natural Sciences are encouraged to conduct research projects under faculty supervision.  The Department of Natural Sciences is committed to providing an interactive learning environment that incorporates the lived experience, to providing extracurricular venues that enhance student learning, to integrating a hypothesis-driven research component into the science curriculum, to diversifying the natural sciences by increasing underrepresented minority participation, and to encouraging students to pursue advanced degrees in the Natural Sciences.