Alumni
The Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology (GDCB)
The Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology (GDCB) was formed July 2003, as part of the reorganization of the biological sciences at ISU, and the department is jointly administered by CALS and LAS. GDCB has roots in and enduring connections to multiple past and present undergraduate majors, including Biology, Botany, Genetics, and Zoology. Through hypothesis and discover-driven research of animals, plants, and microbes, GDCB research provides a foundation for addressing the larger issues of our times — feeding the world, growing sustainably, adapting to changing environments, developing biorenewable resources, ensuring human health, and improving the quality of life. The research accomplishments of GDCB faculty, staff, and students are recognized nationally and internationally. GDCB faculty have served as NSF directors, on editorial boards for premiere journals, and as grant panelists for USDA, NIH, and NSF. All of the GDCB tenure-line faculty have active programs of research, and 88% are currently supported by extramural grants. GDCB faculty, staff, and students are located in 4 buildings: Advanced Teaching and Research Building, Bessey Hall, Carver Co-Lab and Molecular Biology Building.
GDCB faculty are dedicated to preparing students to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s world, and the department has vital and essential roles in biological sciences education at Iowa State. GDCB co-administers three undergraduate majors: the Biology Program (~700 majors; with the EEOB dept.); the Genetics major (~150 majors; with the EEOB and BBMB departments); the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology undergraduate major (with the Computer Science and Math departments.) GDCB faculty have been active in securing extramural funding for educational initiatives, including a NSF training grant for graduate education, an HHMI grant to transform undergraduate science courses, and an NIH grant to develop Meta!Blast (an interactive educational videogame). GDCB has leadership roles in successful interdepartmental graduate programs, most notably Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, Neuroscience, and Plant Biology.
Loomis Lecture Series
GDCB is pleased to host the Loomis lecture series, which was launched in the fall of 2009 and is named in honor of Walter E. and Helen Parke Loomis. The Walter E. and Helen Park Loomis Fund was established by the Loomis family in 1981 in memory of Walter and Helen Loomis in the hope of helping to preserve Walter Loomis’s tradition for current and future generations of plant physiologists.
GDCB Alumni Newsletter
Periodically, GDCB publishes a newsletter with information about the department that might be of interest to alumni.
GDCB Newsletter Sp05 
GDCB Newsletter Sp06
BioCY News
BioCY News August 2015.pdf 
BioCY News January 2016.pdf
BioCY News March 2017 
BioCY News November 2017
BioCY News March 2023 
BioCY News June 2023
BioCY News June 2024 
BioCY News October 2024
Biology Undergraduate Program Newsletter
Bionews, Vol. 2, No. 1, Summer 2014pdf
Alumni Resources
Making a Difference
We are grateful and honored that numerous alumni and friends have had the foresight to establish bequests or other planned gifts that provide long-term and lasting benefits to the mission of the department. For more information about making a gift to the Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, please contact the ISU Foundation How to Give Web Page.