Division of Science
Driven by curiosity
The FAS Science division spans the biological and physical sciences. FAS scientists engage in observation of our world and the universe beyond it, laboratory-based experimentation, computational analysis, and the pursuit of questions driven by curiosity about how the world works. Their expertise covers the microscopic and the gargantuan: from the smallest cells, atoms, and particles of matter, to the physical and biological systems that shape life on earth, to the stars and planets.
The divisional dean of Science is Ronald Breaker.
Science departments and programs
The FAS is home to three departments in the biological sciences--Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry; and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology--and five in the physical sciences--Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics.
Biological Sciences
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is home to research in population, community, ecosystem, and macroecology; in evolutionary genetics, developmental evolution, behavioral evolution, and evolutionary medicine; and in phylogenetics, systematics, and biodiversity.
Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
The principal objective of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry is to understand living systems at the molecular level.
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Research in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology spans biology from the organismal to the molecular levels, combining genetic, biochemical, molecular, cell biological and computational approaches to investigate fundamental biological processes.
Physical Sciences
Astronomy
The Department of Astronomy explores the fields of cosmology, exoplanets, extragalactic astronomy, galactic astronomy, high energy astrophysics, solar and stellar astrophysics, and star formation and interstellar medium.
Chemistry
The Chemistry Department is home to research in biophysical chemistry, chemical biology, inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and theoretical chemistry.
Earth and Planetary Sciences
The Department of Earth and Planetary Science combines chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and geology to study the Earth’s interior, atmosphere, oceans, environment, causes of global climate change, and the history of life and climate on our planet.
Mathematics
The Department of Mathematics is dedicated to research across the disciplines of mathematics, including real and complex analysis, linear algebra, geometry and topology, calculus, mathematical physics, and more. The department spans many fundamental areas, and is characterized by deep theoretical inquiry as well as collaborations across disciplines.
Physics
The Physics Department is a center of research seeking to answer fundamental scientific questions in the fields of atomic physics and quantum optics, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, condensed matter, biological physics, quantum information physics, and applied physics.
News
Yale researchers receive Genesis Mission awards to pursue AI advances
Two Yale researchers – Sarah Demers, Professor of Physics and Chair of the Department of Physics, and Farren Isaacs, Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and of Biomedical Engineering – will integrate AI technologies with scientific investigations through awards from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission initiative.
Breaker Laboratory Discovers Natural Roles for Lithium in Mammals
Ron Breaker, FAS Dean of Science; Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; and Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and a team of researchers in the Breaker Lab have reported the discovery of RNA ‘aptamers’ that bind lithium in mammals, providing new evidence that RNA molecules may play a previously unrecognized role in sensing and responding to lithium in human cells.
New norovirus vaccine approach may shape strategies for treating other RNA viruses as well
The Yale labs of Anna Marie Pyle, Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Chemistry, and Craig Wilen, Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, have developed a norovirus vaccine, effective in mouse models, that portends a new approach to vaccine development for emerging RNA viruses.
A dying star offers a rare glimpse of how the universe recycles its raw materials
Pieter van Dokkum, the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics, led a research team that discovered evidence of how space is reclaiming the basic elements from a dying star.
Expanding understanding
Curiosity-driven research expands our understanding of the world and underpins virtually all applied research, innovation, and technological development. When researchers in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences follow their curiosity, it takes them down unexplored pathways, for the benefit of future generations.
FAS Science contacts
- FAS Dean of Science; Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
- FAS Dean's Office
- Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
- Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
- Senior Associate Dean
- FAS Dean's Office
- Associate Dean
- FAS Dean's Office