Microbiology Major

Get involved. Find your people.

Explore a few of the microbiology-related student organizations at UW–Madison:

• The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology provides a community for students interested in biochemistry and microbiology, offers pre-professional advising, and shares job and internship opportunities.
• The American Indian Science and Engineering Society provides support and a safe space for Indigenous students pursuing degrees in biochemistry and microbiology or other STEM fields.

Explore all of UW–Madison’s student organizations with the Wisconsin Involvement Network.

Spend the summer abroad in Thailand

Travel to Thailand to conduct research at a top-ranked university through a nine-week summer research experience offered by the Microbiology major. You’ll have the chance to further your research experience as part of a research team at one of the top-ranked Thai universities in areas of microbiology, immunology, biochemistry, microbial genetics, molecular biology, and more. 

You can also choose from one of UW–Madison’s many semester, summer, and short-term study abroad programs and map your study abroad experience as a microbiology major. Experience university life in the Netherlands, practice health-related field work in Ecuador’s rain forests, and so much more.

Learn through hands-on lab courses

Develop your laboratory techniques with seven required laboratory classes and explore additional opportunities in your electives. Work directly with faculty to solve a real-world research problem in your capstone lab class. Previous labs have cultured microbes from the gut of hibernating ground squirrels and compared bacteria from the mouths of athletes and non-athletes.

Fund your education

There are seven funding opportunities exclusively for microbiology undergraduate students. You can apply to receive tuition assistance, a research stipend, covered travel to scientific meetings such as the American Society for Microbiology annual meeting, or a cash award.

Engage in on-campus research

Apply what you learn in your lab courses and join one of the many faculty labs on campus that research microbiology, bacteriology, or microorganisms. Conduct mentored or independent research projects, carry out laboratory experiments, and critically evaluate scientific data.

Study the role of microbes in food security in agriculture, how bacteria communicate with their environment and other bacteria, and so much more.