The September Courses @ MBL 2025 application is now OPEN!
Apply Now!
In September 2026, the College will be offering four courses at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Each course will be taught by University of Chicago and MBL faculty.
These intensive, three-week long courses meet for up to eight hours per day for 5–6 days per week, combining lectures with immersive labs and fieldwork. Each student can only enroll in one course.
Program Information
The MBL September Program is part of the September Term.
- $2,250 Program Fee which covers three weeks' dorm-style housing and meals at MBL, as well as all course supplies and excursions.
- $4,790 Summer Quarter Tuition for one 100-unit course.
The program will run August 24 - Sept 11
Classes will be held on Labor Day
The schedule ensures that students have ample time to return to campus for Autumn Quarter.
Students register for a September MBL course as part of the Summer Quarter, and each course carries 100 units of credit.
All 4 of the courses offered for September of 2026 can count towards either core BIOS credit, or as an Upper Level Elective Credit for BIOS majors.
With a maximum of 15 students each, classes are small and offer an interactive teaching environment where instructors spend considerable time with each student.
College participants in the September MBL courses are responsible for:
Students are responsible for covering their own airfare and related travel expenses to and from MBL.
Scholarships and Financial Aid
Need-based aid is available for the MBL September Program; students who receive such aid during the academic year are automatically reviewed for Summer financial aid eligibility.
Learn more about Summer scholarships and financial aid HERE.
Billing
Bills for the MBL September Program will be sent to students in June, and payment in full will be due in late July.
Applications for the 2025 September Program are currently CLOSED.
CHECK BACK WINTER 2026 FOR APPLICATIONS
Application Priority Deadline: March 2, 2026
Decisions will go out on or before: March 20, 2026
There are no pre-requisites for the September courses at MBL. Both STEM majors and non-majors are welcome in these classes. The BIOS courses can count either towards the general education requirement in Biology OR as an upper-level elective. The HIPS course will satisfy one credit in the Science, Culture, and Society Civilization Sequence.
Course Descriptions
Each course is worth 100 units of credit.
Instructor: O. Pineda-Catalan
Course Description: In this course, student will have the opportunity to explore the large diversity of marine animal species in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and its surroundings. We will combine fieldwork with genomic and bioinformatic approaches to study different aspects of the evolution, ecology, taxonomy, physiology, and biogeography of marine animals in this unique location. Student will integrate knowledge and analytical tools from different biological disciplines to develop short research projects. During the three weeks of the course, student will have access to the Marine Biological Laboratory's collection of living marine animals, participate in ongoing research projects at MBL, and contribute data that will advance our understanding of marine biodiversity.
Instructor: Alexandra Worden
Course Description: Students will study coastal marine habitats, connectivity to ocean and climate, dynamics of microbial community structure, and marine conservation alongside gaining experience on laboratory microbiome science and environmental field work. Students will gain firsthand experience with the types of microbes that that influence climate and that impact health through laboratory experiments on culturing and analyzing microbes in ‘pristine’ and highly impacted coastal ecosystems. Methods to be learned include plating, epifluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, DNA extraction, and sequencing.
Guest Instructors:
Dr. Cinda Scott
Director for the Center for Field Studies, Panama
Prof. Alejandra Ortiz
Colby College
Instructor: Michael Paul Rossi
Course description: In the early twentieth century, biologists converged on Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where the meeting of the Gulf Stream and colder Newfoundland currents created an unparalleled living laboratory. At the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), E.B. Wilson advanced the chromosomal theory of inheritance using marine worms; Jacques Loeb demonstrated chemically induced development in sea urchin embryos, arguing that life was fundamentally chemical; and Ernest Everett Just challenged this reductionism with a more holistic, environmentally grounded view of life. More than a century later, the MBL continues to offer an immersive setting for exploring both biological principles and the historical development of American biology.
This course combines fieldwork in local beaches, ponds, and marshes; hands-on laboratory experimentation; and close readings of historical sources to examine early twentieth-century experimental biology. Using period-appropriate equipment, students reproduce classic experiments by Loeb, Just, Wilson, and others while engaging their writings and contexts. Emphasis is placed on experimental design, model organisms, historical techniques, and the intellectual and social worlds that shaped modern biology.
Read about a previous MBL course taught by Dr. Rossi here!
Instructor: Dr. Dakota McCoy
Course Description: Spectacular optical adaptations shape marine life, from sunlit shallows to the deep sea. We will explore how ocean creatures manipulate light—becoming transparent, ultra-black, iridescent, vividly colored, or bioluminescent—through the lens of physics, photosynthesis, and visual systems. With morning lectures, afternoon hands-on work, local outings, and a final research project, students will learn the physics and biology of light in the ocean. We encourage students to develop publishable original research projects using the fantastic resources of the MBL.