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Welcome to the School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences at Brooklyn College, dedicated to advancing scientific discovery, critical inquiry, and student success. Led by Dean Peter Tolias, Ph.D., the School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences offers a dynamic, inclusive environment where students develop the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in healthcare, research, technology, and a wide range of scientific careers.
Dean’s Welcome Message Dean Tolias’ Biography
Greetings, and welcome to dean’s webpage for the School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, Brooklyn College’s largest school and home to over a third of all students and faculty. I am Dr. Peter Tolias and like many of our students, I am a first-generation college graduate and naturalized American citizen, who grew up with modest means of financial support in another country. It is my pleasure to help you explore career goals and convince you, that Brooklyn College is the right fit for you.
Over the past 90 years, this historic New York City institution, has become nationally known for fostering a dynamic educational environment, centered on diversity, inclusion, opportunity, and academic excellence. Brooklyn College alums have thrived in their careers making seminal contributions to science, politics, business, the arts, and the humanities, and they continue to address the world’s complex problems. Our distinguished faculty, continue to provide, the nation’s most diverse student body, with an affordable, quality, educational experience, crafted to meet their individual career goals.
The School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences is composed of nine academic departments where students declare their major and/or minor field(s) of study.
Anthropology Biology Chemistry and Biochemistry Computer and Information Science Earth and Environmental Sciences Health and Nutrition Sciences Mathematics Physics Psychology
Our graduates enter careers demanding a high level of basic and applied scientific knowledge, across a variety of disciplines. With acquired knowledge and critical thinking skills, our graduates tackle opportunities that impact the nation’s economy, the local and global environment, and the healthcare system.
Are you thinking about becoming a doctor, dentist, pharmacist, physician assistant, physical therapist, occupational therapist, or a nurse, among other healthcare professions? Brooklyn College does not offer a “pre-health” major for medicine or similar careers. Instead, students pursue a degree major of their choice in a specific department program and supplement it with a selection of courses designed to prepare them for the healthcare labor market and for post-graduate studies in professional schools.
Every year, over 30% of our pre-health students that apply to medical school get accepted. We have also offer two, special, eight-year joint degree B.A.-M.D. programs with medical school partners. Some of our healthcare graduates are employed at well-known local hospitals such as New York Methodist and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as well as in health centers throughout the country.
Explore Pre-Health Programs Are you thinking about becoming a psychologist, computer programmer, mathematician, or anthropologist? Are you interested in careers in laboratory and field sciences, and becoming a botanist, chemist, marine biologist, microbiologist or zoologist? Our departments will be the home base of your major, as you pursue relevant degrees in these areas.
Brooklyn College does not offer an engineering degree, but we do offer a coordinated engineering program that maintains an agreement with another Brooklyn academic institution which confers engineering degrees.
Explore The Coordinated Engineering Program A degree in any of our programs offers a variety of other career opportunities. These include hospital administration and many other areas of public health, ranging from research and industrial roles to careers in management, patent law, journalism, data analytics and modeling.
Research centers are important drivers of our ecosystem, bringing together equipment, laboratory facilities, faculty and students from different academic departments to form interdisciplinary teams. Our research centers include:
The School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences is in a growth phase, revising and expanding our curriculum based on student pedagogical and employment needs, hiring additional faculty, and successfully securing over $300 million in state funds for capital projects that have just begun and include renovation of science lab facilities and updating of instructional and research lab equipment.
Science and technological innovation will continue to drive the US economy and address the problems of the world and graduates from Brooklyn College’s School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences will continue to serve a prominent and impactful role in this future. Come join us to do the same.
Strategic Plan
Peter Tolias, Ph.D., brings decades of leadership experience, serving a variety of public and private academic institutions, as well as industries in the greater New York City area, to his role as dean of the School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, where he is also appointed as professor in the Department of Biology. Previously, Tolias was professor and chair, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and director, Center for Healthcare Innovation, at Stevens Institute of Technology. Prior to that, he was executive director, Institute of Genomic Medicine, research director, Autism Center, and professor, Department of Pediatrics, at New Jersey Medical School (Rutgers University). From 2003 to 2007, he was in the private sector as executive vice president, Corporate Development, at Rosetta Genomics, and, formerly, as worldwide vice president, Advanced Research and Technology Assessment, at the Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Division of Johnson & Johnson. Earlier in his career, he was associate professor, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, at New Jersey Medical School, and associate member at Public Health Research Institute of New York, where his independent research career began as an assistant member.
Tolias is a naturalized American, born in Canada to Greek immigrant parents, and is a strong proponent of social mobility. He began his higher education at Marianopolis College (Westmount, Quebec), receiving a health sciences associate-level-equivalent degree before moving to McGill University (Montreal), where he earned a B.Sc and later a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology. In 1987, Tolias came to the United States as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology at Harvard University. Throughout his career, Tolias has made significant scholarly contributions to a variety of scientific disciplines, including molecular, cellular, and developmental biology; microbiology; immunology; chemistry; genetics; genomics; proteomics; and tissue engineering, as an author of peer-reviewed scientific publications and editorials, issued patents, and books. His recent research focused on understanding MAPK signaling in cancer, and discovery and development of drugs against key targets in this biochemical pathway.
Tolias has received over 40 research grants, contracts, awards, and honors totaling $8 million as a principal investigator (PI) and $10 million as a co-PI. He has participated in philanthropic fundraising initiatives totaling $11 million. He has also developed dozens of FDA-approved and CLIA-certified clinical products and services in industry and academia. In addition to his scientific career, Tolias has made significant contributions in the arts as a composer of six albums of original music and as a professional cover-band guitarist.
Faculty Profile
