Above, the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences

Whether it’s the opportunity to be a real-life “CSI”-style investigator, or an innate curiosity about natural medications, a new major in the college that studies the effects of chemicals on animals and humans is creating its own “buzz” as it attracts new students and gathers academic momentum.

Penn State’s toxicology program is a new undergraduate major unveiled in August 2004 in association with the college’s Department of Veterinary Science, explains program coordinator Jack Vanden Heuvel. The new major, he says, is one of only six available in the country that are training undergraduate students to take advantage of the vast Sciencesamount of new knowledge about the adverse ways that people and animals are affected at the molecular level by the chemicals in our pharmaceuticals, diet, air, and water. He says the field of toxicology will play an increasingly important role in addressing human disease concerns.