The Program in Human Biology welcomed Carol Boggs, Biology Professor, as its first female director this fall.

A prolific researcher in the field of evolutionary ecology, Boggs brings more than just academic expertise to her position. Having taught at Stanford since 1979, 19 years for the HumBio Program, Boggs has instructed undergraduates on subjects ranging from evolution to health policy, and she has supervised over 50 independent research projects by undergraduates.

“The undergraduates at Stanford are truly remarkable,” Boggs said. “Among the most enjoyable aspects of being at Stanford are the one-on-one interactions with students. [Their] enthusiasm and curiosity are highly contagious.”

Her experience in working with undergraduates is particularly relevant, she said, because HumBio is an exclusively undergraduate major. As opposed to stand-alone departments, which typically provide degree-granting programs for undergraduate and graduate students, HumBio is an interschool, interdepartmental program.

Its unique slant has helped make it one of the most popular undergraduate majors at Stanford, Boggs said. The interdisciplinary focus of HumBio is refreshing for the instructors as well.

“Once you leave the undergraduate world, your academic focus often narrows,” she explained. “Interdisciplinary teaching has all the excitement of learning new things and integrating [them] with your current knowledge, without the pain of having to take final exams again.”

Boggs will serve a three-year term, during which she hopes to broaden the range of courses and research opportunities available to upper-level HumBio students, especially within concentration areas. She’s also considering minor changes to the core courses in the major.

“These changes would not alter the philosophy of the core in any way, but would more effectively organize the material and may expand the diversity of social science representation,” she said.

Boggs added that she also hopes to draw on her research experience.

“One of the first lessons from research is that you can have the best idea in the world, but that doesn’t mean that things will work out exactly the way you thought,” she said. “So you re-group, figure out what happened or what alternative you overlooked and go for it again. I’m looking forward to the learning process as well as the successes.”