Graduate Program
The ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) graduate program at UC Santa Cruz reflects the remarkable local and global diversity of species and environments studied by the EEB faculty and students. The vision of the EEB graduate program is to provide a nurturing, creative, and intellectual environment conducive to the development of world-class scientists. The EEB graduate program encourages close working relations between students and faculty in an informal atmosphere advantageous to rapid learning and professional growth. Interdisciplinary collaborations with oceanographers, geologists, mathematicians, environmental and conservation biologists, toxicologists, and others enable students to explore the conceptual connections between related fields as they acquire mastery in their areas of specialization.
The graduate program in EEB at UC Santa Cruz is one of the premier EEB programs in the country. UCSC graduate students in EEB regularly win prestigious research fellowships and awards for their presentations at international meetings in addition to publishing their work in the best journals of their fields. Students take advantage of local field sites and state-of-the-art departmental laboratories, more than two-thirds of the EEB faculty also participate in field studies throughout the world, especially in Africa, Latin America, Antarctica, the Arctic, and around the Pacific Rim. Research in EEB comprises four core areas: ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology, and behavior.