Degrees Offered: Evolutionary Biology
Overview
Evolution is a fundamental scientific concept underlying all aspects of modern biological, environmental, and health related research. Evolutionary Biology is an interdisciplinary graduate degree program that will provide Ph.D.-level training in the historical, conceptual, empirical, and quantitative aspects of biological evolution. Evolution cuts across the biological sciences in ways that few other foci do: it provides bridges between temporal and spatial scales, allows integration of information and patterns across levels of organization, and informs the theoretical foundations of subfields ranging from population genetics to systematics to ecosystem ecology. Forgoing emphases on particular taxa or methods, the program focuses on understanding the patterns and processes that have and continue to shape life on Earth, training the next generation of scientists to use this knowledge to meet present and future challenges to the biosphere and human health in the face of increasing environmental perturbation.
The interdisciplinary graduate training opportunities in this program bridge current unit-based programs, such as those in the School of Life Sciences and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and will facilitate collaborations across units and centers. It officially links major research institutes and centers in a common graduate initiative, including the Institute for Human Origins, the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, the International Institute for Species Exploration, the Center for Biology and Society, and the Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics.
Applications for entry into this program will be accepted through the end of 2009, with the first cohort of students beginning in Fall 2010. For more details about this program, contact the co-chairs of the planning committee for this program:
Dr. Brian Verrelli, School of Life Sciences: brian.verrelli@asu.edu
Dr. Michael Rosenberg, School of Life Sciences: msr@asu.edu
Participating Faculty
- Gro Amdam
- Jane Buikstra
- Tom Dowling
- James Elser
- Ananias Escalante
- Jack Farmer
- Jennifer Fewell
- Rebecca Fisher
- Juergen Gadau
- Andrew Hamilton
- Phil Hedrick
- Kim Hill
- Yuseob Kim
- Bill Kimbel
- Sudhir Kumar
- Kenro Kusumi
- Manfred Laubichler
- Curtis Marean
- Stuart Newfeld
- Banu Ozkan
- Kathleen Pigg
- Stephen Pratt
- Alan Rawls
- Kaye Reed
- Michael Rosenberg
- Gary Schwartz
- Everett Shock
- Anne Stone
- Willem Vermaas
- Brian Verrelli
- Quentin Wheeler
- Jeanne Wilson-Rawls
- Martin Wojciechowski