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Detailed Information

Programs of Study

The Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) was established in 2001 in response to the recognition of the importance of these fields in modern society and the realization that they have their own set of intellectual foci, theoretical foundations, scales of analysis, and methodologies. Its mission is to educate a new generation of scientists, professionals, and practitioners in the theory and methods of these disciplines. It emphasizes a multidisciplinary perspective on the study of the Earth’s declining biodiversity, integrating insights from relevant fields in biology and the social sciences. Faculty members are based at the University and at partner institutions, including the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Wildlife Trust.

The M.A. in conservation biology integrates the biological sciences with a foundation in environmental policy and economics. The program offers three tracks: academic, professional, and educational; and two programs: thesis-based and course-based. The tracks and the programs can be matched in any combination to meet students’ interests and needs. Students in the course-based program are required to complete 47 credits and those in the thesis-based program 49 credits. Core courses for all tracks and all programs include two semesters in conservation biology and environmental policy, four semesters of the Research (E3B/CERC) Seminar, three electives in conservation science and two electives in environmental policy, and two more electives in either area. Students following the course-based program will register for additional classes and complete their requirements by writing a take-home essay at the end of their second year. Students in the thesis-based program must complete additional credits with a research project that leads to a final thesis. Research projects are generally carried out over the summer.

Doctoral candidates may elect to pursue a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology or evolutionary primatology. Unique to the Ph.D. program in ecology and evolutionary biology is course work leading to proficiency in environmental policy which can be formalized into a separate Environmental Policy Certificate. Candidates in both degrees are required to complete 6 units of full-time residency (six semesters), three core courses, three to six advanced courses, and two internships. Additional requirements include demonstrating proficiency in a foreign language, as needed for their specific fieldwork locations; serving as teaching assistants for two to four semesters; completing two advanced examinations; performing an in-depth review of the scholarly literature that is most relevant to the proposed dissertation research; and orally defending their dissertation. Upon advancing to candidacy, students are expected to submit their proposals to granting agencies for outside funding.

Research Facilities

The Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) has a large common research lab with wet and dry areas, equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, as well as advanced computer facilities. The Biological Sciences Library houses more than 52,000 volumes, subscribes to about 335 serials, and has digital subscriptions to hundreds of other serials. The print collection is particularly strong in the areas of molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, and neurobiology. Scientific literature in the areas of population and evolutionary biology and plant physiology is also collected at research level. The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) conducts research to find long-term solutions to combat the loss of biological diversity and natural resource depletion while meeting the needs of a growing worldwide human population. Black Rock Forest comprises nearly 3,800 acres of land on the west bank of the Hudson River and is dedicated to scientific research and conservation of the ecosystems that once covered the region.

Financial Aid

Ph.D. fellowships for up to five years are available through the Faculty Fellows program. Students are expected to find their own funding for their dissertation research year (for research and stipend expenses). There are no fellowships for the master’s program. However, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply for outside sources of funding, such as the EPA Science to Achieve Results Fellowship Program and the NSF Graduate Fellowship Program).

Cost of Study

In the 2008–09 academic year, full-time tuition was $17,182 per semester (for up to 18 credits, plus $1062 for each additional credit). Health insurance, health services, and student fees were $2272 for the entire academic year. A part-time option is available for students in the M.A. program. Full-time second-year master’s students register for Extended Residence, which costs half as much as regular full-time tuition.

Living and Housing Costs

In 2008–09, students living on campus paid approximately $16,060 during the academic year for room and board, $3190 for personal expenses, and $1400 for books and supplies. Students living off campus paid $850 to $1200 per month for a one-bedroom apartment or $1100 to $1600 per month for a two-bedroom apartment. These are approximate costs and can vary, depending on individual needs.

Student Group

There are currently 32 doctoral candidates and 34 master’s students in the program. They come from a variety of backgrounds, but the majority of them hold undergraduate degrees in the biological sciences and related disciplines.

Student Outcomes

Students develop the skills to conduct ecological, behavioral, systematic, molecular, and other evolutionary biological research as well as to formulate and implement environmental policy. Graduates of the programs have pursued academic careers as researchers and teachers or have entered the job market directly as scientific researchers, teachers, or administrators in government agencies or in national or international conservation, environmental, and multilateral aid organizations dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity.

Location

The campus is located in New York City’s Morningside Heights neighborhood. Residents are a short walk from Riverside Park, Central Park, St. John the Divine Cathedral, and other landmarks. The subway, just outside the campus main gate on Broadway, connects to world-famous sites like the Empire State Building or Times Square, neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village or Little Italy, or one of New York’s many museums, theaters, or restaurants.

The University

Columbia University, the fifth-oldest university in the United States, was founded in 1754 as King’s College; the first class, led by Samuel Johnson, had 8 students. Today, the University is one of the most competitive in the nation, enrolling more than 23,000 students in three undergraduate schools, thirteen graduate and professional schools, and a school of continuing education. It is also a premier research institute, where faculty members engage in groundbreaking research in medicine, science, the arts, and the humanities.

Applying

Prospective students must submit an application for admission, a statement of academic purpose, official transcripts, three letters of recommendation, a statistical form, a fellowship statement, a curriculum vitae or resume, and an application fee of $85. Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in one of the natural sciences, with course work in calculus, physics, chemistry, statistics, genetics, ecology, and organismal biology. The GRE General Test is required, and the biology Subject Test is recommended. The application deadline for early decision admission to the M.A. program is December 15. The regular decision application deadline is April 1. The application deadline for the Ph.D. program is January 3.

The Faculty and Their Research

• For a full listing of all E3B faculty members who are approved advisers and are part of the Department’s consortium partnership, students should consult the Departmental Web site.
• Walter J. Bock, Professor of Biological Science; Ph.D., Harvard, 1959. Theoretical aspects of evolution and systematics; feeding apparatus of birds; origin of avian flight.
• Hilary S. Callahan, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (botany), Wisconsin–Madison, 1996. Ability of a genotype to express different phenotypes in response to different environments; phenotypic plasticity of flowering time in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana.
• Joel Cohen, Professor; Ph.D. (population sciences and tropical public health), Harvard, 1973. Role of the food web, body sizes, and species abundances in describing ecological communities; new inequalities arising in information theory and operations research; frequency-domain analysis of nonlinear stochastic population models.
• Steven A. Cohen, Director, Graduate Program in Earth Systems; Ph.D. (political science), Buffalo, SUNY, 1979. Organizational management; workforce planning; quality management and management innovation.
• Marina Cords, Professor; Ph.D. (zoology), Berkeley, 1984. Understanding the mating system of blue monkeys in the Kakamega Forest, western Kenya; social behavior and behavioral ecology of primates; proximate and ultimate explanations of social systems.
• Fabio Corsi, Lecturer and M.A. Program Adviser; Ph.D. (spatial ecology), Wageningen (The Netherlands), 2004. Patterns to processes, spatial explicit models to explore ecological and biological phenomena, data integration and biodiversity informatics, species distribution modeling.
• Ruth DeFries, Professor; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1980. Consequences of anthropogenic land-use change on ecological processes; characterization of land cover and anthropogenic land-use change with remote sensing; interactions between human activities, the land surface, and ecosystem services that regulate the Earth’s habitability.
• James Gibbs, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D. (forestry and environmental studies), Yale, 1995. Biological monitoring, population biology, conservation genetics, and landscape ecology; improving conservation biology education, particularly in tropical, developing countries.
• John Glendinning, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Florida, 1989. Chemosensory mechanisms that control the feeding behavior of insects and mammals; contribution of taste and viscerosensory response mechanisms to this coping process.
• Kevin Griffin, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (earth and environmental science), Duke, 1994. Plant respiration; global carbon cycle; forest ecology.
• Paul E. Hertz, Professor; Ph.D. (biology), Harvard, 1977. Evolution and interaction of behavioral and physiological traits that compensate for geographic and seasonal shifts in operative temperatures; extent and effectiveness of temperature regulation and its effect on resource partitioning in West Indian anoles; role of light intensity in microhabitat selection.
• Ralph L. Holloway, Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), Berkeley, 1964. Brain endocasts of fossil hominids; ape brain endocast morphology and variation; biostereometric analysis of the brain; cerebral asymmetry, lateralization, and cognition.
• Darcy Kelley, Professor; Ph.D. (biological sciences), Rockefeller, 1975. Neural systems and behavior; hormonal effects; sexual differentiation.
• Kate McFadden, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (ecology and evolutionary biology), Columbia, 2004. Ecology and conservation, with a central focus on mammalian carnivores and marine turtles; threatened and endangered species, including foraging ecology and population dynamics.
• Don J. Melnick, Professor; Ph.D. (physical anthropology), Yale, 1981. Genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation in vertebrates; genetic indicators for setting conservation priorities.
• Brian Morton, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (genetics), California, Riverside, 1993. How selective constraints on codon usage interact with other structural features; how rate heterogeneity among sites is affected by variation in context or the composition of nucleotides flanking those sites.
• Shahid Naeem, Professor and Chair; Ph.D. (zoology), Berkeley, 1989. How extrinsic factors interact with plant biodiversity to regulate the spread of invasive plant species in old fields; how mathematical models developed for reliability engineering can be used for understanding the reliability of ecosystems.
• Paul E. Olsen, Arthur D. Stroke Memorial Professor of Geological Sciences; Ph.D. (biology), Yale, 1984. Evolution of continental ecosystems; pattern, causes, and effects of climate change on geological time scales and mass extinctions; effects of evolutionary innovations on global biogeochemical cycles.
• Matthew Palmer, Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies; Ph.D. (plant diversity), Rutgers, 2005. Community ecology; plant conservation biology; local controls on plant diversity.
• Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist; Ph.D. (forestry and environmental studies), Yale, 1995. Patterns and effects of small-holder management of tropical ecosystems and landscapes.
• Jeanne Poindexter, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (bacteriology), Berkeley, 1963. Ecophysiology of oligotrophic bacteria; effects of nutrient fluxes on physiologic, morphologic, and behavioral properties of bacteria.
• Robert E. Pollack, Professor; Ph.D. (biology), Brandeis, 1966. The future of medical research in the U.S.; approaches of medicine to aging; social and political consequences of medical genetics and DNA-based medicine.
• Dustin Rubenstein, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (neurobiology and behavior), Cornell, 2006. Behavioral ecology, evolutionary ecology, behavioral neuroendocrinology, evolutionary biology, population biology, integrative biology, animal behavior.
• William Schuster, Executive Director, Black Rock Forest Consortium; Ph.D. (biology), Colorado, 1989. Forest structure, composition, ecological processes, and how these factors and overall forest health change over timescales; consequences of various human activities for forest ecosystems.
• Jill Shapiro, Lecturer and coordinator of biological anthropology major; Ph.D. (anthropology), Columbia, 1995. Analysis of interpopulational cranial variation in the orangutan, as compared with that present in the African apes.
• Eleanor Sterling, Director, Center for Biodiversity Conservation, American Museum of Natural History and Director of Graduate Studies, Ph.D. (physical anthropology and forestry), Yale, 1993. Optimal techniques for mammals surveys to studies of the distribution of patterns of biodiversity in tropical regions of the world.
• Maria Uriarte, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (ecology and evolutionary biology), Cornell, 2002. Role that neighborhood interactions play in the assembly and composition of natural plant communities.
• Paige West, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (cultural anthropology), Rutgers. Hunting practices of rural peoples and the population ecology of prey species in Papua New Guinea; commodity ecumene for coffee as the first step in understanding commodity flows from rural Papua New Guinea to urban areas.

Correspondence and Information

Columbia University
Eleanor Sterling, Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
1200 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, New York 10027
Telephone: 212-854-9987
Fax: 212-854-8188
Email: es443@columbia.edu
e3b@columbia.edu (Departmental e-mail)


Columbia University
Fabio Corsi, M.A. Program Advisor
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
1200 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, New York 10027
Telephone: 212-854-7807
Fax: 212-854-8188
Email: fc2257@columbia.edu
e3b@columbia.edu (Departmental e-mail)