School/College

Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology
Ecology Building
Athens, GA 30602-2202
Phone: 706/542-2968

Academic Department

Odum School of Ecology
Ecology Building
Athens, GA 30602-2202
Phone: 706/542-3404

Contacts

Graduate Coordinator

James E. "Jeb" Byers

706/542-3404

For more than thirty years, the School of Ecology has been a center for interdisciplinary team research which deals holistically with humans and the environment. Graduate studies at the Odum School of Ecology provide students with an interdisciplinary program that allow them to develop a broad background in ecology and related disciplines. Students work with faculty to become independent thinkers, researchers and decision-markers in ecology. This degree program was organized through Odum School activities in 1972. The Ph.D. program is an interdisciplinary program that allow students to develop a broad background in ecology and related disciplines. The purpose of the program provides a scholarly setting within which a course of study can be designed to fit the individual goals of students.

The PhD degree allows students to develop a broad background in ecology and related disciplines. All requirements for admission are the same as for the Graduate School with the exception of the GRE score. The minimum required GRE score for admission for the PhD degree is 1100.

As part of the curriculum, there are three core courses are required for the Ph.D. program: ECOL 8000 (Topics in Modern Ecology), ECOL 8310 (Population Ecology), and ECOL 8322 (Ecosystem Concepts). Students may also take additional course work in organismal and community ecology. The program is deliberately designed to be flexible to complement the student's background and emphasize his or her career objectives in ecology. Major emphasis is on course work related to dissertation research, but students are expected to develop a broad background in environmental science. A wide array of relevant courses are offered by the Odum School of Ecology and other departments (especially botany, entomology, forest resources, genetics, geology, microbiology, and statistics).

Facilities of the Institute of Ecology, and at off-campus facilities such as the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, the Joseph Jones Ecological Research Center, the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, the University of Georgia Marine Institute, and elsewhere, provide students unusual opportunities for ecological training. The program has attracted outstanding students and produced exceptionally talented ecological scientists, many of whom are now leaders in the field. Graduates have gone on to high-level positions, both academic and non-academic in the public and private sectors. In addition to professorships, alumni are employed in a variety of positions including policy analysts, conservation directors, and executives in nonprofit organizations and officers in government agencies.

Degree

Code

Course Descriptions

PhD

224A

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