Population biology is an interdisciplinary field that uses concepts and techniques from ecology, evolution, systematics, genetics, and mathematics or statistics. Course curriculum often works near the interface between ecology, the study of interactions between organisms and their environment, and evolutionary biology, which aims to understand how populations and species evolve. Areas of research are often directed toward basic science, but also often addresses applied problems such as overcrowding, invasive species, and extinction. Students gain advanced knowledge of population growth, structure and dynamics, population interactions, community ecology, food webs, biogeography, behavioral and physiological ecology, life history strategies, systematics, evolution, population and quantitative genetics, and genomics.

Graduate Program Requirements