In focus: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

In 1990, Princeton University divided its biology department into two departments: ecology and evolutionary biology and molecular biology. Since then, the ecology and evolutionary biology department has grown to include 18 faculty members, approximately 35 graduate students and about 100 undergraduate concentrators.

The department's offices and laboratories are located in Guyot and Eno halls, but its research often takes students and faculty to field sites in Africa, Asia and parts of North, Central and South America.

Students and faculty tackle a wide range of biological problems, including the evolution of all aspects of life; the coordination of organs in the body via hormones; neural processing and the behavior it generates; the interaction between and among species; and the relationships of communities with the inorganic world -- a set of interactions that generate ecosystems. Much of the work in the department is highly relevant to conservation.

Many of the department's research projects are interdisciplinary and have resulted in strong links to the Department of Molecular Biology, the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The quality of research done in the department creates an exceptional learning environment for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students. About a third of the department's undergraduate concentrators go on to medical or veterinary school. Another third continue with postgraduate programs, while most of the rest pursue careers in ecology, forestry, wildlife management or conservation.

To learn more about research in the department, read the faculty profiles.