Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program

A hands-on education

Our interdisciplinary program brings together faculty and students from across campus, the Desert Research Institute and the Great Basin Institute.

Ph.D. program information

The Interdisciplinary Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Ph.D. program

The Interdisciplinary Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Ph.D. program provides the opportunity to tailor your graduate education to your interests. You will have a team of mentors to guide you through your scientific endeavors and provide you with a solid foundation in research methods and experimental design. Learn more about the Ph.D. program, the admissions process and resources for student support.

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About us

Learn more about our research interests and interdisciplinary departments and partners that create our unique academic program. 

About us
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Ph.D in EECB

Admission requirements, deadlines, program timelines, funding information and more outlining the doctoral program.

Program information
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Student resources

Program handbook, career information, and a list of student organizations and campus resources. 

Student resources

Discover areas of expertise and meet the faculty within each area to find a research direction you love. 

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Research areas

With 12 emphases and six research centers, you'll be able to tailor your research to fit your interests. Learn more about our exciting fields.

Research
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People of Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology

From faculty to doctoral students and alumni, learn more about the people at the forefront of our impactful research.

People

Achievements and announcements

5 people stand in snowy meadow with pine trees in the back, one person holds an avalanche probe.

The Pravosudov lab takes AIARE Level 1 avalanche safety training course

Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov, post-doc Virginia Heinen, and graduate students Angela Pitera, Lauren Benedict, and Ben Sonnenberg, take a break during the field portion of avalanche AIARE Level 1 training. Their chickadee cognition research involves year-round field work, which in the Sierra Nevada means navigating difficult terrain via snowmobile to collect data in the winter. The skills learned from this avalanche basic safety course will help them make safer decisions while working in the backcountry.

Caterpillar loss in tropical forest linked to extreme rain, temperature events

Congratulations to Danielle Salcido, Matt Forister, Humberto Garcia Lopez, and Lee Dyer for their recent paper in Scientific Reports! Using a 22-year dataset collected from a protected forest in Costa Rica, Salcido et al. showed "staggering declines" in caterpillar and parasitoid diversity and density. Check out this Nevada Today article for a nice summary.

EECB alumni Ali Urza publishes two first-author papers

Shout out to Ali Urza, a former EECB Ph.D. student, for publishing two first-author papers in 2019. In one paper, Ali and coauthors investigated plant community responses to prescribed burns (i.e. resistance to invasion of annual grasses) in semiarid woodlands (Biol Invasions). In the other paper, Urza et al. developed and tested a conceptual framework for nurse shrub facilitation of tree establishment across different ontogenetic stages (New Phytologist).

Welcome Ciara Sheets to the Ph.D. program!

Headshot of Cierra SheetsShout out to Ciara Sheets, a former biology master's student and now officially an EECB Ph.D. student. Ciara joined the University of Nevada, Reno after finishing here undergrad degree at University of Tennessee. Her doctoral research will focus on disease ecology and the biology of a lethal fungal pathogen of amphibians with the Voyes Lab.

Adriana Parra gives a talk at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting

Shout out to Adriana Parra for her talk last month at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco. She presented some of her research in the Greenberg lab, using Landsat and airborne LiDAR/Hyperspectral data to analyze climate-driven changes in lifeform cover composition across the US from 1984 to 2015.

Keely Michelle Rodríguez selected as a 2020 Hitchcock Graduate Student Fellow

Congratulations to Keely Michelle Rodríguez, who has been selected as a 2020 Hitchcock Graduate Student Fellow in the Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology. Keely, a Ph.D. student in the Voyles Lab, aims to use this opportunity to find the identity and structure of proteins secreted by Panamanian frogs in defense against Chytrid fungus. Way to go!

Lacy Hankin one of 35 recipients of the Dean's Merit Scholarship for Fall 2019!

Congratulations to Lacy Hankin, one of only 35 recipients of the Dean's Merit Scholarship for Fall 2019! Learn more about the Graduate Dean's awards. 

More EECB achievements

Our impact

Nevada Today news stories from EECB and the departments that contribute to the program.

Paul Meiman

Extension specialist works to maintain Nevada rangelands

Paul Meiman joins Extension office in Elko to work on rangeland management for livestock and wildlife

Matteo Aureli, Mohammed Ben-Idris and Jamie Voyles-Ensor are panel presentation speakers.

What does it take to receive a National Science Foundation CAREER award?

The latest prestigious early-career awards will advance research in wildfire-smoke forecasting, battery performance and understanding brain function

Jennie Parker and Chris Pritsos standing beside delivered personal protective equipment supplies

Campus labs supplying equipment for School of Medicine use and patient care

University banding together to provide medical supplies for COVID-19 care – more supplies needed

Upcoming events

May 07
04:00 PM Academic Lectures and Seminars EECB Colloquium at Davidson Math and Science Center
View all EECB events