Examine the application of principles and concepts of ecology to the preservation of wild plant and animal species and to the preservation, management, and restoration of natural and semi-natural ecosystems. Focus on biological aspects of issues such as endangered species protection, invasive species, preserve design, and forest management, via a set of case studies.

Examine microbial population, community, and ecosystem ecology.

Discuss the anatomy, physiology, classification, and ecology of birds.

Explore state-of-the-art methodologies for: genomics-based demographic and population structure analysis; detection of genomic signatures of natural selection; analyzing gene expression in the ecology, evolution, and behavior context; quantification of complex communities using metabarcoding.

Explore biodiversity, phylogeny, species concepts, historical biogeography, phylogeography, molecular clocks, phylogenomics, comparative methods, fossils, morphometrics, taxonomy, ontogeny, homology, computational methods, and phylogenetic statistics.

Introduction to population genetics. Develop a quantitative understanding of evolutionary change caused by selection, drift, mutation, and migration. Focus on phenotypic and molecular evolution.

Designed for beginning graduate students seeking a review of modern biological concepts.

Listen to and discuss presentations ranging from research progress reports to practice conference talks and well-versed presentations of long term research programs.

Explore basic concepts and methods of laboratory and field analysis in various fields of biology; systematics and ecology of natural populations.

Explore a quantitative approach for synthesizing results from diverse research studies that address a similar hypothesis.

Explore programming skills that are relevant to research in the biological sciences, including but not limited to programming in Python, R, Perl, C++.

Explore concepts and methods of modeling ecological systems including populations, communities and ecosystems. Focus on the methodology and utility of ecological theory and modeling. Examine the basic techniques and classic insights derived from differential equation, statistical, and individual based models. Learn how to interpret and evaluate models in the literature.

Explore biological concepts and methods (including its assumptions and limitations), particularly in the areas of systems biology, medical and evolutionary genomics, and neuroscience. Focus on approaches that produce a lot of data but are analysis-challenged.

Translate between qualitative hypotheses regarding biological processes and their more exact expression in the form of mathematical models. Analyze these models to determine predicted biological behavior under those hypotheses.

Explore basic concepts and methods of laboratory and field analysis in various fields of biology; systematics and ecology of natural populations.

Explore the breadth of chemical ecology, from its historical focus on pheromonal communication, plant-insect interactions, and coevolution to new frontiers, including novel methods in metabolomics and the community and ecosystem effects of chemically mediated species interactions.

Discuss critical reading of primary quantitative literature on the drivers of genetic variation and its mapping to trait variation, focusing on humans. Analyze central ideas in mathematical modeling and statistical analysis of human genetic variation and explore areas from evolutionary genetics and medical genetics including mutation and recombination, genetic drift, natural selection, analyses of gene-expression variation, population structure, genotype-phenotype stratification, and study designs for mapping genotype to phenotype.

Discuss the historical context of bias and exclusion in science from the primary literature to understand the science of bias, why it is present, how it continues to persist across the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, and identify actionable items to address and overcome these issues.

Explore recent advances in ecosystem ecology through lectures and discussions.

Discuss and analyze current and classic literature related to ecological and evolutionary genetics.

Explore the theory, methods, and applications of phylogenetics in ecology, evolution, and behavior. Examine the development of phylogenetics; the various phylogenetic optimality criteria and their advantages and disadvantages (include non-parametric, semi-parametric, and parametric methods); models of evolution for molecular and morphological data; algorithms and heuristics for searching solution space. Discuss Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches; phylogenetic simulation; statistical assessment of phylogenetic results; molecular clocks; and major applications of phylogenetics.

Explore the prospects and challenges of ancient/environmental DNA research, and considers the applications in evolutionary biology, paleontology, and anthropology.

Explore how to give a seminar and/or writing a grant proposal. Prepare for job talks, paper presentations, or writing grants.

Discuss the conceptual foundations and historical roots of research programs in evo-devo and evolutionary neuroscience including recent discoveries and limitations in these fields. Explore how -omics approaches and comparative methods enable novel insights into the diversification, convergence, and constraint of complex traits.

Analyze at an advanced level currently active areas of research in population biology.

Designed for first-year graduate students in ecology, evolution, and behavior. Introduction to the writing, presentation and appraisal skills needed to excel in all fields of biological research. Focus on training in many of the skills required of research scientists.

Introduction to major principles and questions in evolutionary biology. Explore population genetics, genetic diversity, adaptation, origin of species, phylogenetics, molecular evolution, and macroevolution. Focus on identifying open questions, analysis, and interpretation of data, and gaining familiarity with the primary scientific literature.

Introduction to major principles and questions in animal behavior with emphasis on why animals behave the way they do. Examine both the proximate and ultimate issues of animal behavior, how it is acquired and regulated, and how it evolved. Focus on integration of proximate and ultimate analyses in the various domains in which animals behave.

Explore the fundamentals of ecology, ranging from organism physiology to population, species, community, and ecosystem-level processes across landscapes and biomes.

Prepare a report to fulfill the requirement for the master's degree under the report option.