Program Information
Program in Ecology & Evolution, Ph.D.
School of Graduate Education
Knight Hall 247
Phone: (307) 766-4128
Website: https://www.uwyo.edu/uwgrad/interdisciplinary-programs/pie/index.html
Email: ecology@uwyo.edu
Program Director: Melanie Murphy, Ph.D.
Degree Offered
Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolution
The Program in Ecology & Evolution (PiE2) prepares doctoral students to lead the discipline of ecology & evolution during the coming decades. The program is grounded in the natural history of organisms in their environment, but incorporates tools and perspectives from across the biological, physical, mathematical, computational, and earth sciences. Students develop conceptual, historical, and philosophical perspectives spanning the entire range of subdisciplines in ecology & evolution, while receiving advanced training in the subdiscipline of their individual interest.
The program fosters long-term career development by exploring the linkages of ecology & evolution & nbsp;with other disciplines, and by scanning the ecological horizon for emerging questions, concepts, and approaches that will shape the field in years to come.
Faculty members from several departments and colleges participate in the Program in Ecology & Evolution. Their interests span the full range of topics covered in the field of ecology & evolution, and students in the program reflect this diversity.
Program Specific Admission Requirements:
Only students seeking a doctoral degree will be admitted into the program. Minimum criteria for admission to the Program in Ecology & Evolution are:
- Minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.000
- Agreement by a member of the PiE2 faculty to sponsor the student, or to co-sponsor the student together with a PiE2 affiliate
- Support of a home department at the University of Wyoming
All applications to the Program will be reviewed by the Graduate Affairs Committee, which has authority on admissions. Application includes transcripts, CV, and letters of recommendation as required by the home department. Students should additionally include a letter of interest in PiE2 and a letter of support from a faculty member. Such students are encouraged to consult with their prospective advisor on whether to apply directly to PiE2 or to Master’s programs in individual home departments of PiE2 faculty.
Students already admitted to doctoral programs in individual departments at the University of Wyoming may apply to transfer to the program. Transfer is not pro forma. Transfer applications are subject to the same criteria as for entering students, and admission to the program for transfer students must be approved by the Graduate Affairs Committee.
Program Specific Degree Requirements:
Advisory Committee
Before the end of the second semester of study, the student should nominate a four-member advisory committee to the Office of the Registrar. At least three members of the committee, including the committee chair (usually the student’s adviser), will be members of the PiE2 faculty. One other member, who will serve as Graduate Faculty representative, must be from outside the home department of the major adviser, although (s)he can be a faculty member in a department that participates in the program. The committee will advise the student on his/her program of graduate study, execute and evaluate the student’s preliminary examination, evaluate the student’s dissertation proposal and dissertation, and conduct the student’s dissertation defense.
Program of Study
All students are required to take ECOL 5100 or equivalent, preferably during the first year of residency.
ECOL 5690 (3 times during residency) - Program in Ecology and Evolution Symposium is an annual student-run professional symposium with an invited keynote speaker. The symposium gives students a venue to practice their professional presentation skills, hosting a speaker, and running a professional meeting.
ECOL 5699 (during term of defense seminar)
Students will be encouraged to take pertinent courses offered by PiE2 faculty and affiliates or special offerings listed under the ECOL designations. Exceptions or substitutions of these requirements are subject to approval by the Graduate Affairs Committee.
ECOL 5960 is intended to be taken by all students 3 times over their tenure: year 1-2 poster presentation at the symposium, year 3-4 oral presentation at the symposium, and serving on the PiEE symposium organizational committee before defending.
The program of study must include at least 6 credit hours aimed at developing a tool skill, which except for rare cases shall be in the quantitative/analytical domain (e.g., statistics, modeling, GIS, remote sensing, bioinformatics). Courses relating to research tools should be taken early in the student’s residency to ensure that they can be used in thesis research and advanced studies. Specific coursework and tool-skill development for the student’s program of study will be developed in consultation with and subject to approval by the student’s advisory committee.
Admission to Candidacy
Admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. requires two steps: 1) providing evidence that the student is prepared to identify a research question, design an approach for investigating that question, and a plan for executing the approach, and 2) illustrating adequate proficiency in the subject matter of ecology and evolution through a process involving both written and oral exams.
Proposal
Students must submit a proposal outlining their project (preferably following the NSF guidelines for the former Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants) to their committee, typically by the end of the fourth semester (for procedures involving extenuating circumstances see annual progress report). Each committee member will provide feedback to the student on the proposed research and indicate approval of the proposal or request revision. The proposal must be approved by all committee members prior to starting the preliminary exams
While this proposal should be a plan for actual dissertation research, unforeseen circumstances may require altering the student’s dissertation work after the proposal has been approved by the committee. In the case of a major alteration, the student should reformulate a research plan and submit it to the committee in writing for committee approval.
Preliminary Exam
Passing the preliminary exam is the official admission to candidacy.
Written portion of the preliminary exam. The student will take the written exam portion of the preliminary exam no fewer than two weeks following approval of the research proposal. The goal of this exam is to test breadth of knowledge in ecology & evolution. The design of this exam will be coordinated by the graduate committee under the leadership of the adviser. Each written exam will cover the following topics:
- Ecological topics ranging from organismal/evolutionary to ecosystem-level perspectives, integrating concepts and perspectives from across the discipline, over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.
- The philosophical and historical development of ecology & evolution.
- The conceptual background of the student’s area of specialization.
Questions will be developed collaboratively by the Advisory Committee and compiled by the major advisor. The exam will be open book; however, the answers will be solely the work of the student. Use of artificial intelligence to write the exam is prohibited and will result in an automatic failing grade when detected. Answers should be fully cited and collectively should be no longer than 30 pages double spaced exclusive of references cited. Students will have one full week (7 days) to complete the exam.
Within one week of submission to the major advisor, each committee member will submit a graded rubric and a pass/fail recommendation. A student passes with no more than one failing vote. If the exam is not passed, the student may retake it once, after 120 days have passed but not more than four semesters have elapsed. A second failure of the written preliminary exam will result in the dismissal from PiE2 and ineligibility for the oral exam.
Oral Portion of the Preliminary Exam. At least two weeks after successfully passing the written exam, the student may proceed to an oral exam administered by their Advisory Committee. The oral exam will assess the student’s ability to:
- Demonstrate conceptual and methodological readiness for dissertation research.
- Frame specific research questions within a broad, integrative context.
- Think spontaneously, creatively, and respond to novel or unexpected questions.
Prior to the exam, the committee will briefly meet to finalize questions based on these goals. The student will then be admitted to the room to begin the exam.
After the exam, the student will be excused from the room to allow for committee deliberation. Each member will provide a graded rubric and a pass/fail recommendation. A student passes with no more than one failing vote. If the oral exam is not passed, one retake is allowed-only if the student passed the written exam on the first attempt. This retake must also occur after 120 days have passed but not more than four semesters have elapsed. Failure on the second oral exam OR on a first oral exam following a written exam retake results in dismissal from PiE2.
The advisory committee will discuss and organize specific questions based on these goals in a short session at the beginning of the exam period before admitting the student to the examination room and starting the exam. Following the exam each committee member will provide non-binding paper votes of pass/ fail for each of the three goals of the oral exam. Following discussion of the student’s performance, committee members will each assign a grade of pass/fail for the overall exam. Four of five committee members must vote for passing the overall oral exam.
Students whose performance is unsatisfactory will be given one opportunity for retaking the oral examination. This retake will occur no later than the academic-year semester following the first examination.
Public Seminars
Students are required to give two oral presentations on their research. The purposes of these presentations are to provide the student with practice in oral presentations and to keep the PiE2 community informed of the student’s progress. The first will describe the student’s dissertation research proposal and the student will register for ECOL 5698 - PhD Research Proposal. This presentation will be given before the student submits his/her dissertation proposal to the advisory committee. The second presentation will summarize the student’s completed dissertation research and will normally be delivered in the same semester as the student’s dissertation defense and the student will register for ECOL 5699 - Research Defense. Under extraordinary circumstances (subject to approval by the Graduate Affairs Committee), the defense presentation may be given at an earlier time. These presentations must be open to the public and may comprise part of a departmental or Program in Ecology and Evolution seminar or brown-bag series.
Annual Progress Report
The student will be required to meet with their advisory committee annually. Graduate students will hold an annual committee meeting to discuss their degree progress, including coursework, research plans, teaching duties, and professional development activities. A majority of committee members must be in attendance, including the faculty advisor and the outside committee member. A written annual update form (provided on page 3-4) is required of all students and must be submitted to the Graduate Committee and PiE2 Director a week before the meeting is held. Only activities that postdate the last annual update should be reported. In addition to providing the department with data on student accomplishments, this form provides an opportunity to reflect on what has been learned in the previous year, the successes, and the challenges. The Graduate Committee is expected to review the written report prior to the annual committee meeting.
At the end of the annual committee meeting, the Advisory Committee will complete a Progress Report Form (information to be collected is provided on page 5; the form is submitted online as a Google Form. This form should then be submitted to the Graduate Coordinator. If the Student’s progress is deemed unsatisfactory by the majority of the Advisory Committee, the Student and the Committee Chair will meet with the PiE2 director and Graduate Director of home department (if required by home department) to decide on corrective measures, which will be documented. Students will have one semester to rectify inadequate progress. At the conclusion of that semester, the Student, Committee Chair, and PiE2 Director will meet to discuss whether Student progress is either satisfactory and the student remains eligible for PiE2 funding, or whether the Student should no longer be eligible for PiE2 funding.
