Graduate Certificate in Conservation Biology
Conservation Biology - CTCBIG
Program Overview
Conservation Biology is a discipline concerned with the preservation, management, and restoration of biodiversity. The field is inherently interdisciplinary and merges natural and social sciences to focus on understanding of the factors responsible for promoting and maintaining biodiversity on the one hand and the challenges of mitigating the extinction of species, preserving sensitive habitats and managing landscapes that support biodiversity on the other hand. The program in Conservation Biology offers an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in conservation biology that involves contributions from anthropology and sociology, biological sciences, economics, geography, geology, history, and political science. The program applies a multifaceted understanding of the factors affecting the preservation of biological diversity. It is centered in the Biological Sciences Department but includes faculty members from the departments of Environmental & Plant Biology, Economics, Geography, and Political Science.
The certificate program is designed to provide graduate students in the natural sciences exposure to the social, economic, and political approaches for conserving biological diversity. Conversely, graduate students in the social sciences are given the opportunity to obtain expertise in biological principles that can be used to understand how human altered habitats may lead to a loss of biological diversity. Students enrolled in any master's or doctoral program at 51ÉçÇø are eligible to apply for the certificate. Each student in the program chooses a certificate adviser to oversee the completion of requirements.
Career Opportunities
Students with this certificate can pursue careers where additional training in conservation policy and biological diversity will make them more competitive.
Graduation Requirements
The requirements for the certificate are the completion of BIOS 5810 Animal Conservation Biology (3), BIOS 7970 Seminar in Conservation Biology (2), and three courses from the following list for a total of 14 - 17 credit hours. Two of the three courses must be outside the student?s major field of study. The certificate is awarded upon fulfillment of these requirements and completion of the graduate degree.
Nine departments within the College of Arts & Sciences offer the courses listed below. In addition, up to five hours of courses offered under titles such as Special Topics or Colloquium that focus on aspects of conservation biology may be applied toward the certificate with the approval of the student's certificate adviser.
Biological Sciences
- BIOS 5250 – Evolutionary Genetics (3)
- BIOS 5570 – Animal Systematics (3)
- BIOS 5770 – Population Ecology (3)
- BIOS 5780 – Community Ecology (3)
- BIOS 5790 – Advanced Evolution (3)
- GEOG 5160 – Biogeography (3) cross-listed as BIOS 5160
- GEOG 5170 – Landscape Ecology (4)
- GEOG 5440 – Agricultural Ecosystems (4)
- GEOL 5480 – Paleoecology (4)
- PBIO 5090 – Plant Systematics and Survey of Vascular Plant Families (4)
- PBIO 5220 – Tropical Plant Ecology (3)
- PBIO 5340 – Plant Population Biology and Community Ecology (4)
- PBIO 5750 – Plant Population Genetics and Speciation (3)
Natural Resource Economics and Policy
- GEOG 5470 – Natural Resource Conservation (4)
- GEOG 5500 – Land Use Planning (4)
- GEOG 5530 – Environmental Planning and Assessment (4)
- ECON 5130 – Economics of the Environment (4)
- ECON 5140 – Natural Resource Economics (4)
- POLS 5250 – Environmental and Natural Resources Politics and Policy (3)
- POLS 5260 – Politics of the Contemporary Environmental Movement (3)
Sociological Context of Conservation Biology
- ANTH 5780 – Human Ecology (3)
- GEOG 5210 – Population Geography (4)
- HIST 5060 – American Environmental History (4)
- SOC 5810 – Environmental Sociology (3)
- Special Topics and Colloquia (H4)
- ANTH 5944 – Seminar in Human Ecology (3)
- GEOG 6470 – Seminar in Resource Management (4)
Admission Requirements
Students currently enrolled in a graduate degree program can add the conservation biology certificate to their program of study by completing an Application for Update of Programs. There are no other requirements beyond university admission requirements.
Certificate Mission
The goal of the conservation biology certificate program is to provide interdisciplinary training for students interested in the maintenance and preservation Biological Diversity.