The University of California at Davis offers a graduate program in Population Biology which leads to a Ph.D. Areas of specialization include population growth, structure and dynamics (basic and applied); population interactions (competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism); community ecology; food webs; biogeography; behavioral and physiological ecology; life-history strategies; systematics; evolution; population and quantitative genetics; and molecular evolution. In the September 1995 survey of graduate programs by the National Research Council, UC-Davis was placed fifth in the nation for ecology, evolution and behavior. Most recently, in a U.S. News and World Report survey, "America's Best Graduate Schools 2007", the survey ranked UC Davis No. 1 in Biological Sciences Specialties: Ecology/Evolutionary Biology.

UC-Davis is particularly strong in the biological sciences. In addition to the veterinary and medical schools, there are over 50 biological science departments (ranging from nematology and plant pathology to epidemiology and enology), divisions and graduate groups on campus, and more than half of the faculty are in biological fields. This wealth of expertise greatly facilitates graduate education in biology. Students have access to a wide range of courses and can consult with experts in almost any area. There are currently 37 faculty members in the Population Biology Graduate Group, with specialties from molecular population genetics to community ecology and ant systematics.

All faculty members of the Population Biology Graduate Group are also members of the Center for Population Biology. The Center includes:

* 41 students in the Population Biology Graduate Group;

* 14 graduate students "affiliates" from outside of our program who are affiliated with Center faculty and interested in population biology but earning their degrees in graduate programs such as Ecology, Animal Behavior, or Entomology;

* 2 CPB Postdoctoral Research Fellows; and

* 8 postdoc "associates" affiliated with Center faculty.

In addition to our interdisciplenary affiliations, the faculty host many sabbatical and research visitors each year. Recent visitors have included:

There are two weekly seminar series in population biology. The Thursday "Topics in Ecology and Evolution" seminar series features well-known speakers from off-campus, whereas the Tuesday "Population Biology" seminar series consists of informal talks by Center faculty, postdocs and graduate students. In addition, many graduate programs sponsor seminars by distinguished scientists, producing literally hundreds of biology research seminars each year.

The Population Biology curriculum, which includes a first-year core course (PBG 200A,B,C), "Mathematical Methods in Population Biology" (PBG 231), and Monte Carlo seminars, sets this graduate program apart from most others. PBG 200 is an intensive year-long series of courses, taken by all first-year students. They consist of formal lectures and discussion sessions with two or three instructors each quarter. These courses provide a sophisticated introduction to current knowledge in population genetics, population dynamics, species interactions, community ecology, quantitative genetics, speciation, and systematics. This intensive course involves extensive interaction between faculty and students and among the first-year students. The Monte Carlo seminars bring together groups of Center for Population Biology graduate students, postdocs, and faculty to discuss research topics in population biology or to develop skills such as public speaking or grant writing.

• A Guidance Committee is assigned to each entering student to guide them through their first year in the program.
• PBG 200: The one-year core series of courses taken by all first-year students. The course includes lectures and discussions.
• Supporting Courses: All first-year students, except those explicitly exempted by their Guidance Committee because of their previous mathematical training, must take PBG 231, "Quantitative Methods in Population Biology," in their first quarter. Students will normally be required to take three additional courses as determined by their Guidance Committees.
• Remedial Courses: All students must take courses to fill any gaps in their background identified by their guidance committee.
• Monte Carlos and other seminars: Student must participate in at least two Monte Carlo seminars during their first year and at least one each subsequent year. Students are also expected to attend (and enroll in) the Tuesday Population Biology seminar series (PBG 290) and the Thursday "Topics in Ecology and Evolution" seminar series (PBG 292) every quarter that they are on campus.
• First-Year Exam: A written exam is taken at the end of the first year to test mastery of the material presented in PBG 200 and to assess the student's suitability to continue in the program.
• Teaching Experience: Each student is encouraged to have at least two quarters of experience as a TA, normally before the qualifying exam. For more information please visit our Evolution and Ecology TA webiste.
• Qualifying Exam: The qualifying exam is taken at the end of the second year (or the Fall Quarter of the third year, at the latest) and is based on a written research proposal.
• Dissertation Seminar: After presentation of the dissertation, all students are required to present a seminar based on the contents of their dissertation to the graduate group.
• Units: A typical program will involve 50-60 units of course work, including seminars.

• The Guidance Committee and the First-Year Mentor

  Each new student will be assigned a three-person Guidance Committee when they arrive on campus. This committee is made up of the student's first-year mentor (see below), a Population Biology Graduate Group faculty adviser, and a third person with interests close to those of the student. The committee will meet with new students within the first week of Fall Quarter and together will agree on the courses that will be required for graduation. These requirements will be recorded on the First-Year Guidance Committee Report form, which serves as a contract between the Group and the student. This contract may be changed at any time by mutual consent of the student and the Guidance Committee, recorded by written notification of changes submitted to the staff graduate adviser.

  Every student who is accepted into the program is assigned a first-year mentor who is typically the person with whom the student intends to work. An official graduate adviser is not assigned until the beginning of the second year. Students may request a different adviser if, for any reason, they feel that they will be more successful with someone other than their current adviser. In order to effect a change, a student must have a change-of-adviser form signed by the PBGG Chair. Completed forms are filed with the staff graduate adviser.

  In the beginning of the second year, the first-year mentor on the Guidance Committee is replaced by the student's major professor, who may or may not be the same person. During the second year, the Guidance Committee, in addition to its role in academic advising, has the additional responsibility to recommend a committee for the qualifying examination, which must be scheduled no later than the Fall Quarter of the third year.

  The Guidance Committee is charged with overseeing all aspects of a student's academic life in the PBGG and should meet as often as is useful, but at least once every year in Spring Quarter. At the annual Spring meetings, the Committee will evaluate the student's progress toward a degree and record their assessment on the Annual Progress Report form.

• Supporting Courses

  Students are normally expected to take three additional courses as determined by their Guidance Committee. These courses may consist of formal lecture courses, laboratory and field courses, or graduate seminars (excluding one-unit seminars such as PBG 270, PBG 290, and PBG 292), as appropriate to achieve a balance between training in organismal biology and quantitative methods. Generally, these will include at least two 100/200 level courses in mathematics and/or statistics. More or fewer courses may be required by the Guidance Committee depending on the student's background and interests.

• Remedial Courses

  Students entering the graduate group are expected to have completed a set of courses that are typical in undergraduate biology majors. Certain courses are viewed as sufficiently important that entering students who have not taken them will be required to do so. These courses are:

  1. a one-year course in introductory biology for biology majors,
     
  2. a one-year course in calculus,
     
  3. a course in statistics, and
     
  4. an upper-division course in genetics.

  The Guidance Committee is charged with the assignment of courses that will fulfill these requirements.

• Monte Carlo Seminars

  Each student is expected to participate in the Monte Carlo seminars sponsored by the Center for Population Biology and Population Biology Graduate Group. First year students must participate in at least two Monte Carlo seminars. After that, students must participate in at least one Monte Carlo per year. Each quarter, all of the graduate students and postdocs who want to participate in a Monte Carlo seminar are assigned at random to the participating faculty. A topic of mutual interest to the participants is chosen at the first meeting.

• First Year Examination

  In June, during the period of Spring Quarter finals, all first-year students will take a written examination based on the contents of the six modules that make up the core curriculum. The faculty in charge of the lecture modules will supply questions and evaluate the answers. The questions may include material from the discussion groups as well as the formal lectures. This written exam takes the place of questions on general population biology during the qualifying examination taken later in the student's academic career. The exam is meant to identify weaknesses in a student's understanding of population biology and to help determine what additional course work or study might be appropriate. On occasion, the exam may be used to dismiss a student from the program who, by failing to exhibit a mastery of the material, is judged unsuitable for continuation in the graduate group.

  When the examination is completed, the examining committee (the six module instructors) will reach one of three decisions for each student: pass, conditional pass with a requirement of further study and examination on some aspect of the material, or fail. In case of failure, the student must retake the written exam in September. Failing the second exam will result in dismissal from the graduate group.

• Qualifying Examination

  The qualifying examination is intended to test the student's ability to design and execute a research project leading to significant publishable results. A research proposal provides a point of departure for the examination. In that proposal the student must demonstrate an ability to formulate general scientific questions and to build and test hypotheses. The student must also demonstrate a thorough understanding of the discipline encompassed by the proposal.

  • Schedule of the Examination

    Before taking the qualifying examination, students must have completed all course requirements set by Graduate Studies, the Population Biology Graduate Group, and the Guidance Committee.

    Qualifying examinations must be taken no later than the seventh quarter after matriculation.

  • Faculty Membership on the Examination Committee

    A five-person committee will examine the student in population biology and three other designated areas.

    At least three of the examiners, including the chair, must be members of the Population Biology Graduate Group. The student's major professor is not eligible to serve on the examination committee.

    The student, in consultation with the Guidance Committee, will propose three examination areas (in addition to population biology) representing subdisciplines of population biology. These subdisciplines include behavior, population genetics, molecular genetics, evolution, community ecology, systematics, conservation biology, environmental physiology, mathematical theory in population biology, statistical and experimental methods in population biology, resource economics and management, paleontology, or the biology of a particular taxon (e.g., mammalogy, ornithology, entomology, invertebrate zoology). One faculty member will act as an examiner for each of these areas. A fifth faculty member will be designated to chair the qualifying exam.

    The graduate adviser and master adviser will review the recommendations and, on approval, will have the graduate program staff forward them to the Dean of Graduate Studies, who officially appoints the committee.

    Given that the general area of population biology will have already been extensively covered in the first-year exam, the faculty member assigned the area of population biology will be expected to examine the student in only those areas of population biology that relate directly to the proposed dissertation research.

    The primary role of the chair, who is not assigned a specific area for questions, is to oversee the examination.

  • Structure of the Research Proposal

    The proposal will be a written document that follows the style of an NSF research proposal. The proposal will be a maximum of 15 single-spaced pages.

    After a one-page summary, the proposal should present a rationale for the proposed research. The body of the proposal should focus upon a few important, related ideas that lead to a small number of coherent objectives. The objectives should be possible to accomplish within the student's graduate career.

    All proposals will include some treatment of the essential quantitative methods to be integrated into the research. These include statistical analysis or other mathematical techniques.

    A final section of the proposal should address the broader scientific significance of the objectives, and future directions that could be taken from different possible outcomes of the proposed research. The "future directions" portion of the proposal should be brief, outlining some courses of investigation that could follow from possible outcomes of the research in the body of the proposal.

  • Preparation for the Exam: Student and Faculty Responsibilities

    The student will give the proposal to each member of the committee no later than six weeks prior to the examination.

    No later than two weeks prior to the exam, the student will discuss the proposal with each faculty member. The faculty members should have read the proposal carefully before this meeting and should be prepared to offer substantive feedback, if necessary, to the student.

    A "perfect" draft of the proposal is not an objective of the examination process, and the student should not revise the written document before the examination.

    Instead, the proposal is seen as a focal point for discussions about carrying out science in the areas chosen by the student. The examination will proceed by working outward from the proposed research, into related areas and ideas.

  • Conduct of the Examination

    A typical exam will begin with a 15- to 20-minute oral presentation by the student of the research proposal. The next component of the exam will be faculty questions pertaining to the proposal and the broader scientific issues of the student's three specialty areas.

    In these discussions, the student should be able to respond to faculty perceptions, reactions, and criticisms of the proposal in some detail.

    It is the student's responsibility to place the proposed research within the broader context of science and it is the responsibility of the examining committee to explore the student's understanding of scientific concepts, issues, and techniques that relate to the research.

  • Results of the Examination

    In accordance with University policy, there are three outcomes for the qualifying examination: Pass, Not Pass, or Fail.

    A failure will mean dismissal from the Graduate Group. In case of a "Not Pass," the student will be allowed to retake the exam a second time.

    In the case of either a "Not Pass" or a "Fail," the committee will provide a written explanation of its decision.

    If a second examination is necessary, the possible outcomes are "Pass" and "Fail." A "Fail" on the second exam will mean dismissal from the Graduate Group.

    A student dismissed from the Graduate Group may be awarded an M.S. degree, if all course requirements have been successfully fulfilled.

• Dissertation Committee

  When a student passes their qualifying examination, their Guidance Committee will propose a Dissertation Committee with at least three members. At least two members, including the chair, must be members of the Graduate Group. The committee will be appointed by the Dean of Graduate Studies.

  The student will meet with the committee at least once a year to guide the research and review the student's progress. Contents of the thesis must be approved by the committee at least six months before the submission of the dissertation. In cases where a committee member is not in residence, suitable alternative arrangements may be made.

  Insofar as it is consistent with the regulations of Graduate Studies, the dissertation will normally be presented in a form suitable for publication with minimal modifications. Students will be encouraged to present their theses in the form of several manuscripts suitable for publication in major peer-reviewed journals.

• Dissertation Seminar and Defense

  After presentation of the dissertation, all students are required to present a seminar based on the contents of their dissertation. Normally, the seminar will be given in the Tuesday Population Biology Seminar Series. If this is not possible, the seminar may be scheduled for any convenient time. A announcement of the seminar to the entire Population Biology Graduate Group membership must be circulated at least one weak prior to the seminar.

• Units

  A typical program will usually involve about 50 to 60 units of course work, including seminars. (For example, 20 units for the first-year core, 9-12 for additional courses and 20-26 seminar units).

  The University requires that a full-time student enroll for 12 units each quarter. A balanced load should not include more than 16 units of 100 and 200 level courses in any quarter and not more than 9 units of graded course work in quarters when serving as a TA.