Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biological Sciences

The Department of Biology offers a diverse and integrative graduate program for students seeking the Ph.D. in the biological sciences. The department provides training opportunities in the following broad range of research areas: ecology (including behavioral ecology, population biology, community ecology, physiological ecology, ecosystem analysis, and biogeochemistry), cell and molecular biology (including cellular physiology, molecular genetics, developmental biology, developmental genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics, in both plant and animal systems), functional organismal biology (including comparative physiology, functional morphology, biomechanics, and animal behavior), and evolutionary biology (including population genetics, evolutionary ecology, evolutionary morphology, macroevolution, biogeography, and systematics). Faculty also participate in the university programs in Cell and Molecular Biology, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Ecology, and Structural Biology and Biophysics. These programs link researchers across different departments and schools at Duke, most notably the basic sciences departments in the Duke University Medical Center and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. There are also strong links with the Institute of Statistics and Decision Sciences, the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, the Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, and the departments of Evolutionary Anthropology and Anatomy, Philosophy, and Psychological and Brain Sciences. Tropical research is facilitated through the University's close affiliation with the Organization for Tropical Studies.