Welcome to the Department

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at Princeton University is unique in its broad and interdisciplinary perspective, with a culture that embraces intellectual curiosity and spans a range of fields. Our faculty members and students join together to unravel the mysteries of how animals, plants, and microbes function, how they interact, and how they evolve in a changing world. How do organisms respond to the physical environment to form populations, communities, and complex ecosystems? How are they affected by human activities, and conversely, how do human society depend on our ecosystems? And how can we manage our biological heritage to achieve a sustainable future?

As a department, we take a multi-dimensional approach to the study of ecology and evolutionary biology. We examine phenomena across organizational scales, from cells to individuals, to populations and ecosystems. We are also interested in how these scales evolve and vary spatially (regional to global) and temporally (across days, seasons, and generations). Our interdisciplinary research incorporates genomics, neuroscience, molecular biology, engineering, geosciences, economics, and public policy, to name a few.

EEB is an intrinsically integrative department. Our faculty is passionate about research questions which fall into five areas: Ecology & the Environment, Evolution & Genomics, Behavior & Sensory Biology, Conservation & Biodiversity, and Infectious Disease. Student research is advised by faculty in any of these areas and often connect with faculty members between two or more areas. This broad flexibility affords the opportunity to explore novel questions that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.

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