Welcome to the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (E3B)!
What do we study? The interactions of all kinds of life, all around the world.
Established in 2001, E3B is the newest science department at Columbia. In creating E3B, the university recognized that the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, and environmental biology constitute a distinct subdivision of the biological sciences with its own set of intellectual foci, theoretical foundations, scales of analysis, and methodologies. In contrast to the molecular and cellular focus of the Biology Department, we emphasize a multi-disciplinary perspective to understand life on Earth from the level of organisms to global processes that sustain humanity and all life. The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences has more emphasis on the physical (i.e., non-living) Earth, while E3B’s main focus is the living component of the Earth. Although we highlight these differences for clarity, faculty and students collaborate across these programs.
Our faculty explore areas of plant and animal systematics; evolutionary and population genetics; ecosystem science; demography and population biology; animal behavior; community ecology; and related fields of epidemiology, ethnobiology, public health, and environmental policy.
We have affiliated faculty members from key institutions including The American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society. Through these collaborations, the department is able to tap into a broad array of scientific and intellectual resources in the greater New York City area. This affords our students—including undergraduates--an unparalleled breadth and depth of research opportunities.
Whether you are interested in a career in the field or just want to learn more about life on this planet, we are excited to help in those explorations.
We offer three undergraduate programs. The broader major in Environmental Biology, the human and non-human primate focused major in Evolutionary Biology of the Human Species (also known as biological anthropology) and a minor in E3B spanning the full breadth of the department.
The links below will help you to explore our courses, opportunities for research, extracurricular activities, career paths of our alumni along with some FAQs.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to our undergraduate advisors.
Dr. Matt Palmer is the DUS for the Environmental Biology (EB) major.
Dr. Jill Shapiro is the DUS for the Evolutionary Biology of the Human Species (EBHS) major.
Both serve as advisors for the Minor in E3B. Prospective minors with a primary interest in primates (including humans) can email Dr. Shapiro and students with broader interests in environmental biology can email Dr. Palmer.
