What are Graduate Focus Areas?

The Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation has developed a system of graduate groups to facilitate collaboration and professional development. Graduate students and faculty work in overlapping focus areas based on their research interests. Faculty within a given group typically have offices and labs close together and are likely to share facilities, equipment, and lab space. This system helps foster the collegiate atmosphere and collaboration that the department is known for. Graduate students are typically informally affiliated with the group of their major advisor.

Prospective Graduate Students will want to explore these areas (see list in sidebar) to find appropriate programs and contact faculty with related interests. Related research web sites and centers that faculty within that group are associated with, appear for each focus area. Prospective students are also invited to explore faculty research interests and contact individual faculty for more information on current projects and funding.

Primary faculty are those who participate actively in that group and have an ongoing graduate research program. Affiliated faculty are those who work in closely related fields or are frequent collaborators. In addition to the advising faculty listed in these Graduate Focus Area pages, each program has many other associated faculty and staff, including post-docs, research associates, extension faculty, research technicians and others. See the People and Organizations for a complete listing.