University of Chicago

The Committee on Evolutionary Biology (CEB) is an interdepartmental and inter-institutional graduate student training program at the University of Chicago dedicated to the study of evolutionary biology in its broadest sense. Faculty and students in the program are engaged in interdisciplinary studies of evolutionary biology at time scales that range from single generations to the entire history of life, and at organizational scales from the molecular to the global.

As a student in the CEB PhD program, you may pursue interdisciplinary research that does not readily fall within a single department’s purview. CEB members conduct research on most major groups of organisms, and in most ecosystems. CEB students have access to numerous field sites and laboratories, research funds for pilot work, and an exceptional range of scientific and technical expertise.

Approximately 65 faculty associates in the CEB represent all four UChicago graduate divisions (Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities) and seven institutions outside of the University of Chicago (Argonne National Laboratory, Brookfield Zoo, the Chicago Botanic Garden, Lincoln Park Zoo, Morton Arboretum, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Hole, and the Field Museum). CEB has produced over 140 graduates who are now working around the world in universities, museums, zoos, and governmental and non-governmental agencies. 

The CEB program includes training in:

• Ecology
• Genetics
• Genomics
• Conservation biology
• Systematics
• Bioinformatics
• Paleobiology
• Biogeochemistry
• Lab and field research, including opportunities to study and conduct research at the Organization for Tropical Studies and the Marine Biological Laboratory