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Interdisciplinary Centers and Minor Programs

A number of centers affiliated with the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior and Graduate Minor Programs provide additional graduate education opportunities for students.

The Minnesota Center for Community Genetics was founded in 1994 as a University Center for Interdisciplinary Research with funding from the U of M Graduate School and the College of Biological Sciences. The mission of this center is to provide a synthesis of community ecology and population genetics that recognizes the interplay between changes in genetic composition and changes in species abundances in the evolution of interactions among species in communities. Faculty from diverse departments provide graduate student training through weekly seminars, invited speakers, and a grant program.

The liMNology Center is an interdisciplinary initiative funded by the Graduate School to ensure cross-fertilization of ideas, methods, and techniques in the highly interdisciplinary field of limnology. The liMNology Center links a number of departments, centers and units across the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and Duluth. It provides seminars, an annual retreat, and student funding.

The Quaternary Paleoecology Group offers a minor in Quaternary Paleoecology. Faculty from five departments within the Twin Cities campus provide training for students through seminars and courses.

The Biological Basis of Behavior Group (BBBG) connects faculty and students across the Twin Cities campus in nine departments. Faculty in this group are engaged in diverse research projects ranging from the physiology of single neurons to the social behavior of whole organisms. BBBG hosts a journal club and a seminar series.

A bioinformatics minor offers opportunities for students interested in computational training applied to biological problems through courses and seminars.

A microbial ecology minor offers training in an interdisciplinary research area concerned with the relationships of microorganisms to their natural environment.

The EEB Graduate Program takes part in the Joint Degree Program in Law, Health and the Life Sciences for students interested in combining a law degree with one of a broad range of graduate and professional degrees in health and the life sciences. This program is unique in the country. It allows a number of degree combinations, one of which is Law and EEB. 

Former graduate student Elizabeth Vinson Lonsdorf studied with Professor Anne Pusey the development and acquisition of tool-use skills in the Gombe chimpanzees. (Courtesy of Elizabeth Vinson Lonsdorf)