The Department of Ecology, Evolution & Environmental Biology (E3B) at Columbia University was established in 2001. Although we are a relatively new department, we have grown rapidly in the past decade. We now have an internationally diverse student body and a broad network of supporters at Columbia and throughout New York City.<br><br>E3B's mission is to educate a new generation of scientists and practitioners in the theory and methods of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology. Our educational programs emphasize a multi-disciplinary perspective to understand life on Earth from the level of organisms to global processes that sustain humanity and all life.<br><br>To achieve this multi-disciplinary perspective, the department maintains close ties to over 70 faculty members beyond its central core. Thus, many faculty members who teach, advise, and train students in research are based in other departments on the Columbia campus or at the partner institutions. Through this collaboration, the department is able to tap into a broad array of scientific and intellectual resources in the greater New York City area. The academic staff covers the areas of plant and animal systematics, evolutionary and population genetics, ecosystem science, demography and population biology, behavioral and community ecology, and related fields of epidemiology, ethnobiology, public health, and environmental policy. Harnessing the expertise of this diverse faculty and the institutions of which they are a part, E3B covers a vast area of inquiry into the evolutionary, genetic, and ecological relationships among all living things.