Wildlife and Fisheries Ecology - Doctor of Philosophy
Candidates are accepted into the department to work with a specific faculty member that serves as their major advisor and committee chair. Students will develop their dissertation committee before the end of the second semester of study. Students will form the dissertation committee in consultation with their advisor and the committee must include a minimum of four members with at least two other members from the FWCE graduate faculty and a Dean’s Representative that must come from outside the FWCE department. Students will select courses in consultation with their major advisor and committee members based on their background and interests.
A total of 66 credits will be required for students entering the Doctoral program in Wildlife and Fisheries Ecology, including 18 doctoral dissertation credits. Students who have already completed an Master of Science can transfer a maximum of 24 credits from their Master of Science program to the doctoral program. Additionally, students that enter the program having only completed a bachelor’s degree must also complete the Master of Science degree requirements for Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology as part of their coursework requirements. This includes 6 credits of quantitative foundations and three courses from Ecological Concepts, Organismal Biology, and Ecological Techniques (see graduate catalog for eligible courses). A maximum of 9 credits of course work below 500 but at or above 450 can count toward doctoral coursework.
Doctor of Philosophy students must:
- Complete a minimum of 6 semesters, with at least two occurring after the comprehensive exam.
- A maximum of 6 credits of FWCE 699 Doctoral Research doctoral research may apply toward graduation.
- Complete a minimum of 30 credits of graduate work excluding dissertation credits (FWCE 700 Doctoral Dissertation). This must include 2 credits of FWCE 690 Doctoral Seminar and BIOL 540 Science and Ethics (2 credits).
- Complete 18 credits of FWCE 700 Doctoral Dissertation after passing the comprehensive exams.
- At least 15 credits of the required elective courses must come from FWCE courses numbered 500 or above.
- Maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.0.
- Enroll in at least 1 credit/semester or 9 credits if full-time.
- Full-time domestic students may file a request for waiver permitting them to enroll for only 6 credits in their second to last semester and to enroll for only 1 credit during their final semester if coursework and comprehensive exam requirements have been fulfilled.
- Successfully complete a qualifying exam (if a Ph.D. student without a master’s degree), proposal defense, comprehensive exam, and dissertation defense. (see below)
Other recommendations for Ph.D. students:
- Ph.D. candidates are encouraged to do the following:
- Consider including a committee member from outside NMSU, whether from a non-governmental organization, state/federal agency, or other university.
- Gain experience as a teaching assistant for at least one semester and/or enroll in FWCE 510 Wildlife Ecology Teaching Practicum.
- Present research at least once in a poster or oral format at a regional, national, or international conference.
- Submit at least one manuscript as first author for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Exams
Qualifying exam – Students with an Master of Science degree do not need to take a qualifying exam. Students with a bachelor’s degree must take a qualifying exam after completion of at least 18 credits. The qualifying exam will consist of an oral exam administered by the student’s committee. If a student does not pass the qualifying exam, they can coordinate with their major advisor to potentially pursue a Master of Science degree.
Proposal defense – The student should defend their proposal to their committee no later than the end of the fourth semester of their studies. The students will prepare a short presentation summarizing the proposal chapters and will then answer questions related to their proposal from the committee.
Comprehensive exam – This exam covers all phases of the major and minor fields of study and is given after passing the proposal defense and before the end of the sixth semester, and when sufficient progress has been made toward fulfilling agreed upon research goals. The examination will have both written and oral portions. The written portion may be in the form of a research proposal (that does not overlap with their existing dissertation research) or may consist of questions presented by the students’ committee. The student must pass their graduate committee’s expectation on the written portion before taking the oral portion. Students will not be allowed to register for 700 level courses until both parts of the comprehensive exam have been passed. If a student does not pass the comprehensive exam, they will have the opportunity to retake their comprehensive exam no sooner than three months and no later than 12 months after their initial attempt.
Dissertation Defense – The dissertation defense shall be completed after all degree requirements are satisfied. However, dissertation credits can be taken during the same semester as the dissertation defense. A minimum of 2 semesters must elapse between the comprehensive exam and dissertation defense.
Failure to pass an exam does not necessarily mean removal from the Ph.D. program. Students may be given the option to continue the program or pursue a Master of Science degree after discussion with their major advisor and (or) academic dean. Note that for each of the exam stages (e.g., qualifying exam, comprehensive exam, and dissertation defense), when an Master of Science degree-holding student does not pass, they may not be allowed to continue in the program. Such a case will be dealt with on an individual basis with active participation from the graduate dean.
Students should consult the Graduate School website for specific information regarding the completion of the degree and submission of the dissertation.
| Prefix | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| BIOL 540 | Science and Ethics | 2 |
| Take 2 credits of Doctoral Seminar | 2 | |
| Doctoral Seminar | 1 | |
| Take 18 credits of Doctoral Dissertation after Comprehensive Exam | 18 | |
| Doctoral Dissertation | 1-15 | |
| Elective Courses - Courses from 450-600 | 44 | |
| Other courses that can count towards electives for degree requirements: | ||
| Statistical Inference I | 4 | |
| Statistical Inference II | 0,3 | |
| Advanced Regression | 3 | |
| Statistical Models for Complex Data Structures | 3 | |
| Statistical Methods for Data Analytics | 3 | |
| Statistical Analysis with R | 3 | |
| Predictive Analytics | 3 | |
| Special Topics | 1-4 | |
| Applied Multivariate Analysis | 3 | |
| Applied Linear Models II | 3 | |
| Population Ecology | 3 | |
| Model Selection and Multimodel Inference in Ecology | 2 | |
| Demographic Modeling and Bayesian Inference in Modern Wildlife Management | 3 | |
| Ecological Biometry | 3 | |
| Ecological Concepts, Organismal Biology, Ecological Techniques | ||
| Advanced Genomics Technology | 3 | |
| Advanced Bioinformatics and NCBI Database | 3 | |
| Communities and Ecosystems | 3 | |
| Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology | 3 | |
| Physiology of Animals | 3 | |
| Wildlife Ecology Teaching Practicum | 3 | |
| Scientific Writing | 3 | |
| Structured Decision Making in Fish and Wildlife Management | 3 | |
| Evidence-Based Conservation and Management | 3 | |
| Large Mammal Ecology, Conservation and Management | 3 | |
| Mammalogy | 4 | |
| Environmental Biology of Fishes | 4 | |
| Wildlife Damage Management | 3 | |
| Conservation Genetics | 3 | |
| Wildlife Disease Ecology and Management | 4 | |
| Conservation Social Sciences | 3 | |
| Wildlife Law and Policy | 3 | |
| Aquatic Ecology | 4 | |
| Herpetology | 4 | |
| GIS for Natural Resource Scientists | 4 | |
| Ichthyology | 4 | |
| Landscape Ecology | 0,3 | |
| Biogeography | 3 | |
| Introduction to Remote Sensing | 0,4 | |
| Fundamentals of GIS | 0,4 | |
| Advanced Rangeland Ecology | 3 | |
| Arid Land Management | 3 | |
| Watershed Methods and Management | 3 | |
| Climate Studies, Water and Society | 3 | |
| Land Cover Analysis for Natural Resources | 3 | |
Independent Study: Eligible courses | ||
| Special Topics | 1-4 | |
| Graduate Problems | 1-3 | |
| Doctoral Research | 1 | |
| Total Credits | 66 | |