Why come to UC Davis for Graduate School?
In my opinion, there is no better place to study and develop rigorous quantitative analysis on environmental policy and natural resource management. We have the top-ranked Agricultural and Resource Economics Department, Ecology graduate program, and world-renowned scholars in Environmental Policy.
Many faculty do interdisciplinary research and taking such an approach is not a new fad at UC Davis. It was the founding principle of the university and still is at the core of who we are. If you don’t want to take my biased opinion, here is a comment that Carl Walters (Professor at UBC) made to me after he give a talk in our Ecology, Economics, and Policy seminar series in 2012: “I was hugely impressed with the quality and energy of the people who attended the seminar and visited with me afterwards. I have not seen such an impressive collection of research projects, in terms of quality of the studies and strong interdisciplinary focus, since the early days of my career at UBC when the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology provided a similar environment.” [Note the Institute he refers to was responsible for developing seminal research in the field of natural resource economics and fisheries in the 1960s.]
Students in the NatuRE policy lab are highly successful during their studies winning fellowships (e.g., NSF, NOAA Marine Resource Economics) and awards (AERE Dissertation Award, Best Student paper and/or presentation at NAAFE) and in the job market placing at top research institutions (e.g., Oregon State, Arizona State, University of Washington), liberal arts colleges (Mt Holoyoke, Colgate, Luther College), government science programs (e.g. NOAA, CDC), and non-governmental organizations (e.g., EcoHealth Alliance and Resources for the Future).
Applying to my group within the NatuRE Policy lab
I accept one to two graduate students per year through the graduate group in ecology, graduate group in applied math, or the graduate program in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
When inquiring about graduate school, please include in your email a short description of your academic and professional background (including economic and ecology classes), your academic interests, and a couple of sentences on why you are interested in attending graduate school and being part of UC Davis. Contact information can be found on contact page.
Please note that a solid background in mathematics and/or statistics is required.
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