PhD in Forestry

In our Ph.D. program, you’ll be mentored by faculty who share your passion for the environment and who conduct ground-breaking research you can participate in.

You’ll benefit from close interaction with practicing professionals and the involved supervision of enthusiastic and dedicated faculty members. You’ll be within twenty miles of forest types ranging from canyon hardwoods and pinyon-juniper to spruce and fir. Our location within the nation’s largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest provides convenient access to lands managed by:

• the US Forest Service
• the Bureau of Land Management
• the National Park Service
• Native American tribal organizations

To enhance these plans, we maintain well-equipped ecological and computer laboratories, a small full-time staff of research professionals, and our nearby Centennial Forest. Also on campus in Flagstaff is a research unit of the U.S. Forest Service, as well as the Colorado Plateau Research Station, which is a unit of the U.S. Geological Survey.

You will be offered three Ph.D. emphasis areas:

• Ecosystem Science
• Forest Management Sciences and Economics
• Forest Social Science

What will I do in the program?

• coursework
• written and oral exams
• preparation and defense of a dissertation

Ph.D. students are expected to demonstrate:

• skill in the generation of original ideas
• considerable command of the literature
• skill at designing, analyzing, and interpreting research
• skill in scientific writing, including the publication of research results in major professionally refereed journals
• basic skills in teaching

You’ll be prepared for public or private resource management or a related career in research and education. Our particular focus is on the problems and opportunities associated with the integrated management of forest ecosystems.