Modern theories of ecology, evolution, and conservation biology share a core of concepts and techniques that span classical academic disciplines. This common core, coupled with the emergence of powerful new technologies, invites cross-disciplinary approaches, which generate many of today's most exciting scientific knowledge.

The EECB program provides opportunities for students in all of the traditional subdisciplines represented at Manoa. This intercollegiate, interdisciplinary graduate program brings together faculty members from agronomy and soil science, anthropology, biomedical sciences (genetics and molecular biology), botanical sciences, entomology, geography, horticulture, microbiology, oceanography, and zoology , with all their skills and technologies , to provide the training students need to contribute effectively to this research area.

EECB is implemented as a "specialization" within existing graduate programs of the departments whose faculty participate in this program. While the EECB program is designed primarily for a doctor of philosophy degree, it also includes a master of science degree for students who wish to pursue positions such as might be available in state and federal forestry and wildlife conservation programs or in biological resource management positions with private organizations such as the Nature Conservancy. Students accepted to the EECB graduate specialization have already been accepted into the graduate program of the various departments participating in the EECB program. Course work in statistics, organic chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, evolution, and ecology are considered most important for admission into the EECB program.

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The program in marine biology provides integrated graduate education for students seeking careers in research and teaching with emphasis on marine systems at the ecological, organismic, and cellular-molecular levels. Students who apply to the graduate programs in botany, microbiology, oceanography or zoology at the University of Hawai'i may choose to specialize in marine biology. The specialization allows students to interact with an interdisciplinary group of faculty in the above programs rather than with the faculty from only one or two of these areas. The purpose of the specialization is therefore to give the student greater flexibility in choosing the faculty who will serve as mentors on his/her MS or PhD committee. Areas of expertise of the marine biology graduate faculty include aquaculture, behavior, biosystematics, marine biology, coral reef ecology, biological oceanography, fisheries, phycology, microbial pathogens and zoology.

Students who wish to specialize in marine biology must apply to and be accepted by one of the participating departments. The departmental required course work may be supplemented by courses specific to marine biology, the particular selection of courses being determined by the student in consultation with his/her advisory committee. All of the programs include seminars, colloquia, field research and/or laboratory studies as part of the student's graduate education. Students are expected to complete an original research project and present a thesis or dissertation based on that research.

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