Duke Board of Trustees Approves New Ph.D. Program in Marine Science and Conservation

March 1, 2008

DURHAM, N.C. – The Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University has established a new Ph.D. program within its Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Dean William L. Chameides today announced following the program’s approval by the Duke University Board of Trustees.

The program offers doctoral degrees in two concentrations: Marine Biology and Marine Conservation Biology and Policy. The concentration in marine biology is designed to prepare students for careers in university teaching and research. The concentration in marine conservation biology and policy is designed to ensure the students receive detailed training in either natural or social science, and will be prepared for careers either in university teaching or research, or outside of the university in the application of science to policymaking.

The new program replaces the Nicholas School’s Durham-based Ph.D. Program in the Environment as the academic home for Ph.D. students whose advisors have primary appointments in the school’s Division of Marine Science and Conservation, most of whom are resident at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C.

“This new Ph.D. program allows us to build on our emerging strengths in marine conservation while retaining our traditional strengths in marine biology,” said Cindy L. Van Dover, chair of the Division of Marine Science and Conservation and director of the Marine Lab.

Van Dover said the establishment of a separate Ph.D. program in the Marine Science and Conservation division rationalizes administrative responsibilities that are currently divided between the Durham and Beaufort campuses. “The financial administrative work associated with Ph.D. students working with the division’s faculty is already based in Beaufort; we seek to gain a degree of administrative independence for the program commensurate with the other responsibilities of the division,” she said.

Andrew J. Read, Rachel Carson Associate Professor of Marine Conservation Biology, is the division’s Director of Graduate Studies.

Faculty members within the Division of Marine Science and Conservation have long participated in two university-wide Ph.D. programs – the University Program in Ecology and the Integrated Toxicology Program, Read noted. “We anticipate that our level of commitment to these two programs will continue unchanged,” he said.