Aquatic Resources and Integrative Biology (Ph.D.)

Students will learn to integrate scientific, technical, and socioeconomic elements to provide sustainable aquatic resources from local to international levels.

Program Overview

Texas State's location, near many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including San Marcos Springs, the headwaters of the San Marcos River, as well as The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, Aquarena Center and the Freeman Center, provides students with a unique opportunity for study and research.

Course Work

Students entering the doctoral program with an earned master's degree in an appropriate field must complete 61 hours of graduate course work, which includes 21 hours of core courses and 40 combined hours between elective courses and dissertation research (with a minimum of 15 dissertation hours).

Each doctoral student has a research and study program designed to meet the student's academic goals, including core skills the student wants to develop. The program also includes a mix of elective courses to provide the scientific expertise and knowledge required to work on complex problems focused on integrative biology and the sustainable use of ecosystems and natural resources.

What Our Alumni Say

“The program is inherently interdisciplinary, emphasizing both theoretical and applied approaches to think critically about modern ecological challenges. The broad-based expertise within the department offers students the opportunity to discover and disseminate knowledge on a diverse array of topics across the region and internationally.”

— Adam Duarte, Ph.D. ’15, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Oregon State University

Program Details

Texas State’s local resources give students the ability to study habitats for threatened or endangered species and to develop and promote programs for the sustainable use of aquatic resources and ecosystems.

Program Mission

The doctoral program emphasizes original research (including basic and applied) to provide depth and breadth of knowledge in aquatic resources and integrative biology and related disciplines, from the watershed and ecosystem scale down to the population, organismal and microbial scale. Students are engaged in a collaborative research environment among students, faculty, natural resource agencies, nonprofit organizations and public and private interests. The curriculum stresses active roles for students in intellectual exchange with faculty and peers and in the critique of published research. The program prepares students to identify and solve complex problems relevant to the sustainable use of terrestrial and aquatic resources and ecosystems.

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Career Options

The program facilitates the entry of its students into the professional community of scholars and natural resource practitioners in a manner emphasizing the completion, presentation and publication of original, creative research. Among graduating doctoral students, approximately 45% go to academia, 20% to federal/state agencies, 15% to the public sector, and 20% to the private sector.

Program Faculty

The program's full-time faculty members have established outstanding research programs in molecular/cellular biology, wildlife ecology, population biology, ecology, aquatic resources and science education. Faculty have published in top-tier journals and been supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and various federal and state natural resource management agencies. Through education, scholarship and outreach activities, the department enhances the Texas State image by using the life sciences to help meet current and future needs of society.