PHD, Forestry & Natural Resources

Degree Program Summary:

To prepare leaders in the conservation and sustainable management of forests and other natural resources; to discover ways to restore and better use the earth’s natural resources; and to put into practice forestry and natural resources knowledge.

The PhD degree is frequently required for research and staff specialist positions, and is nearly always required for university faculty positions. The PhD is often regarded as a degree of specialized education within a relatively narrow field of expertise. The PhD requires a dissertation and a minimum of 30 hours of consecutive course work, at least 16 hours of which must be in courses open to graduate students only. As a requirement of residency, at least two consecutive semesters of full-time coursework or the equivalent must be spent in resident study on this campus (i.e., enrollment for a minimum of 30 hours of consecutive course work included on the Program of Study).

In almost all cases, a Master’s degree is required for admission to the PhD program. However, a student with an extraordinary baccalaureate record or a terminal, professional Master’s degree (e.g., MFR) may petition the Graduate Affairs Committee for admission to the doctoral program.

Specialized programs are offered in ten general fields of study. Opportunities for interdisciplinary research are available within most of the programs. Individual faculty members are identified with a particular field of study. Some are identified with more than one area. Faculty addresses, e-mail and telephone numbers are listed on the Web page and in the Faculty section. Alternatively, they can be contacted by mail at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2152 USA, or by telephone at (706) 542-2686.