The Environmental and Evolutionary Biology group of the Department of Biology supports education and research on the interactions between organisms and their environment from an evolutionary (historical) perspective. This includes the study of evolutionary processes, the adaptations of individual organisms (including many aspects of behavior such as survival and reproductive value, developmental processes, and physiological and neurobiological mechanisms), predator-prey and competitive interactions, and community and ecosystem relationships. Faculty conduct research exploring both basic underlying principles and specific applied consequences of ecological interactions. 

The group's core philosophy is that major advances in understanding how organisms evolve and function in changing ecosystems are achieved by interdisciplinary communication, which stimulates new collaborations involving diverse conceptual and methodological approaches.