Certificate in Plant Ecology

• What is a Certificate in Plant Ecology?
  • A graduate program.
  • Specialized training in plant ecology for post-bachelor level students, particularly Master's students, in both basic and applied ecology, including forestry and wildlife.
• Why do I want a Certificate in Plant Ecology?
  • Professional certification is an industry-recognized way of demonstrating competence.
  • Consulting firms often encourage their ecologists to have or seek certification.
  • Certification helps demonstrate competence for those providing expert witness testimony in courts and in Congress
  • The SIUC Certificate in Plant Ecology prepares candidates for the Ecological Society of America's Associate Ecologist Certification (link to ESA).The Ecological Society of America is the professional organization for ecologists in the USA.
• Program requirements.
  • 15 to 18 hours of course work, 50% of which may also count toward a regular degree in some graduate program (given approval by that program and the student's advisory committee).
  • Courses as necessary from the following list to satisfy the ESA's sub-discipline requirements of population, community and ecosystem ecology: PLB 452a and b, PLB 545a and b, PLB 440, PLB 443, PLB 445, and PLB 444.
  • Courses from other universities of up to two (2) courses in the list may be substituted with permission from the student's advisory committee.
  • Already taken: a minimum of two (2) courses in statistics, including inferential statistics, or take these as deficiencies.
  • One elective ecology course in an applied area, e.g., forestry, geography, wildlife biology, soils.
  • One-year of post-graduate experience in research or development of methods demonstrating technical competence in the application of ecological principles and/or theory to decision making (The research experience at the Master's level can meet this requirement). Applicants from industry, private consulting firms or government agencies will be required to take three (3) credit hours of independent research to gain this competence.
  • A background of 12 semester hours in mathematics and physical sciences.
  • Maintain a B average in graduate courses and must follow all rules of the Certification Policy established by the Graduate School.
  • Residency must be at least 1 semester for those coming into the program just to obtain the certificate (Master's students can satisfy the residency by simply fulfilling the course work requirements).
  • An assessment instrument will be administered to students during the last semester of their program for final certification.
  • An application for Associate Ecologist Certification with the ESA will be prepared and submitted on behalf of Candidates obtaining the Certificate.

• For more information and detailed Certificate requirements contact:
  Dr. David J. Gibson, Coordinator, Graduate Certificate in Plant Ecology
  Department of Plant Biology
  Southern Illinois University
  Carbondale, IL 62901-6509
  Telephone: (618) 453-3231
  E-mail: dgibson@plant.siu.edu
  

Back to the main Plant Biology home page

This page prepared by Prof David J. Gibson; e-mail comments, suggestions, corrections to dgibson@plant.siu.edu.

SIUC / College of Science / Plant Biology / Plant Ecology Certificate
http://www.science.siu.edu/plant-biology/plecolcert.html
Last updated: 13-Feb-02 / dln