• Department Links ▼
  • EFB Home
  • EFB Faculty
  • EFB Alumni Updates
  • Awards
  • Annual Reports
  • Calendar: Adaptive Peaks & EFB Events
  • Contact EFB
  • ESF in the High School
• Undergraduate Programs ▼
  • Introduction to Undergraduate Study in EFB
  • Courses
  • Majors:
  • Aquatic and Fisheries Science
  • Biotechnology
  • Conservation Biology
  • Environmental Biology
  • Forest Health
  • Natural History & Interpretation
  • Wildlife Science
• Graduate Programs ▼
  • Introduction to Graduate Study in EFB
  • Current Graduate Students
  • Programs of Study:
  • Applied Ecology
  • Chemical Ecology
  • Conservation Biology
  • Ecology
  • Entomology
  • Environmental Interpretation
  • Environmental Physiology
  • Fish and Wildlife Biology and Management
  • Forest Pathology and Mycology
  • Plant Biotechnology
  • Plant Science and Biotechnology
• Facilities & Research ▼
  • A New Home for EFB
  • On Campus & in the Field
  • Special Centers & Facilities:
  • Adirondack Ecological Center
  • American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project
  • Applied Microbiology, SUNY Center for
  • Center for Native Peoples and the Environment
  • Cranberry Lake Biological Station
  • Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
  • Quantitative Studies Laboratory
  • Roosevelt Wild Life Station
  • Salix Consortium
  • Thousand Islands Biological Station
  • Animal Care at ESF

Chemical Ecology
M.S., M.P.S. and Ph.D.

The area of study in chemical ecology is offered through collaboration between the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and the Department of Chemistry. Interested students should apply to the department of major interest, which will have prime responsibility for setting requirements. Faculty from both areas contribute to the development of a plan of study enabling a student to acquire sophisticated skills in either biology or chemistry and an ample understanding of the other field to grapple with problems requiring an understanding of both.

As a relatively new interdisciplinary endeavor, scientists in this field attempt to understand organismal interactions, both intra- and interspecific, mediated by chemical substances such as hormones, pheromones, kairomones and phytoalexins. These interactions occur at all taxonomic levels: between uni- and multicellular organisms, microbes and plants, plants and plants, plants and animals, microbes and animals and various species of animals. Study of such interactions has accelerated in recent years through joint efforts of biologists and chemists in basic and applied research in the laboratory and field.

Participating Faculty

• Gregory L. Boyer; glboyer@esf.edu
  BIOCHEMISTRY and ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY, plant and algal biochemistry, chemical ecology and toxins produced by algae. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING, including Buoy and ship-based monitoring systems for water quality
• Jose L. Giner; jlginer@syr.edu
  organic and natural products chemistry, sterol synthesis, natural products
• James P. Nakas; jpnakas@esf.edu
  microbiology, transformation and decomposition processes, nutrient cycling, soil and aquatic microbiology, microbial biomass, solvent production, microbial ecology, microbial physiology
• Stephen A. Teale; sateale@esf.edu
  forest entomology, insect behavior, pheromones of forest insects, insect ecology, pest management, chemical ecology, evolution of pheromone communications
• Mark A. Teece; mteece@esf.edu
  environmental chemistry, food web biochemistry, stable isotope biogeochemistry, coral, stable isotopes, metabolomics, biogeochemistry
• Francis X. Webster; fwebster@syr.edu
  pheremone chemistry, chemical ecology, organic chemistry

Current Graduate Students in Chemical Ecology