The IGERT Program in Evolutionary Modeling (IPEM) is an innovative Ph.D. training program in "Model-based Approaches to Biological and Cultural Evolution" funded by the National Science Foundation. IPEM aims to integrate biological and anthropological perspectives through a shared curriculum that emphasizes adaptation and diversification in genomic, behavioral, and cultural domains, and training in models for studying evolutionary processes across these domains. Our goal is to produce professionals fluent in theory and in quantitative methods (including computational modeling, game theory, phylogenetic analysis, and other field and laboratory techniques) for analyzing evolutionary patterns and processes in non-humans and humans, in prehistory as well as in the contemporary world.
Students enter IPEM through PhD programs in the Department of Anthropology or the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University, Pullman, or the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington, Seattle. Fellows spend at least one term taking courses or pursuing research at the sister institution, and form research teams across these universities and disciplines, allowing them to draw on relevant expertise at either sponsoring university. In addition they have the opportunity to pursue research at our partner institutions (the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico; the Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, which has branches in the UK and Canada; and Le Centre Universitaire de Recherche et de Documentation en Histoire et Archéologie, Central African Republic).
Fellows will be supported for at least one year, with a second year dependent on local funding opportunities—at the NSF-mandated rate of $30,000 per year, plus tuition and an annual supplement for research and conference expenses, competitively granted, of up to $8,000.
For further information on various aspects of the program, click one of the navigation links on the left.
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