Currently 69 students are pursuing doctoral degrees within the School, creating a vibrant and dynamic intellectual community. Research is being conducted on almost every continent. Students pursue questions that often span disciplinary boundaries, and have both social and natural science dimensions.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PH.D.) degree is conferred through the Graduate School of Yale University. Work toward this doctoral degree is directed by the Department of Forestry & Environmental Studies of the Graduate School, which is composed of the faculty of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Doctoral work is concentrated in areas of faculty research, which currently encompass the following broad foci: agroforestry; biodiversity conservation; biostatistics and biometry; community ecology; ecosystems ecology; ecosystems management; environmental biophysics and meteorology; environmental chemistry; environmental ethics; environmental governance; environmental health risk assessment; environmental history; environmental law and politics; environmental and resource policy; forest ecology; hydrology; industrial ecology; industrial environmental management; plant physiology and anatomy; pollution management; population ecology; resource economics; energy and the environment, silviculture, social ecology; stand development, tropical ecology, and conservation; urban planning; water resource management; environmental management and social ecology in developing countries.