What is a Graduate Field?
Prospective graduate students apply to Graduate Fields of Study at Cornell rather than departments. Most Graduate Fields are more inclusive than any one Cornell Department. Graduate Fields are, in a sense, virtual, and bring together faculty and students with shared intellectual interests, irrespective of their departmental homes.
Students in the Graduate Field of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) are all advised by faculty who are members of that graduate field. Faculty in the Field of EEB include faculty based in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, as well as 
additional faculty who reside in the Departments of Entomology, Natural Resources, Neurobiology and Behavior, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Plant Biology, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Horticulture, and Civil Engineering. Any member of Cornell's Graduate Faculty, from any Department, can serve on students' dissertation committees.
Every graduate student will also have a departmental home, which is generally the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, at least the first year. After the first or second year, graduate students will have the same departmental home as their primary graduate advisor.