New York City’s American Museum of Natural History has been given the green light to offer graduate degrees in comparative biology.

The New York State Board of Regents voted last month to grant full accreditation to the museum’s Richard Gilder Graduate School.

The action by the Regents makes the natural history museum the first museum in the United States that grants Ph.D.s.

The museum’s curators and scientists serve as faculty for its Ph.D. program in comparative biology.