Degree Requirements

Unit Requirements

A minimum of 45 units of course work at the 100 level or above.
Half of the courses used to satisfy the 45-unit requirement must be intended primarily for graduate students, usually at the 200 level or above.
No more than 15 units of thesis research may be used to satisfy the 45-unit requirement.
Some students may be required to make up background deficiencies in addition to these basic requirements.
By the end of Winter Quarter of the first year in residence, a student must complete at least three courses taught by a minimum of two different department faculty members.

Course Work

		Units
		Course List
Seminar Requirements
Each quarter during the first academic year:
course	Topics in Earth System Science	2
Required Core Courses (Students are required to take three 2-unit courses during the first year):
course	Climate Change: An Earth Systems Perspective	2
course	From Freshwater to Oceans to Land Systems: An Earth System Perspective to Global Challenges	2
course	Research Proposal Development and Delivery	2
Distribution Requirements (Students must take one class from each of the following three areas within the first or second year):
Area A: Analysis of the Earth System (Select one course)
course	Data science for geoscience	3
course	Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Engineers	4
course	Uncertainty Quantification	3
course	Introduction to Statistical Inference	4
course	Applied Multivariate Analysis	3
course	Introduction to Time Series Analysis	3
course	Introduction to Statistical Learning	3
course	Modern Statistics for Modern Biology	3
Area B: Measurement of the Earth System (Select one course)
course	Techniques in Environmental Microbiology	3
course	Measurements in Earth Systems	3-4
course	Remote Sensing of Hydrology	3
course	Remote Sensing of the Oceans	3-4
course	Molecular Geomicrobiology Laboratory	4
course	Hopkins Microbiology Course	3-12
course	Remote Sensing of Land	4
Area C: Earth System Processes, Models, and Human-Environmental Interactions (Select one course)
course	World Food Economy	5
course	Physical Hydrogeology	4
course	Contaminant Hydrogeology and Reactive Transport	3
course	Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions	4
course	Decision Science for Environmental Threats	3-5
course	Pursuing Sustainability: Managing Complex Social Environmental Systems	3
course	Antarctic Marine Geology and Geophysics	3
course	Marine Ecosystem Modeling	3
course	Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate Dynamics: The Atmospheric Circulation	3
course	Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate Dynamics: the Ocean Circulation	3
course	Tropical Meteorology	3-4
course	Geomicrobiology	3
course	Analyzing land use in a globalized world	3
course	Social Structure and Social Networks	5

Name	Degree Designation	Description
Earth System Science (MS)	MS - Master of Science	No Description Set
Earth System Science (PhD)	PHD - Doctor of Philosophy	Join our strong intellectual community of graduate groups, faculty, and premier research programs through which you’ll develop the skills needed to conduct original investigations in environmental and Earth system sciences, interpret the results, and...

Department: Environmental Earth System Science