Degree Programs

To ensure that students are appropriately placed in this program, a statement of purpose submitted with the application for admission must reflect the student’s reasoning for pursuit of a crossdisciplinary program of study in contrast to a more traditional disciplinary one readily provided by a department in the School of Earth Sciences.

Prospective applicants should identify and contact an appropriate member of the School of Earth Sciences faculty prior to submitting a formal application for admission. This faculty sponsor should be prepared to serve as one of the student’s research advisers and on the thesis committee. The faculty sponsor must submit a statement to the program outlining reasons for the student’s admission to EEES rather than a disciplinary departmental program.

The requirements for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are discussed in the Degree Requirements section.

Hypothetical Graduate Student Backgrounds and Programs

There are obviously a large number of possible research paths that a student could pursue with multiple faculty within the School of Earth Sciences.  Here we provide some specific examples, along with a list of courses in each of the two areas of specialization that would most likely be required (with the department or school where the course is offered in parentheses, GP = Geophysics, GES = Geological and Environmental Sciences, PE = Petroleum Engineering, CEE = Civil and Environmental Engineering, CME = Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, CS = Computer Science).

1) Marine Ecosystem Modeling

Below are the courses likely to be taken by a student who wishes to combine oceanographic principals with quantitative analysis and modeling techniques.

2) CO₂ Sequestration Modeling

Below are the courses likely to be taken by a student wishing to model the long-term geologic sequestration of anthropogenically produced CO₂.

3) Quantitative Flow Modeling and Prediction in Fractured Systems

Below are the courses likely to be taken by a student wishing to understand the movement of materials through fractured geologic formations using quantitative modeling techniques.

4) Computational Geosciences

Below are a subset of the courses likely to be taken by a student who wishes to combine a rigorous curriculum in scientific and numerical computing with one of the computationally oriented research areas that are active  in the in the School of Earth Sciences (e.g. groundwater flow simulation, reservoir flow simulation, seismic imaging and modeling, SAR imaging, ...). The following courses cover the computational component of the curriculum; we do not list Earth Sciences courses because the Earth Sciences component is strongly dependent on the area of specialization.

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