Degree Requirements   |   Course Descriptions    |   Research Highlights

Professor Gretchen Daily with IPER students, Becca Goldman and Josh Goldstein, meeting with a landowner in Hawai'i

Course Descriptions

IPER’s core course sequence for first year PhD students (IPER 310, 320, and 330) is designed to expose students to an interdisciplinary “way of thinking” about complex environmental problems and the variety of methodologies that might be applied to these problems. These three courses, team-taught by IPER faculty, are generally required of all IPER PhD students during their first year of study. 

To gain a foundational understanding of environmental science and diverse research and problem-solving approaches, MS students take IPER 310, Environmental Forum, and IPER 335, Environmental Science for Managers and Policy-Makers. Both PhD and MS students will take selected courses in IPER’s focal areas, many of which are listed below. 

IPER 310: Environmental Forum Seminar (Autumn and Winter Quarters)
This seminar, required of all PhD (two quarters) and dual/joint MS (one quarter) students, takes advantage of environmental seminars on campus that address a wide range of environmental issues. Each week, students and faculty attend a predetermined seminar of one to two hours in length. In the week following each seminar, students and the faculty members teaching the course, meet to discuss the seminar in detail, addressing such issues as the conceptual framework of the topic, the approaches used in analysis, the validity of conclusions from an interdisciplinary viewpoint, and alternative approaches that would have added to the contribution.

IPER 320: Designing Environmental Research (Winter Quarter)
This three-unit course, required of all PhD students, is an introduction to research design options for environmentally related research. Students review the major philosophies of knowledge and how they relate to research objectives and design choices, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of alternative research designs (particularly the ëfití among the methods, data and argument). Students develop individual research design proposals, including clear description and justification understandable to a non-specialist.

IPER 330: Research Approaches for Environmental Problem Solving (Spring Quarter)
This three-unit course, required of all PhD students, explores the analytical tools, models, and approaches that are central to interdisciplinary research on the world's leading environmental issues. Topics addressed are: "observing" systems and data sources; computation and modeling approaches to complex problems; translation and integration of alternative disciplinary approaches to research, analysis, and uncertainty; policy analysis; cost-benefit analysis, risk-benefit analysis, qualitative methods, and other decision analytic frameworks and valuation approaches; team building and leadership roles; review and proposal writing; speaking.

IPER 335: Environmental Science for Managers and Policy-Makers (Winter Quarter)
This course, required of all dual/joint MS students, covers the fundamentals of earth systems and environmental science and develops skills in spreadsheet modeling, optimization and Monte Carlo simulation that are essential for environmental policy analysis and resource management.  The course is taught by a diverse team of stellar faculty from the schools of Humanities and Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Law and Business. The course will prepare future managers, entrepreneurs and policy makers to apply scientific understanding to business operations, strategy, and the design of effective market-based environmental policy.

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In addition to the core sequence, IPER students work closely with their advising team to develop a course of study tailored to the student's background and desired future work. Provided below is a partial list of courses available at Stanford in the program's focal areas. Through additional coursework and independent study, PhD students will establish breadth of understanding in these focal areas and will select two distinct fields of inquiry in which to develop depth. Fields of inquiry are the central focus of dissertation research and are defined as areas of expertise, and are not restricted to the breadth areas below. MS students design their elective courses around one or more of the program’s focal areas chosen to complement but not duplicate their primary research or professional degree program at Stanford. To satisfy University residency requirements, PhD students must complete 135 units of coursework and MS students must complete 45 units of coursework. For additional information on these courses as well as all other courses at Stanford please see the Bulletin.

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