History

E-IPER grew directly out of the fruitful interdisciplinary collaborations among Stanford faculty, who recognized the value of purposefully training graduate students to be interdisciplinary scholars and leaders. E-IPER's historical highlights include these milestones:

• Early 2001 - Robert B. Dunbar becomes first Faculty Director of IPER
• October 2001 - Stanford University's Academic Senate gives E-IPER approval to award the PhD and dual MS
• September 2002 - First cohort of six PhD students matriculates
• January 2003 - Steve Schneider joins Dunbar as co-Director when Dunbar takes on Directorship of Earth System
• September 2005 - Gretchen C. Daily, professor of Biological Sciences, appointed Faculty Director
• June 2006 - Senate reauthorizes E-IPER for five years
• March 2007 - Senate approves Joint MBA-MS in Environment and Resources
• May 2007 - Senate approves Joint JD-MS in Environment and Resources
• September 2007 - Four Graduate School of Business and four Stanford Law School students begin Joint MS in Environment and Resources
• January 2008 - E-IPER moves to the new Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy (Y2E2) Building
• January 2009 - Peter Vitousek, professor in Biology, appointed Faculty Director
• February 2009 - Dan and Rae Emmett make $10M endowed gift; program name changed to the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources
• September 2009 - Joint MS program grows significantly with 23 new students, including E-IPER's first from the School of Medicine
• April 2011 - Senate renews E-IPER for five years