Dean's Welcome

Welcome to the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences at Stanford.

Our faculty, students, and staff pursue learning and research in a culture of collaboration, inclusion, respect, and excellence. We develop new knowledge and train the next generation to understand the changing Earth and help solve the enormous resource and environmental challenges facing the world. Our diversity of disciplines, cultures, and ideas enriches our research and education.

We've had a dynamic presence at the university since its founding in 1891, when the first professor hired at Stanford was geologist John Casper Branner. Today, our faculty are housed not only in the main quad’s original “Geo Corner” but in the Mitchell and Green Earth sciences buildings and in Y2E2, Stanford’s first fully sustainable building. Stanford Earth researchers and students conduct studies or engage in field learning on all seven continents and oceans.

In the last couple of decades, big data drawn from satellites and other remote sensing devices have become cheaper, faster, and more central to the work carried out by Earth scientists than ever before. Beginning with data acquisition, and on to processing, modeling, and analysis, advanced computing techniques are a core skill practiced by our graduate students, faculty, and undergraduates.

Our school has long-term strengths in areas traditionally known as Earth sciences: understanding the solid Earth’s subsurface processes and their relationship to mineral and energy resources, to natural hazards such as earthquakes and volcanoes, and to the evolution of the planet. We also have expertise focused on the surface of the planet where people live, including land, ocean, freshwater, and climate systems. And many of our faculty focus their attention on natural resources and energy. We encourage interdisciplinary thinking and research through collaborative programs with the Stanford-wide Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Please explore our web site to learn more about who we are and what we do.

Stephan Graham
Chester Naramore Dean
Welton Joseph and Maud L’Anphere Crook Professor