Welcome to the Environmental Science Program

An interdisciplinary science major at UST

Amongst the most pressing issues facing humanity are those that center on the environment and our interactions with it:  ground- and surface-water contamination, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and alteration of the world's oceans.  The solutions to these fundamentally complex problems require the skills of multiple disciplines including geoscience, bioscience, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Building on the excellent faculty and strong tradition of environmental research in the sciences at UST, the environmental science program (ESCI) seeks to provide students with the rigorous scientific skills that they will need to help solve some of these problems.

Choose from three scientific concentrations

Students in the ESCI program choose from one of three scientific concentrations--biology, chemistry, or geoscience--that provide in-depth knowledge in a specific discipline.  As part of the course requirements, students within each concentration take courses in each of the other sciences, as well as allied courses in mathematics, engineering, and the social sciences.  In addition, students take two "bookend" courses, ESCI 310 (Environmental Problem Solving) and ESCI 390 (Senior Research Seminar), that bring together ESCI majors from all of the concentrations to work on problems that require an interdisciplinary solution.  These courses provide the practical, problem-based experiences that are necessary for training students to think across disciplines, not just within them.

Learn about the program from a current ESCI student Learn about our program from a current ESCI student Learn about our program from a current ESCI student Research Interests: Aquatic ecology Research Interests: Analytical Chemistry, Instrumental Development... Research Interests: Environmental Chemistry, Organic Pollutants... Research Interests: Microbiology, Circadian Rhythms Research Interests: Sedimentology, Geoscience Education, ... Research Interests: Plant Ecology, Conservation Biology... Research Interests: Paleoecology, oceanography, climate change, ...