Program Requirements

General Program Requirements:
Number of Credits Required Beyond the Baccalaureate: 37, including 7 courses required in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, with one additional course taken outside of the department, if desired

Number of Credits Required Beyond the Master's: 18, including 3 courses required in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, with one additional course taken outside of the department, if desired

Required Courses:

Core Courses
Select courses from the following to total 28 credits: 128
EES 5011
Remote Sensing and GIS
EES 5042
Coastal Processes
EES 5101
Structural Geology (Graduate)
EES 5401
Analytical Methods in Mineralogy
EES 5402
X-ray Crystallography
EES 5406
Nanoscience and the Environment
EES 5434
Ecohydrology
EES 5454
Introduction to Geophysics
EES 5461
Low-Temperature Geochemistry
EES 5462
Advanced Low-Temperature Geochemistry
EES 5502
Ice and Global Climate
EES 5601
Vertebrate Paleontology and Taphonomy
EES 5625
Electron Optical Techniques
EES 5702
Sedimentary Petrology
EES 5725
Soils and Paleosols
EES 5801
Quantitative Structural Geo
EES 5802
Tectonics
EES 5811
Planetary Geology
EES 8000
Geology Seminar
EES 8200
Graduate Geology Seminar
EES 8411
Advanced Hydrogeology
EES 8421
Groundwater Modeling
Elective 23
Research Courses6
EES 9994
Preliminary Examination Preparation
EES 9998
Pre-Dissertation Research / Elevation to Candidacy
EES 9999
Dissertation Research
Total Credit Hours37
1

Select three of the courses if entering the PhD program with a master's degree.

2

The elective is selected in consultation with an advisor.

Culminating Events:
Candidacy Assessment:
Qualifying for PhD candidacy includes completion of coursework within the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, as well as demonstrations of subject area knowledge, skill and the ability to conduct research to define and investigate new questions. The assessment for candidacy consists of four parts:

  1. Completion of a minimum of three departmental graduate courses in good standing
  2. Successfully passing the written and oral components of the Preliminary Examination
  3. Submission and acceptance of an NSF-style research proposal
  4. Oral defense of the research proposal

Dissertation:
The Department of Earth and Environmental Science requires an original research dissertation as the culminating project in its PhD program.

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