This project centers on the development of a new, undergraduate program in Earth System Science.  We plan to refine the core curriculum and develop the first new courses needed for the first group of students declaring an ESS major.

The ideas and activities around which the project is based began as informal discussions during a campus-wide academic planning process several years ago that resulted in an action item encouraging the atmospheric science department to explore the development of an interdisciplinary Earth system science undergraduate major.  

It is our intent to build a highly-regarded undergraduate ESS degree program that uses state-of-the-art technologies and resources.  We have clear institutional commitment and the momentum of faculty members in eleven different departments.  The linking of the enthusiasm and expertise at the University with the nationwide ESSE21 initiative is an important component of our success.  This project aims to build that bridge by means of some specific curriculum development initiatives of relevance to NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise.

 The proposed program will be interdisciplinary, built on the support and collaboration of as many as four colleges and eleven departments within the University.  The administrative structure will be kept as simple as possible by not starting a new and separate department.

Once the program is fully in operation, i.e., once there are students in years 2-4 of the degree program, we anticipate having at least 50 students declaring ESS as their degree of study.  Although it is difficult to predict, we might anticipate an even larger number since ESS students will also be studying an area of specialization in depth.