These are intellectually exciting times for the Earth and planetary sciences. As never before we must understand the consequences of human activities for the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and the solid Earth, and the organisms that live on it. Exploring for, extracting, and conserving natural resources are vital to the global political economy. We must mitigate the ill effects of earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions and severe weather by learning to predict their time and place. Almost every practical aspect of society is increasingly impacted by our relationship with the Earth.
Harvard's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) is dedicated to facing these challenges and offers outstanding opportunities for students who wish to pursue graduate studies.
The EPS Department features a world-class faculty, state-of-the art laboratories, instrumentation and facilities, and a friendly, collaborative culture that is committed to the education and training of its graduate students. Whether you are engaged in bench-work, conducting field research, or simply enjoying complimentary coffee and cookies in the student lounge, you will find EPS to be an exciting and engaging experience. What's more, EPS students enjoy the advantages of being part of the larger Harvard community as well as the Greater Boston metropolitan area.
Our graduate students enter with diverse undergraduate preparation, with majors in Earth Sciences as well as Applied Math, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering and Physics. Graduate study and research within EPS are equally diverse, and include geology, geobiology, geochemistry, geophysics, physics and chemistry of climate, planetary science, tectonics, and more. Many undergraduates exposed for the first time to the Earth sciences find that this field provides the combination they've been looking for: one that is sophisticated, interdisciplinary, and offers societal relevance.
Once enrolled, all graduate students are provided generous financial support, including research assistantships, full tuition and computer purchase/travel allowance. Applications for the 09-10 academic year are due by December 31, 2009. To learn more about the admissions process please follow this link.
We encourage you to take the time to become familiar with our Department. If you have any questions please feel free to contact our Academic Coordinator, Sarah Colgan (617-496-9770; colgan@eps.harvard.edu), or contact our faculty directly to learn more about their research.
Links:
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences EPS Page
EPS Courses and Instructors
PDF of Graduate Student Hand Book (all 374 pages of it!)
PDF of EPS Graduate
Student Recruitment Poster
EPS Faculty Listing
Study Opportunities by Research Area
Graduate Students on field trip to Iceland