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Environment and Sustainability
Study humanity’s relationship with the Earth & its ecosystems and explore the intersection of ecology, economics, policy, justice, & citizenship.
The Department of Earth and Environmental Systems (EES) unites our strengths in multiple disciplines under one physical roof (Snowden), to provide an integrated experience for students interested in how the Earth and its environment shape our lives, and how we in turn shape our planet. Our classes combine lectures with outdoor hands-on experiences across our 13,000 acre campus, and we strive to balance experimental and laboratory work with the modeling and technical skills needed in the modern workplace.
Study humanity’s relationship with the Earth & its ecosystems and explore the intersection of ecology, economics, policy, justice, & citizenship.
Study the composition, structure, processes, and socioeconomic issues of forested and woodland areas that enable communities to thrive and learn how forests influence local to global scale processes.
Study how the Earth’s formation and evolution shapes our planet and explore how geological materials and processes influence our daily lives.
This major combines coursework in Forestry & Geology with the courses in anthropology, archaeology, and environmental ethics to give you broad career preparation for jobs that require a balanced understanding of the intrinsic and utilitarian value of the Earth's finite resources.
Teaching and advising students takes a village. In our department, that includes all of our faculty and staff.
Departmental research opportunities support a wide range of student interests, from experiences rooted in the great outdoors to measurements conducted at world-class particle accelerators.
Explore your interests, develop your professional toolkit, find meaningful summer opportunities, and find out about career outcomes for graduates from across our majors.
This certification gives students interested in hydrology or environmental consulting a leg up in the job market.
Through the LAL, students can take two courses in GIS, or Geographic Information System, which teaches students to collect and analyze spatial data. Additionally, the LAL provides GIS support for faculty, staff, and students in departments and offices across the university, local community, and regional organizations
Our farm helps to nourish our students nutritionally and intellectually. Many of our students work on the farm and may even complete capstone projects utilizing this unique resource.
The Island Ecology Program has provided students the unique opportunity to live and work on St. Catherines, one of the largest undeveloped islands on the Atlantic coast of the United States for 34 years.
SIPE has over 30 faculty and staff engaged with students on a variety of research and applied field projects. They provide internship support and are involved with management and conservation issues across the globe.
Eighteen EES students presented research at the Scholarship Sewanee on topics as varied as subalpine forest mortality in the Rocky Mountains, thin section analysis of the Pennington Formation, phase transitions in hydrous sulfates at extreme pressures and temperatures, a multi-temporal landslide inventory for Wetar Island, and how regenerative practices affect soil carbon sequestration on small farms on the Cumberland Plateau.
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Undergraduate researchers Christian Shushok and Audrey Burch presented new results on a project exploring the physical and chemical properties of two planetary minerals, epsomite and melanterite, at elevated pressures and extreme temperatures. These findings tied together work conducted in the Snowden laboratory of Dr. Lily Thompson, as well as spectroscopy measurements conducted during field trips to the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory.