Graduate Programmes

We have four broad and overlapping areas of research focus: the solid earth, surface processes, geobiology, and atmospheres/planetary/space physics. In keeping with our mission, research centers and programs within or closely linked to the department allow for enhanced educational and research experiences. In addition, we maintain extensive collaborations with local, regional, and national agencies such as Emergency Management Division, Department of Natural Resources, USGS, NASA and NOAA.

The Department of Earth and Space Sciences offers outstanding disciplinary and interdisciplinary education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. We emphasize direct field and laboratory experiences at all educational levels with active and close interactions between faculty and small groups of students. Options within the undergraduate degree include geology, physics, biology, and environmental earth science. In addition, we offer a broad spectrum of natural world and environmentally oriented general education courses that attract on the order of 3,000 students each year.

Glaciological research at the University of Washington is carried out by faculty and graduate students in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences, Quaternary Research Center and Applied Physics Laboratory. Current research projects map ice sheets and glaciers using satellites, radar, and probes. We extract past climate information from ice cores and imaged ice sheet stratigraphy, using sophisticated and emerging lab analyses, numerical models and inverse methods.