Students and Faculty Members Celebrate New Climate System Science Major

October 15, 2024

In September, The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences held a party in celebration of its newest undergraduate major: climate system science.

Students and faculty members specializing in water, climate, and the environment came to celebrate, including a few of the eight students who have already declared climate system science as their major.

This degree is the first of its kind in the state of Texas. It engages students in the quantitative study of all the complex ways the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and hydrosphere interact to control the Earth’s climate.

The decision to create an undergraduate major dedicated to the study of the climate system resulted from a combination of internal and external forces, including student involvement and employment opportunities. During the pandemic, department chair Danny Stockli began the process of a sweeping department-wide curriculum revision. The idea of a climate system science major came up organically in the process, bolstered by the sheer number of climate experts already in house.

The department has 15 faculty members who specialize in either water, climate or the environment. And along with researchers at the Bureau of Economic Geology and the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, the Jackson School has expertise in every sphere of the climate system.

Learn more about the specifics of this major here. Read more of the story behind its creation in the latest issue of The Geoscientist.