Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences 0 courses
The department offers a range of fields of study covering Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences. In the past decade, the department has hired seven new assistant professors and two full professors spanning Planetary Sciences, Geosciences, and Environmental Science. What links all of these fields of research together is a focus on treating individual processes - ranging from the formation of rocks to the distribution of organisms - as part of a system, with implications for and feedbacks from other parts of the system. The description below provides a rough grouping of the research areas involved and the faculty associated with each one. Interested applicants are urged to consult individual group web sites for more detail as well as to view presentations made as part of the department’s 50th Anniversary celebration (https://eps.jhu.edu/events/). Prospective students should contact individual faculty members with whom they are interested in working. Students with interests that cross disciplinary boundaries or who use techniques found in different groups are strongly encouraged to apply as we believe that the most exciting questions to pursue in science today involve interdisciplinary research. All PhD students are expected to have a background of general biology, physics, chemistry and calculus. Deficiencies can be made up in the first semesters at Johns Hopkins. Students take a core program of statistics, Earth history, stable isotope geochemistry, and ecology. In conjunction with the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Earth and Planetary Sciences offers course work opportunities in aquatic chemistry, microbial ecology, geospatial analysis, and analytical environmental chemistry. In the last decade, the department has hired four new faculty members in the Planetary Sciences who study bodies ranging from Mercury to Pluto to exoplanets. Key questions include: What role do planetary atmospheres play in the habitability of planets and the origin and/or evolution of life? (Hörst) What can we learn from the sedimentary record on Mars about what processes have shaped the evolution of that planet? (Lewis) How do planetary dynamos work? (Stanley) How can we use the wealth of spectra coming to us from new sensors to learn about planetary atmospheres? (Sing) A common thread across all of this work is the question of habitability - what sort of things need to happen in order for a planet to be able to support life, and for us to detect it? These questions are addressed using a combination of observation (ground-based telescopes and robotic spacecraft), laboratory experimentation, theoretical modeling, and Earth-analog field studies. The program requires an interdisciplinary focus, drawing from a wide variety of fields including astronomy, geosciences, physics and chemistry. Research often includes data from active planetary exploration missions. EPS faculty include members of the Cassini mission to the Saturn system, New Horizons mission to the Pluto system, and Mars Science Laboratory Rover teams, along with a number of proposed future missions to Venus, and Titan, and other worlds. The department expects applicants for advanced degrees to have completed undergraduate training in the basic sciences and mathematics. Normally this includes mathematics through at least integral calculus and coursework, plus at least one year of coursework in physics, chemistry, and/or biology (with the exact combination depending on specialization). Further undergraduate study in one or more of these subjects or in mathematics is highly desirable for all programs in the Earth sciences; additional mathematics is essential for geophysics, atmospheric sciences, and dynamical oceanography. Extensive undergraduate work in Earth sciences is not a requirement for admission. If students lack formal training in this area or have deficiencies in the other related sciences, they may be admitted but will have to allow additional time in the graduate program to make up for deficiencies in their preparation. Students who have not attended undergraduate universities where the language of instruction is English will either be required to provide evidence of their reading, writing and speaking ability in English at level sufficient to conduct high-level scholarship. This may either take the form of a standardized test, evidence of work experience in a comparable environment, or an interview with the proposed advisor. Candidates for the PhD must meet the requirements specified by their advisory committee. This begins with at least one year of coursework or supervised research, followed by passing both a comprehensive examination before a departmental committee and an oral examination administered by the Graduate Board of the University. Finally, students must submit an acceptable dissertation involving significant original research, as determined by two faculty readers, and present this research to the department. A minimum of two consecutive terms registered as a full-time student (engaged in some combination of classwork and research) is required. The department rarely accepts candidates for the M.A. degree alone, but PhD students can, with the consent of their advisors, complete a program that will qualify them for the M.A. degree at some point after their first year. Candidates for this degree must pass a comprehensive examination before a departmental committee, and must satisfy the residency requirement specified above for the PhD degree. A student’s advisor may require an essay demonstrating research capability. For further information about graduate study in the Earth and planetary sciences contact the Chair, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. To apply, please visit the Krieger School Graduate Admissions webpage and select 'Apply Now'.
The Johns Hopkins University catalog does not list a course sequence for this program.
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