Number 32, February 2002

Education Highlight

Columbia University’s Master’s Program in Earth Systems Science, Policy and Management

The Master's Program in Earth Systems Science, Policy and Management at Columbia University trains sophisticated public managers and policymakers, who apply innovative, systems-based thinking to environmental issues. The program challenges students to think systemically and act pragmatically. To meet this challenge, the program offers a top-quality graduate program in management and policy analysis, which emphasizes practical skills and is enriched by ecological and planetary science.

Columbia’s approach reflects the system-level thinking that is needed to understand ecological interactions and maintain the health of the earth's interconnected ecological, institutional, economic, and social systems.

Graduates are creating a new profession of earth systems problem-solvers: individuals who are prepared for leadership positions in local, state, and federal government agencies, as well as in nonprofit organizations and the environmental divisions of private corporations. They are also well suited for designing cost-effective programs and implementing policies. Most importantly, a deep understanding of earth systems informs their work, allowing them to craft the kinds of solutions necessary for our increasingly complex environmental problems.

This twelve-month program takes place at Columbia University's Biosphere 2 campus, which is located amid the stunning beauty of Arizona's Sonoran Desert in Oracle, Arizona, a 25-minute drive from Tucson. Biosphere 2, a state-of-the-art earth systems laboratory, contains several biomes (a rainforest, a million-gallon saltwater ocean, a coastal fog desert, and four other wilderness ecosystems) that researchers use to experiment on earth systems.

For more information, see the program website.