DEES SELF STUDY AND PLANNING DOCUMENT            October , 2001

A.1 DEPARTMENT BACKGROUND

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES) at Columbia University (CU) covers a very broad spectrum of teaching and research, and together with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO; see http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu) provides one of the most important centers in the world for graduate education in the earth and environmental sciences.

The research program of DEES is totally intertwined with that of LDEO, with Barnard College's Department of Environmental Sciences (BCES; see also http://www.barnard.edu/envsci ) and with several other research institutions such as the Goddard Institute for Space Sciences (GISS; see also http://www.giss.nasa.gov/) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH; see also http://www.amnh.org/). Research scientists at these institutions make long-term commitments to participate in the DEES educational program as Adjunct Professors, and bring world-renowned expertise that complements that of the regular faculty. Regular DEES Faculty are senior participants in the research effort, and in the case of LDEO, share in its academic administration (e.g. as members of the directorate and its committees). Because of this high level of integration, and because of the large number of non-DEES research scientists at LDEO (about 80), any comprehensive review of DEES must involve careful consideration of our connections with LDEO and other affiliated institutions.

Historically, DEES grew out of the former CU Department of Geology, whose mandate was less cosmopolitan than that of Earth and Environmental Sciences. With the founding of LDEO in 1949 (then called Lamont Geological Observatory), DEES' programs quickly grew to include the ocean sciences. DEES' and LDEO's leadership in major discoveries in the 1960's and early 1970's, such as plate tectonics and global ocean circulation, established us in a position of national prominence in geophysics/geochemistry and physical/chemical oceanography. The long-standing program with AMNH provided unique expertise in paleontology and evolutionary theory. The strengthening in the 1980's of ties with GISS expanded our programs in atmospheric science and global change.

By the 1990's, the DEES' scope had grown to span most of the Earth Sciences, with broad representation in fields that study the solid earth, the oceans and the atmosphere. Its presence in environmental science and biology was at that time minor. For the most part, only the natural part of environmental science was a focus, with little attention being given to pollution, anthropogenic change or human impact. The areas of biology that were covered related mainly to the traditional "geological" areas, such as the study of the fossils, and to traditionally "oceanographic" ones such as the study of biostratigraphy and ocean nutrient utilization.

Several new developments have increased DEES presence in Environmental Science. These include: LDEO's International Research Institute in Climate Prediction (IRI; see also http://iri.columbia.edu/), which includes a human impact research element; CU's Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC; see also http://cerc.columbia.edu/) which covers ecology; CU's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN; see also http://www.ciesin.org/) which specializes in science data management; Barnard College's Department of Environmental Sciences which adds expertise in pollution and hydrology; and the Biosphere 2 Center (BIO2; see also http://www.bio2.edu/) which provides a connection with terrestrial biogeochemistry and global change.

DEES is a very active participant in CU-wide efforts to create interdisciplinary programs in environmental science and policy though the Columbia Earth Institute (CEI, see also http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/). DEES fully endorses this initiative as being essential in providing a mechanism where earth-related science, engineering, policy and other areas of scholarship can be brought together in a way that can tackle globally important problems. Several DEES faculty are members of the CEI Academic committee (Schlosser, co-chair; Broecker, Cane, Cohen, Hansen, Walker, members), one of its major advisory bodies. Other DEES Faculty participate in the seminars, symposia and courses that it sponsors, and by helping to initiate research and educational projects that cut across CU departmental boundaries.

The overarching goal of DEES is to continue to stay at the very forefront of both research and education, and to participate actively in setting the national and international agenda in Earth and Environmental Science.

A.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE FACULTY

The faculty may be grouped roughly into nine disciplinary units, recognizing of course, that many work across disciplines:

Atmospheric Science

Aqueous and Low Temperature Geochemistry

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Environmental Science Policy and Journalism

  1. Kristan Cockerill (BIO2 Assistant Professor)

  2. Joel Cohen (CEI Professor; joint with SIPA)

  3. Peter Eisenberger (CEI Professor)

  4. Andrea Gerlak (BIO2 Assistant Professor)

  5. Kim Kastens (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

  6. Stephanie Pfirman (BC Professor)

  7. Greg Unruh (BIO2 Assistant Professor)

Geology

Geophysics

  1. Roger Anderson (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

  2. Roger Buck (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

  3. Dennis Hayes (Professor)

  4. Arthur Lerner-Lam (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

  5. William Menke (Professor)

  6. John Mutter (Professor)

  7. Walter Pitman (LDEO Adjunct Professor Emeritus)

  8. Paul Richards (Mellon Professor)

  9. William Ryan (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

  10. Christopher Scholz (Professor; joint with APAM)

  11. Lynn Sykes (Higgins Professor)

  12. Spahr Webb (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

Paleoclimate

  1. Peter deMenocal (CEI Assistant Professor)

  2. Richard Fairbanks (Professor)

  3. James Hays (Professor)

  4. Sidney Hemming (Associate Professor)

  5. Jean Lynch-Stieglitz (Associate Professor)

  6. Martin Stute (BC Associate Professor)

Physical Oceanography

  1. Mark Cane (Vetlesen Professor; joint with APAM)

  2. Arnold Gordon (Professor)

  3. Douglas Martinson (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

  4. Hsien Wang Ou (LDEO Adjunct Professor)

  5. Bruno Tremblay (LDEO Storke-Doherty Lecturer)

  6. Martin Visbeck (Associate Professor)

Solid Earth Geochemistry

  1. Steven Goldstein (Associate Professor)

  2. Charles Langmuir (Storke Professor)

  3. Alberto Saal (LDEO Storke-Doherty Lecturer)

  4. Marc Spiegelman (Associate Professor; joint with APAM)

  5. David Walker (Professor)

We reiterate that although this list includes all the faculty, it does not fully reflect the many diverse synergies amongst members of DEES and its affiliated institutions, which allow other important areas to be addressed. The study and the prediction of the earth's present-day climate, a field in which we have a leadership position, and which draws upon our expertise in atmospheric science, oceanography, and paleoclimate, provides such an example.

Note that faculty with regular, adjunct and joint appointments are included on this list, with regular DEES faculty (i.e. tenured and tenure-track; shown in bold) accounting for only about 40% of the total of 60. Some programs rely very heavily upon adjunct and joint appointment faculty (e.g. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Atmospheric Science), with other programs composed mainly of regular faculty (e.g. Solid Earth Geochemistry, Geology). However, even those programs composed exclusively of regular faculty are in some cases part of a larger group that includes scientists with Officer of Research titles. The Paleoclimate group, for example, also includes about 12 LDEO scientists, spanning the ranks from entry-level Postdoctoral Fellows to world renowned Doherty Senior Scholars.

DEES currently has a total of 60 faculty, composed of 58 professors and 2 lecturers. Six of the 60 are women. A total of 27 of the professors are tenured or tenure-track and have DEES as their primary affiliation (including the two CEI professors). Of these 27 faculty, a total of 21 are tenured, of which 19 are Full Professors and 2 are Associate Professors. A total of 6 are as yet untenured, of which 4 are Associate Professors and 2 are Assistant Professors. Of the 33 other faculty, 15 have their primary affiliation at LDEO, 3 at GISS, 2 at BCES, 1 at CEI, 7 at BIO2, 3 at CERC and 2 at APAM.

DEES views our adjunct appointments very differently from most other CU Departments. DEES Adjunct Professors are selected from LDEO, GISS and AMNH top researchers who have made a long-term commitment to participate in the educational program. Persons are never appointed to the Adjunct staff for a one-time teaching duty. Adjunct Professors are voting members of the DEES faculty and, except for matters related to mode of compensation and teaching load, treated equally with tenure-track faculty. DEES also involves selected LDEO junior scientists in its educational program through its Storke-Doherty Lecturer program. This program provides partial salary support in return for modest departmental duties and is designed to encourage top young scientists to develop their careers fully at CU.

We briefly review the scope of each of the groups, citing only a few exemplary projects associated with each:

Atmospheric Science. The Atmospheric Sciences faculty consists of three adjunct faculty members (Del Genio, Hansen, Rind) whose primary affiliation is with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and two faculty members joint with Applied Math (Polvani and Sobel). DEES' relationship with the GISS group is longstanding, and includes a Ph.D. program in Atmospheric Science that typically admits 2-4 students per year. The research of the GISS group focuses on humanity's large-scale impact on the environment and fosters interaction among researchers in atmospheric, geological and biological sciences. It includes long-range climate modeling, biogeochemical cycles, earth observations and planetary atmospheres. The joint program with Applied Math is new, but we anticipate that its research will strongly reflect the theory and modeling of atmospheric circulation and climate.

Aqueous and Low-Temperature Geochemistry. This group is concerned with a range of fundamental problems involving the oceans and continental water systems. Several members (Anderson, Broecker, Schlosser) are broadly investigating the ocean circulation over a wide spectrum of spatial and time scales. This research relies on lively programs in both observation (mainly based on geochemical tracers) and in modeling. Transport of anthropogenic materials (e.g. pollutants) through continental water systems, and related topics pertaining to the sustainable use of freshwater resources is an area of active research (Simpson, Schlosser, Stute). The ocean's role in the carbon cycle, both today and in the past, and especially its contribution to absorbing anthropogenic carbon dioxide is of special interest to Takahashi, Broecker and Anderson. We note that one member of this group (Takahashi) also serves as an Associate Director of LDEO, and another (Schlosser) as the Chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. DEES has one regular tenure-track faculty member in environmental biology (Griffin), who studies carbon fixation in plants. We have a long-term association with the American Museum of Natural History, with one member of the AMNH paleontology group (McKenna, retired) holding a Tenure-of-Title Professor in DEES. A result of this association has been a lively Ph.D. program in paleontology and evolutionary theory. Given McKenna's recent retirement, special efforts must be made to see that this program continues to prosper. DEES acts as temporary administrative home for the Morningside-based CERC group, currently with three DEES-based faculty members (Gompper, Hahn and Pimm). However these three faculty members are expected to transfer to the new Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (DE3B). DEES also sponsors both an educational program called the Earth Semester and environmental research at BIO2 with three faculty members (Burgess, Peterson, Titus) being broadly in this field.

Environmental Science, Journalism and Policy. DEES's clear entry into Environmental Science is rather recent, and was based on LDEO's and GISS' strength in the area of global change and on the perceived demand of undergraduate students for a major in this area. However, Environmental Science includes many areas, such as pollution detection and remediation, land use, resource management, etc. that are not well-represented within DEES or its affiliated institutions. A coherent Environmental Science research agenda has not yet developed within DEES. For now there are several distinct efforts broadly concerned with the environment. DEES sponsors the Earth Semester at BIO2, which teaches a broad program in both environmental science and policy to undergraduates. Three of the BIO2 faculty (Cockerill, Gerlak, Unruh) broadly fit into this category, with Charles Wood, an administrator, serving as Director of Education at BIO2. DEES and Journalism jointly sponsor a two-year Masters program in Earth and Environmental Science Journalism, which is run by Kastens. Eisenberger and Cohen are two CEI-based professors who are broadly investigating the interface been the environment and human populations. Pfirman, based at BC, has an active research program concerning the impact of pollution on the environment of the Arctic region. Pfirman serves as Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at BC.

Geology. The "geology" program is small but active, currently consisting of three faculty members (Anders, Christie-Blick and Olsen) and two postdoctoral research scientists. Their research tends to be issue- and process-oriented and interdisciplinary, with a strong field component. Anders (a structural geologist) is interested in extensional fault growth and particularly in the paradox of low-angle normal faulting. Christie-Blick (a sedimentary geologist) is interested in the character and origins of sedimentary layering patterns and in many aspects of Neoproterozoic Earth history. Olsen (a vertebrate paleontologist) studies orbital forcing of the Earth's climate and its consequences in the geological record. The group has developed strong collaborations with CU geophysicists, tectonophysicists, isotope geochemists, climatologists and AMNH paleontologists. The main weaknesses, in comparison with traditional departments of geology, are the lack of active research in such disciplines as geomorphology, regional neotectonics, process sedimentology, non-vertebrate paleontology and paleomagnetism. One of the BIO2 teaching faculty is also a geologist (Gupta).

Geophysics. In past years, geophysicists typically have been broken out into two groups, earthquake seismologists and marine geophysicists, with the seismologists being mainly focused on earthquakes and deep earth structure and the marine geophysicists focused on the acoustic, gravity, magnetic and seismic measurements relevant to shallow structure and to understanding near surface processes including those forming the seafloor. These two groups have collectively made major contributions to the field of plate tectonics and the dynamics of seafloor spreading and its consequences.  Over the last decade, however, the boundaries between these two groups have largely blurred. A large part of the overall group (including Buck, Hayes, Lerner-Lam, Menke, Mutter, Ryan and Webb) is focused on the way in which the crust and upper mantle of the earth are formed at local to global scales; a subject that has both oceanic and terrestrial elements. Other areas of expertise include earthquakes and faulting (Scholz and Sykes), and petroleum exploration and extraction (Anderson). Richards' and Sykes' work in monitoring nuclear explosions and verification of nuclear test ban treaties has drawn them into the national debate of these issues in the policy arena. Richards, a co-discoverer of inner-core rotation, has made major contributions to the area of deep earth structure. The total number of faculty working on the earth's deep interior is small. We also note that four members of the group are heavily involved in DEES and LDEO governance (Hayes, Lerner-Lam, Menke and Mutter).

Paleoclimate. One major focus of this group is to use the sedimentological record of the oceans to understand the very large climatic fluctuations that occurred during the Quaternary Period and how ocean circulation and chemistry played a part in these climate fluctuations. An important component of this research involves developing a spatial and temporal picture of climate change based on biological, chemical and isotopic measurements on deep sea sediment samples (deMenocal, Hays, Hemming and Lynch-Stieglitz), corals (Fairbanks), and on ground water from ancient aquifers (Stute). This group is complemented by a number of LDEO research scientists, and by several of our faculty, working in aqueous and solid earth geochemistry, who also focus on paleoclimate studies.

Physical Oceanography. High latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) and low latitude (equatorial) ocean dynamics are a major focus for this group. Martinson, Visbeck, and Schlosser have active research programs in the Arctic and North Atlantic regions, including studies of such phenomena as the North Atlantic Oscillation, ocean-atmosphere interaction and the dynamics of sea ice. Cane specializes in low-latitude problems, including forecasting of the El Nino climate oscillation. These efforts, especially El Nino, led to the creation of CU's NOAA-funded International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), a large LDEO-based group that continues to collaborate closely with the faculty. Southern Ocean and global observational oceanography (Gordon), coastal oceanography and ocean dynamics (Ou) are also research foci. In recent years ties with atmospheric scientists at GISS (e.g. air-sea interactions) and with research in human impact (e.g. epidemiology) have been greatly increased. Mid-latitude oceanography is a relatively under-represented area of research.

Solid Earth Geochemistry. This group is largely focused on processes and products of large-scale earth differentiation, such as the composition, evolution and age of the deep mantle and core (Walker, Goldstein, and Saal), partial melting of the mantle and the formation of oceanic crust (Langmuir, Goldstein, and Saal), integration of chemistry with mantle flow dynamics (Spiegelman), and arc magmatism (Goldstein, Langmuir, Spiegelman). Several (4-5) LDEO Officers of Research are also members of this group, and work in the same general subject area. Walker also has a strong interest in the behavior of materials at high pressures. Collectively the group has a strong analytic and experimental orientation, with heavy investments in mass spectrometry, high-pressure experimental systems, major and trace element analysis, etc. The group currently has little emphasis in the study of continental evolution such as granite petrology and metamorphism, but has made distinguished contributions in the related area of continental growth.

Exemplary Externally Funded Research. Virtually all DEES faculty are involved in major, externally funded research programs, educational programs and national and international science committees. A recent study based on information provided by the LDEO Contracts and Grants Office indicated that the members of the scientific staff raise about $400,000 (on average) in external funding per year per scientist. No significant difference was noted between DEES faculty and the other members of the LDEO research staff. DEES faculty, together with their LDEO counterparts are heavily involved in the planning stages of many new science initiatives. While there are too many to list here, a sampling would include: the NSF MARGINS Program, CLIVAR Climate Variability and Predictability Experiment, New York State's Hudson River Institute, the International Ocean Drilling Program, Columbia's Natural Hazards Institute, NSF's Ridge 2000 initiative, NASA's Shuttle Radar missions, Eastern Asia Earthquake Monitoring Project, the Arsenic Superfund Project, the International Monitoring System of the CTBT, the Pole-to-Pole Coring Transect of Triassic-Jurassic Pangea, AnZone, Joint Oceanographic Institutions Board of Governors, ONR's Japan Sea Initiative, PAGES, the International Decade of East African Lakes, NSF's Mineral Physics Science and Technology Center, NSF's High Performance Computing Initiative, the Advanced National Seismic System, the NEPTUNE ocean-bottom monitoring system, the EarthScope Seismic Array, Southern California Earth Center II, World Climate Research Program, Study of Environmental Arctic Change, International Antarctic Zone Experiment, National Research Council Ocean Studies Board, Digital Library for Earth System Education, Joint Global Ocean Flux Study, Ocean Carbon Transport Exchange and Transformations, Road Map for DoE Carbon Sequestration Project, NOAA's Ocean Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study, University NAVSTAR Consortium, NAS Review of Technical Issues Arising in Ratification of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, ONR's Strataform Initiative, the Advisory Committee of NSF's Geosciences Directorate, the OBSIP Ocean Bottom Seismometer Instrumentation Pool, National SMETE Digital Library, NASA Cassini Orbiter Mission, NASA CRYSTAL Field Program etc.

B.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE ACADEMIC PROGRAM

DEES is one of 28 Departments within the Arts and Sciences Faculty of Columbia University.

B.2 Undergraduate Program

The DEES undergraduate program has undergone significant changes during the last decade. During that time it has evolved from a one-major program, with a handful of majors and virtually no concentrators, to a program offering two majors, with currently 16 majors and 16 concentrators. These students are divided between majors and concentrations in Environmental Science and Geology. If premeds are excluded, DEES now has a relatively large number of majors and concentrators when compared with the other natural science departments.

About ten years ago, faced with a chronically small number of geology majors and urging from Columbia College undergraduates, we initiated an Environmental Science Major. In the early stages of this effort we made three key decisions: 1) Since much of our faculty's research is on the global scale we decided our perspective should be global and we should help our students visualize the earth as a single, (if complex) system; 2) We sought close cooperation with Barnard and since the arrival of Stephanie Pfirman, as Barnard Environmental Science chair, our curricular planning has been intertwined and 3) We decided to make data analysis an important part of the training of our undergraduates. Our field is rife with large data sets, gathered over the last fifty years by ships, planes, ground stations and most recently and in ever increasing volume, by satellites. Most of the information in our field resides in these data sets, and we want our students to develop the necessary skills to derive knowledge from these data first-hand. In this effort we were helped by Lamont scientist, Benno Blumenthal, a member of the Lamont Climate group, who was developing a data library for climate data that uses a web-based graphical user interface to view data. Armed with this useful tool, financial support from the National Science Foundation and Columbia's Provost's office, a group of DEES and Barnard Faculty developed a three-semester set of Earth System courses to introduce Columbia and Barnard majors to our field. All courses have well-developed web sites at http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/ees/. The development of an Environmental Biology major by CERC/DE3B added another choice for Columbia's undergraduates. Now, the DEES and DE3B majors, along with Barnard's majors, all use the introductory set of courses. Our majors are designed to prepare students for graduate work in our field or to join society as environmentally informed citizens. Flexibility in the requirements is designed to suit individual student needs. Our students, indeed choose a variety of careers; several have become graduate students at DEES, others go elsewhere to graduate school, join environmental firms and government agencies. Some teach at the secondary school level. Requirements for majors are listed on our undergraduate web site http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/dees/undergrad/.

The DEES majors/concentrations are viewed as "hard science" (as contrasted to policy or pre-professional) educational programs. They require a substantial amount of mathematics (i.e. calculus), physical science (i.e. chemistry and physics) and biological science courses in addition to DEES taught earth and environmental science courses. The introductory 2000-level course requirement is the same for all majors/concentrations: an interdisciplinary, multi-semester sequence called "The Earth's Environmental Systems". Subsequent coursework is discipline-specific. Given the need for non-DEES math/science coursework, and the time constraints of the Columbia Core Curriculum (13 non-science courses), the number of upper-level DEES courses taken by a typical major is rather small (3 to 4). A senior thesis is required for the Environmental Science major, which is expected to contain an element of scientific research that is supervised by a mutually agreed upon faculty member. These theses are typically quite good, and provide the student with a first-hand link to the process of scientific research.

Our concentrations are aimed at students who do not plan to become professional scientists but who may join one of the social science professions. We believe an understanding of how our planet works is basic to all environmental issues.

While significant when compared to the declared majors of the other physical sciences departments at CU, the overall number of majors and concentrators in DEES is nevertheless small. To a large extent this reflects the rather small number of "declared science majors" who elect to attend CU (about 50/year, after pre-med students are discounted). It is our belief that this number can be substantially increased only by increased efforts to recruit science-hungry applicants during the admissions process and by weighting admission criteria to specifically select such students from the pool of applicants.

Many CU undergraduates are deeply interested in environmental policy and advocacy and have expressed interest in a major in this area. DEES does indeed include "human impact" issues in some of its courses. However, there is a consensus within DEES that it should not attempt to develop curricula outside of fundamental science, nor recruit faculty members who are not research scientists.

DEES' contribution to the Core Curriculum has also changed during the last decade. In earlier years we offered an introductory course for majors and non-majors alike. This course tended to be large and was dominated by non-majors. We think the needs, aptitudes and interests of majors, for whom this course provides fundamental grounding, and non-majors, for whom it is often a terminal science course, are sufficiently different to justify developing separate courses for each. For the non-majors we decided that rather than develop a single large course we would provide a menu of offerings. These smaller, faculty intensive classes offer different perspectives of Earth and Environmental science, meet different student interests and can accommodate individual attention to those who need it. They include "Dinosaurs and the History of Life", "Introduction to the Earth Sciences I and II", "Maintaining a Habitable Planet", and "Planet Earth". The overall annual enrollment (i.e. the sum of the five courses) was 164 in academic year 1999-2000.

More recently we have experimented with offering an introductory level course (The Anthroposphere/Science and Society) to teach selected elements of environmental science and to explicitly relate these elements to their human impact through their policy, economic, and global interconnections. We believe this model could easily evolve into an offering that every Columbia University undergraduate should be required to take - that is, to become a part of the Columbia College Core Curriculum. We realize this is an immense undertaking but with the proper support, we plan to push forward with such an initiative. It would no doubt take several years to establish the worthiness of such a course and to obtain the approvals needed to be incorporated within the Core Curriculum.

DEES faces a serious ongoing problem of maintaining a visible faculty presence in its main teaching area on the fifth floor of Schermerhorn Hall; almost all of its faculty, except the APAM and CERC professors, are based at LDEO off of the Morningside campus. The faculty go to Schermerhorn to teach classes, for office hours following classes, and for specific pre-arranged meetings and consultations. However, the DEES faculty, most of whom also have very ambitious research and administrative schedules, seldom linger in Schermerhorn on the off chance that a student may drop by. Even if they choose to remain in Schermerhorn, there is NO office space available to accommodate them! The resulting poor faculty visibility has a strong negative impact on the undergraduate program which will not grow until this situation is improved.

More information about the undergraduate program can be found at the DEES web site http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/dees/undergrad/

B.3 Ph.D. Program

DEES has a strong Ph.D. program in all of the sub-disciplines previously listed, supporting a total resident student body of about 95-100 persons. Typical student residence times are ~6 years (less for students entering with a Master's degree), with 10-15 students graduating each year.

We do not currently have a "terminal" Master's degree program (except for EES/Journalism), and do not encourage students to apply to our program who have the stated goal of obtaining solely a Master's degree.

Department Admission standards for graduate study are highly competitive, with about 20-30% of applicants receiving offers of admission. In general the applicants are expected to have a strong background in the physical sciences (though not necessarily in Earth or Environmental Science), to have high scores (i.e. 80-th percentile) in the GREs and other standardized tests, and to have a demonstrated ability to communicate in the English language. Reference letters and personal statements are also carefully evaluated. Typically in excess of 150 applications are received in all areas of Earth and Environmental Sciences, of which we are permitted by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to make offers of admission to about 26-28. Approximately 50-60% of those admitted choose to attend CU. We have tried a variety of strategies to increase this yield, including bringing prospective students to CU and LDEO for a two-day visit in which they tour facilities and meet prospective advisors. In the past these efforts have had little demonstrable effect, as the yield has remained remarkably constant for almost 30 years. Last year was an exception with a yield of top quality students of over 70% of those admitted. This success is attributed largely to the special efforts of the Admissions Committee chair and we are pledged to keep our recruitment percentage high.

All members of the faculty serve as thesis advisors. Our program is currently a "fully-funded" one. The number of students that we admit is controlled by qualifications of the applicants and by the collective resources from CU fellowships and grants and contracts that support graduate research assistantships (GRA's). Availability of funding is the limiting resource in some sub-disciplines, but in others the number of top applicants, coupled with the yield rate of acceptances, is the controlling factor.

In general, we do not admit students if we cannot project resources to fund them for a five-year period. In practice, most students are supported by a CU fellowship during their first year and by grants and contracts thereafter. All students are supported in virtually the same way, receiving essentially identical monthly stipends, tuition and health benefits. All have similar classroom and research requirements and responsibilities, which include 2-3 semesters of teaching assistantship duties.

Total graduate student enrollment has declined somewhat during the last decade, from about 110 in the 1980's to about 95 in 2001. This decline reflects several factors, including a successful effort to decrease the time needed to achieve the Ph.D. degree, and a modest decrease in external funds available for GRA's, especially in the solid earth sciences.

In addition to thesis research, graduate students are required to take a minimum of 45 credits for the Ph.D. with typically ~ 25 credits for students entering with a Master's degree. Our relatively large formal classroom requirement occasionally meets with resistance from some students and faculty who believe that the sole aim of graduate education should be research. The consensus of DEES is, however, that breadth is a vital aspect of graduate education and that extensive coursework helps to ensure that the desired breath is realized. Our graduates tend to be well grounded in several sub-disciplines within the earth and environmental sciences and in physical science in general. Informal and anecdotal feedback from our graduates generally confirms our belief that our broad-based program has served them well in their career pursuits. We will continue to review periodically the requirements for our programs.

At present, each programmatic sub-discipline has its own list of required and elective courses, drawn from the total of fifty-five DEES courses taught at the 4000-level and above and from qualifying courses drawn from other CU departments. The breadth of DEES course offerings has increased substantially over the last several decades, as new sub-disciplines have been added. One unfortunate aspect of this largely ad hoc curriculum evolution is that continuity of course sequences has been diminished. The DEES faculty is actively involved in curriculum revision discussions that will modify and consolidate some course offerings, to achieve a better core curriculum for each sub-discipline.

Introductory (4000-level) graduate courses are taught on the Morningside campus, and are open to qualified undergraduates, as well as graduate students from other departments.

Our experience has been that our Ph.D. graduates enjoy success in selecting quality positions from various job opportunities. The academic job markets, while tight, have nevertheless proved fairly steady. Over the years, however, there has been a steady erosion in the number of industry and U.S. government jobs, especially in the solid earth sciences. Although we have not done a detailed study, it is clear that a high fraction of our students continue to hold full-time jobs in the earth and environmental sciences or in cognate fields close to the area in which they were trained. Special mention however should be made of the difficulties that many of our Chinese national students have had in finding employment in the U.S. in the earth and environmental sciences and have had to switch unwillingly to computer-related jobs, especially in business and finance.

More information about the graduate program can be found on the DEES web site at http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/dees/graduate.html

B.4 Earth and Environmental Science Journalism (E&ESJ) Program

The E&ESJ program is a collaborative effort between DEES and CU's Graduate School of Journalism. It is a two-year, dual Master's degree program that trains aspiring journalists to be more science-literate and to be cognizant of important science and science-policy concerning the earth and environment. Students are based at DEES and LDEO during the first year of the program, where they take earth and environmental science courses and complete a research project. The second year of the program is based at the School of Journalism, and involves intensive training in all aspects of that profession. The E&ESJ program is relatively new, having graduated its first student in 1998. E&ESJ graduates are now employed as reporter, editor or researcher at the New York Times, Scientific American Explorations, Geotimes, Discover, and the Albany Times Union. Apart from the employment record of graduates, other measures of the success of this program are the increasing quality and number of applicants and the exceedingly high rate of acceptance (75% in 2001) in spite of having to pay hefty tuition. Additional information about the program is available at http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/eesj.

B.5 Biosphere 2 Earth Semester

Earth Semester is an intensive, semester-long immersion-type program of courses that is taught on the BIO2 campus by a staff of 7 DEES faculty. It uses study of our planet's ecosystems to provide a common framework for learning in several disciplines. Its goal is to teach skills that will help structure student interactions with the earth and its inhabitants throughout their lives. These skills span the following areas: scientific method, data analysis, sample collection, systems modeling, interdisciplinary communication, teamwork, and written and oral presentation. Earth Semester labs include work in field sites which may include the Sea of Cortez, the Grand Canyon, the Santa Catalina Mountains, the Mojave Desert and other destinations where students learn directly from their surroundings. Typical enrollments are in the 60-80/semester range, but efforts are underway to increase that number to about 200. More information about the program is available on the BIO2 web site at http://www.bio2.edu/education/edu_entry.htm.

B.6 Summer Intern Program

LDEO and DEES jointly sponsor a summer intern program for undergraduates who want to experience scientific research. This program dates back to the 1960's. Its funding sources have changed over the years. It is currently supported by an NSF Research Opportunities for Undergraduates Site Grant. The program is open to U.S. citizens or permanent residents who have completed their junior or sophomore year in college with majors in geology, environmental science, chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, or engineering. The program is highly competitive, and generally accepts 15-20 students per year out of an applicant pool of over 100. DEES faculty and LDEO research staff act as research advisors for the undergraduates, who perform an 8-week research project. The program also includes lectures on recent advances in the earth and environmental sciences, workshops on scientific ethics, laboratory safety, career opportunities and computer techniques. Students are housed on the Barnard campus and paid a modest stipend. Students give a final presentation of research results in a symposium that is well attended by LDEO and DEES staff. More information is available on the DEES web site at http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/dees/undergrad/coursesframe.html

B.7 Problems Associated with the Split Campus

One of the difficulties of our program centers on the reality of the split campus. While the sylvan environment of the LDEO campus provides an ideal surrounding in which to conduct scientific research, its remoteness from the CU Morningside campus also creates problems.

The LDEO/CU commute is a very significant impediment to undergraduate participation in LDEO-based research and related activities, such as attending scientific seminars and symposia. Students' full schedules, which are to a large degree controlled by the overall CU course requirements, make travel to and from LDEO on class days essentially impossible. As a result, the number of undergraduates who actually take advantage of opportunities at LDEO is small.

Commuting between the two campuses, which are separated by about 18 miles, is inevitable for most graduate students and faculty. Travel takes 30-60 minutes, depending upon traffic. CU provides a shuttle bus that makes 6 round trips per day. Its schedule is optimized around the DEES teaching schedule, so that graduate students and faculty can efficiently travel from LDEO to the Morningside campus to attend a class and then return. The bus can of course be used for other purposes (e.g. faculty attending meetings, undergraduates traveling to LDEO), but its schedule is only randomly convenient for them. Early evening bus runs are also scheduled, mainly for the convenience of graduate students who need to work late before returning to their homes.

The split campus also requires that we maintain departmental offices at both Morningside and LDEO. The additional personnel requirements and the communication complications all translate into additional expense, complicated logistics, and compromised infrastructure. While the existing administrative arrangements appear to work as well as one can expect given the reality of simultaneous activities orchestrated on two separate campuses, they clearly are not ideal.  

Classes and student/faculty research also take place at GISS (located near the Morningside campus) and at AMNH (located about 30 blocks south of Morningside). Problems arise in travel to and from these institutions.

CU's distance from the BIO2 campus in Oracle, AZ also poses problems. The day-to-day operations of the programs are handled by the on-site faculty. Several LDEO-based faculty participate in BIO2 administrative meetings, research projects and teaching efforts, but scheduling the travel associated with these efforts is often complicated. Teleconferencing, which is available through B2C's and LDEO's facilities, has proven to be a partial solution, at least for meetings.

B.8 Teaching Facilities

The DEES facility on the fifth floor of Schermerhorn Extension is embarrassingly bad. The classrooms are dingy and dilapidated, with poor environmental control so that they are often freezing cold or swelteringly hot. They lack adequate power outlets, computer network connections, etc. The single pane windows fail to suppress street noise, which often make students and faculty inaudible. The only decent classroom is the recently refurbished ACIS-operated computer-enabled room Schermerhorn 558. It is modern and comfortable (but still noisy), and is understandably very heavily subscribed.

Another problem with the Schermerhorn space is that workspace for faculty is non-existent. This is a problem for faculty who are normally based at LDEO, AMNH or GISS, but who need a "private" place to work before and after teaching classes. Such facilities are essential for the undergraduate program, since it can only flourish if there is a faculty presence in Schermerhorn. Almost all DEES faculty members are based off the Morningside campus.

The Geology Library (located on the 6th floor of Schermerhorn) is growing obsolete. It has an excellent geological research collection that includes many hard-to-find publications from Europe and Africa. But it has little to offer undergraduates, since it covers environmental science only minimally. Given that most researchers who use the collection do so from LDEO, most of the collection could be at a remote site, and that portion of the relieved space should be used for modern DEES teaching labs and for an undergraduate reading room.

DEES has entered into extensive discussions with the Psychology Department (also housed in Schermerhorn) and with the CU Director of Planning, and has developed a mutually acceptable plan for space improvement that involves both trading space and refurbishment of spaces. We discuss the status of this plan in a separate section, below.

DEES also teaches a substantial number of upper-level graduate courses on the LDEO campus. Although LDEO has relatively few classrooms (which sometimes causes scheduling problems), its facilities are generally good, especially with the recent addition of a lecture hall in the new Monell Building and the refurbishment and computer-enabling (at DEES/LDEO expense) of the classroom in the Seismology Building. DEES use of LDEO classrooms is an important example of the support that LDEO provides to the CU educational program. One limitation of LDEO facilities, however, is that most are not wheelchair accessible.

B.9 Research Facilities.

DEES maintains no research facilities on the Morningside campus. All such facilities are at LDEO and at the other DEES-affiliated institutions and it therefore seems wholly inadequate to review them here. We mention, however, selected issues associated with maintaining the very expensive laboratory and mobile facilities needed to perform state-of-the-art earth and environmental science research:

Infrastructure. LDEO's laboratories are housed in a variety of buildings. Some, like Lamont Hall (which houses the Geoscience Library) and Borehole Research (the old horse stables) date from the original estate. Many, like Geochemistry, Seismology and Administration, were hastily constructed "temporary" buildings thrown up during the 1960's, a period of tremendous growth. A few, like the Monell Building (which houses IRI) and Geoscience, (which mostly houses CEISIN and the DEES office) were intended to be permanent parts of a university campus and are well designed for scientific purposes. The older estate buildings have needed substantial renovations. In the last decade LDEO gutted and rebuilt two of them, the former greenhouse (now the Tree Ring Lab) and the former garage (now the Ocean Bottom Seismology lab). Several other buildings need major work. Lamont Hall (the old Lamont mansion) is a particular problem, both because of the special requirements that surround its historic nature, and because of the special environmental needs of a library. LDEO has an on going need to maintain its building infrastructure, in order to be able to properly house state-of-the-art laboratory equipment. Much of this equipment has environmental, power and computer networking requirements that were not anticipated when the buildings were built. Stable electrical service is a particular problem at LDEO, which suffers frequent power outages.

Startup Funds. New faculty can develop a productive research career only if they have access to the proper equipment. For this reason, any attempt to recruit a senior, world-class scientist without a significant startup package would probably be futile. But setting up a laboratory that is equipped with state-of-the-art analytic and computational tools typically costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. DEES has often encountered problems putting together start-up packages because it is normally "not considered eligible" to access the general Arts and Sciences (A&S) pool, on the grounds that it does not contribute overhead directly to A&S; LDEO has only very limited discretionary funds to apply to such purposes. The CEI has provided significant support toward needed start-up and matching funds.

Matching Funds. Most new DEES research facilities are acquired through grants from U.S. government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, that often require a substantial commitment (typically 50%) of matching funds. DEES has similar problems in identifying resources for matching funds as it has for start-up packages.

Some mention must also be made of the problems associated with the administratively separate governances of DEES and LDEO. DEES, as a Department in A&S, is led by a Chair and Associate Chair who report to the Vice President of A&S. Its faculty earn standard 9-month academic salaries and are eligible for tenure. LDEO, as a research institute, is led currently by a Director, two Deputy Directors and three Associate Directors; the Director reports to the Provost. Its scientific staff are DEES Faculty plus the Officers of Research. The latter are funded largely from external grants and contracts (i.e. "soft money"). These researchers are eligible for 5-year rolling term appointments, but only on the fraction of their salary drawn from institutional sources (typically less than 50%). Generally speaking, DEES and LDEO strive hard to minimize differences between these appointment lines and to work smoothly together. Nevertheless, problems occasionally surface, owing to the somewhat different mandates of these two CU units, and to the extra stresses associated with the job-insecurity of the LDEO research staff.

Finally, we mention that many DEES faculty rely upon the research collection of the Geosciences Library (Lamont Hall, LDEO campus). This library suffers from a lack of space. Many important and frequently referenced journals must be stored off-site. Little room is available for reading. Its environmental controls are poor, which endangers the long-term health of the collection. It has become clear that Lamont Hall is inadequate to house a first-class, modern research library over the long term; this shortcoming is handicapping our ability to support research and must be addressed soon by an investment in new, modern library facilities on the Lamont campus.

B.10. Schermerhorn Space Planning Status.

Various DEES chairpersons and their "Space Committees" have been wrestling with the inadequate, noisy, antiquated, dilapidated space available to DEES in Schermerhorn for decades. These spaces are intended to enable us to provide a quality education/mentoring experience to undergraduate majors, concentrators, curious non-majors, and a large body (~100) of Ph.D. candidates, all with high expectations.

We seem to be trapped in the classic chicken and egg paradox.

DEES faculty feel strongly that it is virtually impossible to attract and retain significant numbers of EES undergraduate students even though we are convinced that it is important and timely to do so. The reason is that our spaces in Schermerhorn are terrible, there is only one office (other than the chair's) which is shared by more than 30 transient faculty. There is negative incentive for faculty or students to "be around". Consequently, there is no meaningful DEES presence on campus.

With guidance and encouragement from the Director of Planning, the Psychology Department and DEES have continued to pursue and to modify plans to bring about a jointly endorsed proposal for upgrading and reassigning selected spaces on floors 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 in Schermerhorn and its Annex. Badly needed investments have not been made in these spaces for many years and the ability to teach and advise both undergraduates and graduate students alike continues to be sadly compromised.

Schematic plans initiated in 1995 and developed through ongoing collaboration with Bernhard Haeckel and discussions with Vicky Prince, illustrate the scope and intent of the changes proposed. The time to invest in upgrading these precious assets of the University and to empower us to better deliver the high quality education that is Columbia's hallmark is now.

In perhaps an unprecedented demonstration of interdepartmental cooperation, the departments of Psychology and Earth and Environmental Sciences have jointly endorsed the relevant concept plan and urge CU to implement it. Key to this space exchange is the conversion of a major portion of the existing Geology Library in Schermerhorn to DEES state-of-the-art electronic teaching laboratories. Additionally the proposed changes of spaces between Psychology and DEES will rationalize and enhance the functionality of both departments by eliminating "outposts", by concentrating Psychology on the 200 and 400 levels and DEES on the 500 and 600 levels of Schermerhorn and Schermerhorn Annex. This plan has been submitted to the Office of the Vice President. Funds have not yet been identified to implement it.

B.11. Cooperative Programs with Other CU Departments

APAM. Five members (Cane, Polvani, Scholz, Sobel and Spiegelman) of the DEES faculty are joint with the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics (APAM), and participate in the Joint Theory Initiative. This initiative specializes in nonlinear and dynamical problems relevant to earth processes, such as atmospheric and mantle convection, earthquakes, etc.

BCES. Two members (Pfirman and Stute) of the Barnard Department of Environmental Sciences (BCES) are voting members of the DEES faculty. DEES and BCES cooperate very closely with their undergraduate programs, especially in the area of curriculum development. For instance, the introductory Earth System sequence of courses was a joint effort of DEES and BCES. Other joint efforts include an undergraduate course on Environmental Hazards and Disasters (taught by Sykes and Jacob) that attracts students from many different disciplines.

Chemistry. Several members of the faculty (e.g. Schlosser) are involved in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Institute (EMSI); an NSF-funded center devoted to the transport and transformation of chemical compounds occurring in the earth's near-surface environment.

Earth and Environmental Engineering. One member of the DEES faculty (Schlosser) is joint with Earth and Environmental Engineering, and has been involved in overseeing the development of new activities; the department was formerly oriented towards mining technology.

SIPA. Several DEES and SIPA faculty have developed joint courses that address subjects at the interface between the earth sciences and public policy, such as natural hazards, earth resources, nuclear disarmament, and environmental impact.

B.12 DEES Web Site.

DEES maintains a departmental web site (see http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/dees/ that includes a description of its undergraduate and graduate educational programs, and other information that might be of interest to a web-based visitor. Unfortunately, this web site is fairly minimal, especially as a vehicle for public relations and student-recruitment purposes. DEES has not yet been successful in bringing together its many and diverse programs with the artistic creativity and technical talent needed to produce a great site. Another part of the web site problem is the heavy time commitment needed to keep a quality site updated, given the rapid evolution of both DEES programs and web technology.

Some DEES faculty members maintain their own personal web sites that describe their research programs, provide access to data, etc. A few DEES courses have web-based curricula. DEES currently pays 50% of the salary of a research assistant to help maintain its Departmental site.

B.13 Faculty Workload.

All regular faculty are expected to teach nominally one course per semester. Adjunct faculty are expected to teach one course every other year. All faculty are expected to serve as academic advisors for graduate students and to serve on various 3-member academic advisory committees. Given that the graduate student to faculty ratio is currently about 2:1, the typical faculty member is the primary academic advisor of two students and serves on about four other students' committees. All faculty are expected to take an active role in DEES and CU administration. Besides DEES's own Chair (Hayes) and Associate Chair (Menke), several other members of the regular faculty hold positions of administrative leadership, including Deputy Director of LDEO (Mutter), Associate Vice Provost of CEI (Mutter), and Chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering (Schlosser). Faculty also play an active role in the administration of DEES, LDEO and other CU units through chairing and serving on their many internal and external committees. Some, including the DEES Graduate Admission Committee (Christie-Blick, Chair), the LDEO Executive Committee (Mutter, Hayes, Anderson, deMenocal, Cane, Gordon, Lerner-Lam, Spiegelman, Takahashi, members) the LDEO Promotions and Careers Committee (Kastens and Menke, co-Chairs) and the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Richards, member) are major time commitments. Many faculty members also serve on national and international science committees, including: proposal review panels of the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey; NSF science steering committees, such as Ridge, Margins, CLIVAR, Ocean Drilling, Global Seismology Network, etc.; and international project planning committees, such as World Ocean Circulation Experiment, etc. All faculty have strong research programs, many of which are supported by laboratory facilities and technical support that requires high level supervision and administration. All faculty are continually seeking external grants and contracts. While we have no exact figures for DEES faculty per se, some indication of proposal preparation workload can be determined from the total count of 450 external proposals that were submitted through the LDEO Contracts and Grants office last year, about half of which had DEES faculty listed as Principal Investigators.

B.14 Administrative Structure.

The organization and procedures of DEES are specified by our bylaws. Leadership includes the Chair (Hayes), Associate Chair (Menke) and Standing Committees (e.g. Planning Committee, Graduate Admission Committee, Curriculum Committee and others). Meetings of the faculty are held at least twice per semester. Important votes are conducted by secret written mail ballot that all faculty are given two weeks to return. The Department Administrator (Mia Leo) is responsible for the administration of DEES' two offices. The Schermerhorn office is staffed by a senior lab technician (Robina Simpson) and part-time work-study students (when available). The LDEO office is staffed by two part-time administrative aides (Betty Hiscock and Missy Pinckert), a part-time financial assistant (Carol Mountain) and a part time web page development assistant (Linda Pistolesi). Given the effort needed to oversee the large graduate student body and to deal with the many issues that arise concerning the interface between DEES and its affiliated institutions (especially LDEO, CERC and BIO2) DEES considers that its office staff is too small. Indeed, DEES administration is manageable only because of DEES' access to LDEO's facilities and personnel and extraordinary efforts by the DEES department administrator. Our department especially needs more CU support in maintaining its Management Information Systems (MIS) since electronic databases, document archives, and web pages (and the software, hardware and network systems that support them) are becoming increasingly essential to the success of the educational enterprise and its ongoing promotion.



C.1. Program Assessment - Ranking.

The 1995 comprehensive evaluation of the top research universities in the U.S. by the National Research Council ranked departments by two criteria: scholarly quality and effectiveness of the Ph.D. program (denoted here by two numbers separated by a slash). CU was ranked 4/3 in the geosciences, behind only Caltech and MIT and tied with UC Berkeley, which was ranked 3/4. CU was ranked 4/4 in oceanography, behind only UC San Diego (i.e. Scripps Institution of Oceanography), MIT and U. Washington.

In its most recent (1999) ranking of the top U.S. Ph.D. programs, U.S. News and World Report ranked CU fourth in geoscience, behind Caltech, MIT and Stanford and third in oceanography, behind UCSD and MIT.

C.2 Program Assessment - Awards and Honors.

The following is a list of important awards and honors bestowed upon the DEES faculty. The list is undoubtedly incomplete.

National Academy Members

  1. Wallace Broecker

  2. Joel Cohen

  3. James Hansen

  4. Walter Pitman

  5. Lynn Sykes

  6. David Walker

Council of Foreign Relations

  1. Joel Cohen

  2. Paul Richards

Fellows of the American Geophysical Union

  1. Wallace Broecker

  2. Mark Cane

  3. Arnold Gordon

  4. James Hansen

  5. Dennis Hayes

  6. Charles Langmuir

  7. William Menke

  8. Walter Pitman

  9. Paul Richards

  10. Christopher Scholz

  11. Lynn Sykes

  12. David Walker

Other Society Fellows

  1. Wallace Broecker, Geological Society of America

  2. Mark Cane, American Meteorological Society

  3. Nicholas Christie-Blick, Geological Society of America

  4. Peter Eisenberger, American Physical Society

  5. Peter Eisenberger, AAAS

  6. Richard Fairbanks, Geological Society of America

  7. Arnold Gordon, American Meteorological Society

  8. Dennis Hayes, Geological Society of America

  9. Walter Pitman, Geological Society of America

  10. Lynn Sykes, Geological Society of America

  11. Lynn Sykes, Geological Society of London

  12. Lynn Sykes, Royal Astronomical Society

  13. David Walker, Geochemical Society

  14. David Walker, Geological Society of America

  15. David Walker, Mineralogical Society of America

NSF-related Awards

  1. William Menke, 1986 Presidential Young Investigator

  2. Lorenzo Polvani, 1994 NSF National Young Investigator Award

  3. Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, 2000 NSF CAREER Award

Vetlesen Prize Winners

  1. Wallace Broecker

  2. Walter Pitman

  3. Lynn Sykes

Guggenheim Fellowships

  1. Dennis Hayes

  2. Paul Richards

  3. Christopher Scholz

  4. Lynn Sykes

  5. David Walker

MacArthur Fellowships

  1. Joel Cohen

  2. Paul Richards

Packard Fellowship

  1. Adam Sobel

Major Awards and Medals

  1. Wallace Broecker, Ewing Medal

  2. Wallace Broecker, Arthur Day Medal

  3. Wallace Broecker, National Science Medal

  4. Wallace Broecker, Agassis Medal

  5. Wallace Broecker, Blue Planet Prize

  6. Mark Cane, Sverdrup Gold Medal

  7. Peter Eisenberger, Compton Award

8. Richard Fairbanks, Rosenstiel Medal

9. Arnold Gordon, Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal

10. Arnold Gordon, Ewing Medal

11. Charles Langmuir, Bowen Award

12. William Menke, Educom Software Award

13. Walter Pitman, Ewing Medal

14. Paul Richards, Macelwane Medal

15. William Ryan, SEPM Shepard Medal of Excellence

16. Lynn Sykes, Bucher Medal

17. Lynn Sykes, Seismological Society of America Medal

18. Lynn Sykes, Macelwane Medal

19. David Walker, Arthur Day Medal

20. David Walker, Clarke Medal

C.3 Growth in the Department

Public interest and U.S. government funding in the area of global change and climate prediction has increased dramatically in the past decade. A parallel growth has occurred at DEES, LDEO and GISS, in those disciplines that underpin global change and climate prediction research; these include Physical Oceanography, Atmospheric Science and Paleoclimate.

Since the last external review of DEES/LDEO in 1992:

DEES has added two tenure-track faculty members, Cane, (joint with APAM) and Visbeck in Physical Oceanography bringing the total to three (the other being Gordon). Virtually since its inception, LDEO has had a strong program in this area; its large staff of about 20 research scientists has a distinguished record of research accomplishments. The Cane and Visbeck additions broaden and strengthen this program.

DEES has added two tenure-track faculty members (Polvani and Sobel, both APAM, joint with DEES) in the area of Atmospheric Science. These additions give visibility and strength to this program, which previously had no regular faculty, only adjuncts based at GISS.

DEES has added two tenure-track faculty members (Hemming and Lynch-Stieglitz) in the area of Paleoclimatology, bringing the total to four (the others being Fairbanks and Hays). Furthermore, it is the parent department of the CEI supported professor, deMenocal, who does extensive research in Paleoclimate. Paleoclimate is a research discipline where LDEO has long held a preeminent position, but which was previously underrepresented on our faculty.

DEES has added one newly tenured faculty member (Goldstein) in Isotope Geochemistry and one tenure track member (Spiegelman) in Non-linear Dynamics/Geophysics.

Public interest and funding have also increased in many areas broadly related to the environment. A parallel growth has occurred at CU, especially with the founding of the CERC environmental biology group and with the creation of the E3B organism-level biology department. DEES temporarily undertook to host three CERC faculty members and it fully supported establishment of the new E3B organismal biology department. DEES has added one tenure-track faculty member (Griffin) in the area of plant ecophysiology.

DEES added 7 faculty members when we undertook the Earth Semester Program at BIO2 based in Oracle, AZ. This education program, in our opinion, is of high quality and gradually becoming stabilized. However, several problems have arisen in DEES regarding the administration of Earth Semester. Communication between LDEO (where most of DEES is based) and BIO2 is complicated by the distance, and by the absence of a clear relationship between the senior administration at BIO2 and that of DEES. Furthermore, the current administrative procedures of CU and DEES, which are built around seeking consensus through lengthy deliberations, are often cumbersome when applied to this tightly scheduled, immersion-type educational program. Second, uncertainties in the long-term career paths available to the BIO2 faculty has been a serious issue affecting both morale and retention. The student contact hours are much greater for the BIO2 faculty than for regular CU faculty, and consequently BIO2 faculty research programs proceed at a slow pace. This affects their prospect for promotion in the CU tenure system. DEES' view of the situation is that these faculty should be reviewed in a manner similar to faculty at highly ranked liberal arts colleges, as contrasted to that of a top research university. Toward this end, DEES is promoting a plan to accommodate the option of a new type of faculty position called a Biosphere Professor - similar to the Professor of Practice position in [discipline]. This track would have its own rigorous promotion criteria which would result in renewable 5-year term appointments rather than tenure. The plan is currently under consideration by the CU administration and faculty.

C.4 DEES Responses to the Recommendations of 1992 External Review Committee of L-DEO/DEES.

Recommendation 1. There is a need to establish a broader vision and planning to define long-term directions of the institution and to enhance communications across all levels. Status: In collaboration with CEI we have undertaken several long-term planning activities. Our future research portfolio will include a Hudson River Institute and a Hazards Institute as new initiatives.

Recommendation 2. There are three areas where flexible financial resources could make an important contribution: a) expansion of safety net for soft money researchers; b) provide seed money as investments in (scientific) growth areas; c) facilitate major improvement of the physical plant and infrastructure. Status: Items a) and b) have largely been accomplished. Growth of endowment funds would insure stability and allow more to be done across all ranks. The Monell building at LDEO, which houses IRI and the LDEO Directorate, added a major research facility. Little has been accomplished to improve other elements of the physical plant, but significant campus-wide planning activities are seriously underway to address this subject.

Recommendation 3. Several senior scientists are approaching retirement. DEES needs a plan to recruit in areas of significant growth and science opportunities. Status: We are well aware of this situation and we are discussing the best ways to proceed to retain or gain strength in priority programmatic areas while maintaining critical breadth.

Recommendation 4. Safety of lab facilities is a pressing issue. Status: Only modest improvements have been made.

Recommendation 5. Splitting the library research collections is ineffective - it should be consolidated at LDEO when suitable space is available to accommodate it. Status: Consolidation of the principal library resources at LDEO is being evaluated. Retention by DEES of existing Geology Library space in Schermerhorn is an essential element of the Psychology Department and DEES broad renovation/space exchange plan currently under review.

Recommendation 6. Improve shuttle service - in particular add late night, weekend, and holiday shuttles. Status: The shuttle schedule has been expanded considerably but more "off-hours" runs should be added. Additional resources are needed to do so.

Recommendation 7. Add "student" housing (single and married) to the LDEO campus. In the long-term this is essential. Status: No direct action has been taken. Since the last review, CU has purchased a small number of apartments in Nyack, NY (about 5 miles from LDEO). However, these are intended for visiting faculty, not students.

Recommendation 8. Improve financial support for graduate students (provide advisor flexibility). Status: Significant flexibility has been added for early year Ph.D. candidates. Stipends, when fully discounted for New York City Consumer Price Index, remain only marginally competitive.

Recommendation 9. The formal requirements to earn a Ph.D. at DEES (LDEO) were regarded as "overly excessive", considering the 45 points of required "class" credit. The average time to Ph.D. is 6.5 years - about 1.5 yrs. too long. Status: Curriculum reform has been slow. Credits needed for Ph.D. remain unchanged. Future consolidation of selected courses may provide the rationale and programmatic focus to reduce the existing course loads.

Recommendation 10. New efforts are needed to broaden the undergraduate curriculum to include more environmental science and (related) policy. Status: Major improvements have been made in this area, especially with the introduction of an Environmental Science major/concentration, development of the 2000-level Earth System course sequence, the addition of Earth Semester at BIO2, development of the Anthroposphere course, and graduate level Earth/Human System course.

Recommendation 11. DEES' physical space in Schermerhorn is limited, dilapidated and noisy. Status: It is now worse. Proposed concept plans for improvements are under review. Resources of about $4M (our estimate) will be needed.

Recommendation 12. CU/DEES must move aggressively to ensure adequate representation of women and minorities on its faculty. Child care facilities would help recruitments. Status: Significant progress is evident in two new women faculty hires and one Barnard woman Professor appointed jointly with DEES. A child care center has been established at LDEO, but we are still far from adequate representation of women and minorities. More aggressive action is needed to address the conspicuous under-representation of women in the DEES regular faculty.

MAJOR GOALS FOR DEES IN THE NEXT 5-10 YEARS

D.1 Goal: Continue to attract the highest quality faculty. DEES is a highly ranked department primarily because its faculty are drawn from the very top earth and environmental scientists in the world. However, DEES's faculty is not static. Several members of our faculty have recently retired (Pitman, McKenna) and several others are anticipating retirement over the next few years. Furthermore, we occasionally lose faculty members due to recruitment from the outside. We have an urgent need to provide a professional environment conducive to both retaining existing faculty members and recruiting new ones. Important steps that we must take are:



D.2. Goal: Maintain faculty expertise in core disciplines, while adding new ones. 







   

D.3 Goal: Help more undergraduates understand Earth and Environmental Issues.

D.4 Goal: Maintain the high quality and size of the graduate programs. Size is not just a matter of prestige. We need to ensure a critical mass of students in each of our key disciplinary areas, so that upper-division classes can be taught with enrollments sufficient to inspire a high level of interaction amongst students. To help insure that suitable mentorship and collaboration can occur, we need to attract more junior and senior undergraduate students to introductory graduate classes.



D.5 Goal: Enhance our involvement in interdisciplinary projects at CU in general and with the CEI in particular. We seek to remove impediments to members of our faculty participating in Earth Institute projects. Provide better mechanisms to bridge the gap between natural and social science research (both of which are important elements in natural hazard and environmental mitigation research). One possible approach is to offer more seminar series intended to help the disparate groups learn each other's "languages".
 

D.6 Goal: Enhance our relationship with BIO2 and DE3B.



Appendices

  1. Graduate Admission Statistics

  2. Categories of Graduate Students

  3. Women in Incoming Graduate Student Class

  4. Graduate Applications by Discipline

  5. EES Journalism Applications

  6. GRE Rankings of Admitted Students

  7. Student Funding Trends

  8. Graduate Degree Statistics

  9. Loss rate of Men and Women

  10. Size of Faculty and Graduate Student Body

  11. Faculty Age Distribution

  12. Faculty Arrivals and Departures