Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences
Date
November 6, 2025
Upcoming Courses for Spring 2026
As we prepare for the Spring 2026 semester, DEEPS is proud to announce our upcoming course options.
We encourage you to learn about the Earth, environmental and planetary sciences and understand the natural world from a new perspective.
Current graduate-level courses in the subjects of earth, environmental and planetary sciences.
EEPS 0010 – Face of the EarthInstructors: Yan Liang This course covers the fundamental processes that have created and sculpted the Earth's surface, from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans; from the hottest deserts, to the coldest glaciers. This will provide student with a deeper understanding of important issues such as climate change, pollution, natural resources, land use, and geologic hazards. | |
EEPS 0160M – Natural DisastersInstructor: Colleen Dalton This First Year Seminar will explore natural disasters: the physical processes that cause them, and their effects on human life. Types of natural disasters covered include earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We will explore how and why natural disasters disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities. | |
EEPS 0160P – From Human Migration to Solving Crimes: The World of Forensic IsotopesInstructor: Alberto Saal Chemistry, and isotope systems in particular, have wide-ranging applications. This course will review basic concepts in isotopes (what are isotopes and how are they measured?) with emphasis on practical applications and how isotopes are used to address questions relevant to ancient and modern societies. | |
EEPS 0230 – Geochemistry: Earth and Planetary Materials and ProcessesInstructors: Emily Cooperdock This course is an introduction to the formation of minerals and rocks, and the physico-chemical processes acting during planetary evolution. Topics include: Earth formation and differentiation, determination of age and origin of volcanic, crustal and mantle rocks using their elemental compositions and radiogenic and stable isotopes. | |
EEPS 0240 – Earth: Evolution of a Habitable PlanetInstructor: Blake Hodgin Introduces Earth's surface environment evolution - climate, chemistry, and physical makeup. Uses Earth's carbon cycle to understand solar, tectonic, and biological cycles' interactions. Examines the origin of the sedimentary record, dating of the geological record, chemistry and life on early Earth, and the nature of feedbacks that maintain the "habitable" range on Earth. Two field trips; five laboratories arranged. | |
EEPS 0360 – Solving the Climate and the Carbon ChallengeInstructors: Kim Cobb & Emanuele Di Lorenzo Explore the critical aspects of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon management, reduction and removal. Through a series of engaging lectures, students will gain an understanding of the current state and future trends of climate and carbon challenges in the 21st century, including the impacts and projections of climate change, the social cost of carbon, climate justice, the carbon cycle, and non-CO2 greenhouse gases. | |
EEPS 0810 – Planetary GeologyInstructor: Samuel Birch This introductory level course will examine the evolution of our Solar System and the geology of planetary bodies, including Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. We will discuss the origin of the Solar System from a geological perspective and explore how scientists combine observations from extraterrestrial samples such as meteorites with data returned by satellites and rovers to develop and test hypotheses related to planetary evolution. | |
EEPS 0820 – Dynamic EarthInstructor: Harriet Lau This survey course explores fundamental geodynamical processes with an emphasis of how interior (mantle) dynamics influences Earth’s surface environment. The course is suited to all DEEPS students as either a foundational geophysics course with an Earth systems slant, or a course that acts as a steppingstone to higher level geophysics courses (e.g., EEPS 1610). | |
EEPS 0850 – Weather and ClimateInstructor: Meredith Hastings This course aims to provide an understanding of the processes that drive weather patterns, the general circulation of the atmosphere, and climate on Earth. Topics include the structure and composition of the atmosphere, sources of energy that drive atmospheric processes, forces that create severe weather, the influence of humans on the atmosphere, and factors that influence climate, climate variability and climate change. | |
EEPS 1310 – Global Water CycleInstructor: Jung-Eun Lee Understand the physical principles and processes of the global water cycle. Topics include the climatic importance of water, circulation of atmospheric water vapor, formation of rain and snow, availability of soil water, plant-water relations, mass balance of glaciers, and ongoing and expected changes in the water cycle. Additional goals: become familiar with the current research literature, practice clear and concise science writing, and to use simple programming in Python to plot and analyze actual data sets. | |
EEPS 1320 – Introduction to Geographic Information Systems for Environmental ApplicationsInstructor: Seda Salap-Ayca This class serves as an introduction to Geographic Information Science (GIS). This innovative field explores the relationships between spatial information and a vast array of spatial data types. Through lab work and foundational lectures, this course covers the guiding principles behind various facets of GIS including the nature of spatial data, map projections, spatial model building, spatial analysis, and cartographic production. | |
EEPS 1330 – Global Environmental Remote SensingInstructor: John Mustard This course is an introduction to physical principles of remote sensing across electromagnetic spectrum and application to the study of Earth's systems (oceans, atmosphere, and land), covering topics like: interaction of light with materials, imaging principles and interpretation, methods of data analysis. | |
EEPS 1510 – Dynamic MeteorologyInstructor: Amanda Lynch The objective of EEPS 1510 is to understand the fundamental physical principles that govern the motion of the atmosphere. Students will explore the dynamics of the atmosphere and the mathematical laws governing weather and climate. | |
EEPS 1650 – Earthquake SeismologyInstructor: Karen Fischer This course is an introduction to seismology that focuses on the seismic waves generated by earthquakes, and how the information contained in these waves can be used to understand earthquake processes and the structure of the Earth. We will discuss applications of seismology that address earthquake hazards and other societal issues. | |
EEPS 1700 – Climate Modeling IIInstructor: Christopher Horvat Climate Modeling II is an advanced course that builds on foundational concepts introduced in Climate Modeling I (EEPS 1400). The course offers students a hands-on introduction to modeling Earth’s climate system, and experience simulating Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, and climate system. | |
EEPS 1720 – Tackling Climate Change with Machine LearningInstructor: Karianne Bergen Explore recent work that leverages machine learning (ML) as a tool for tackling climate change, with a focus on climate science and climate adaptation. We will discuss how modern machine learning can be used to assess, understand and respond to projected climate extremes, natural disasters, and environmental change. | |
EEPS 1820 – Geophysical Fluid Dynamics: Rotating, Stratified Turbulence EditionInstructor: Baylor Fox-Kemper Explores theories of the large-scale ocean and atmosphere, including quasigeostrophic, planetary geostrophic, and shallow water equations. Topics will vary to focus on features of the general circulation and climate system (e.g. thermocline, westward intensification, jet stream dynamics, polar vortex, meridional overturning circulations), instabilities and waves (e.g. gravity, Rossby, and Kelvin), or rotating stratified turbulence. | |
EEPS 1870 – Mass Spectrography and Chromatography Techniques for Organic AnalysisInstructor: Yongsong Huang The overall goal of the course is to introduce the latest techniques in gas and liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry for analyzing various organic compounds. Lectures, lab sessions and paper discussions will cover principles, method development and applications of gas chromatography, liquid chromatography (mainly high and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography), quadrupole, magnetic sector, and orbitrap mass spectrometers. | |
EEPS 1960Z – Physical VolcanologyInstructor: Chris Huber Physical Volcanology blends aspects of petrology and geochemistry with mechanics and geophysics, with the goal of understanding the dynamics that govern the production of magmas, their transport through the crust, evolution in shallow reservoirs and ultimately their eruption to the surface. | |
EEPS 2920X – OriginsInstructor: James Dottin Questions related to the origins of our solar system and life as we know it, remain among the most sought out questions by humanity. Through a series of lectures and student-led discussions, this class will explore topics such as: Chemical reactions occurring during the solar nebula, the variety of meteorite materials and their genetic links to distinct nebular environments and, the use of Astro-biological signatures to deconvolute the origins of life. |