Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

Undergraduate Program

DEEPS is well known for its top-quality undergraduate program and is rated among the best research departments in the nation.

DEEPS Undergraduate Listserv

The GEOUNDERGRADS listserv is an email list for all the Brown undergraduate students who have declared their concentration, are active within, and/or are interested in DEEPS.

Undergraduate Program

DEEPS is well known for its top-quality undergraduate program and is rated among the best research departments in the nation.

We encourage students of all backgrounds to learn more about how the land, water, and air around us directly affect our lives, whether by taking one course, or several, or a concentration program with independent research. Our department is known on campus for being open, friendly, and uniquely down-to-Earth. With approximately 30 faculty, 60 undergraduate concentrators, and 60 graduate students, classes are comfortably small, and faculty, graduates, and undergraduates interact frequently. The success of the undergraduate program is evidenced by the demand for Brown graduates in top-notch graduate programs across the nation.

DEEPS is one of the most active in developing and providing First Year Seminars, which emphasize interdisciplinary pursuits that reach beyond the physical and biological sciences into the humanities and social sciences. These freshman seminars offer such varied course topics as Global Environmental Change; Patterns in Nature, in Society; Volcanoes: Windows Into the Deep Earth; and Monsters of the Abyss: Oceanography & Sea Tales.

Undergraduate Courses

DEEPS courses are uniquely suited to providing in-depth, hands-on learning opportunities about the natural world. Everything students discuss in class exists just outside the classroom.

Undergraduate Concentrations

DEEPS provides a highly collaborative learning environment that emphasizes process-oriented, hands-on approaches in the classroom, in labs, and on field trips.

Undergraduate Research

The DEEPS faculty conduct internationally recognized research at the forefront of their fields. Undergraduate students participate actively in this research through independent research projects or employment involving field work, laboratory experiments, or theoretical computer modeling.

Educational Opportunities and Events

DEEPS offers students opportunities for diverse learning opportunities beyond the classroom, including field trips, laboratory exercises, and special events.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)

Undergraduates from around the nation are invited to come to Brown University this summer to engage in cutting-edge research in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences.

WRIT Courses

The Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences offers many courses that develop students' written and oral communication skills, including writing-designated (WRIT) courses that satisfy Brown's writing requirement. We welcome students from across the university to take these courses, noting that a few of them have prerequisites.

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GeoDUG

The DEEPS Departmental Undergraduate Group (GeoDUG) is a group of concentrators that plan events and activities intended to build a sense of community within the concentration.

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DEEPS Undergraduate Listserv

The GEOUNDERGRADS listserv is an email list for all the Brown undergraduate students who have declared their concentration, are active within, and/or are interested in DEEPS.