Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

Undergraduate Program

DEEPS prepares students for diverse careers through an innovative undergraduate program supported by one of the nation's top research departments.

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. Are you interested in mitigating climate change and environmental problems? Earthquakes, volcanoes, and other natural hazards? How the Earth's surface and interior have evolved over time? Whether other planets are habitable? These are just a sampling of the fundamental topics that we address in DEEPS.

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. Undergraduates are able to engage in varied research opportunities.

After graduation, DEEPS concentrators pursue a wide variety of career options, including environmental consulting, academia and geoscience education at all levels, government agencies like NASA, NOAA, EPA, and the USGS, non-governmental agencies (NGOs), technology and software companies, the green energy sector, and much more. The success of the undergraduate program is demonstrated by the demand for DEEPS graduates in top-notch graduate programs across the nation and in jobs that require the ability to solve important and complex problems.

DEEPS courses (EEPS course code in Courses@Brown) build expertise in applying concepts from biology, chemistry, physics, math, and computing to understanding the environment and processes at the surface and in the interior of the Earth and other planetary bodies. We offer A.B. and Sc.B degrees in four concentrations, allowing students to flexibly pursue their interests. 

Logan Tullai ’25 oversaw the creation of large-scale cyanotype prints using two rolls of NASA Lunar Orbiter film, decommissioned from the repository of NASA data and images once housed within DEEPS. “I thought it would be cool to use the sun’s UV to make pictures of the moon,” Tullai said.
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Impact: Research at Brown

A Spirit of Summer Inquiry

Brown offers transformational opportunities for students to conduct summer research with faculty colleagues and present results at the Summer Research Symposium. Impact: Research at Brown shared highlights from the event, including a quote from WaTae Mickey Jr. ’26, whose ultimate goal is to plan missions to space.
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From missions to the Moon & Mars, to lake sediments, to climate modeling, many undergraduate students worked on groundbreaking research in DEEPS this summer break. This year, we are excited to showcase these diverse research projects through a special combination of art, writing, and photography developed by Claire Xu ‘27.
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DEEPS courses are uniquely suited to providing in-depth, hands-on learning opportunities about the Earth, our environment, and other planets.
DEEPS provides a highly collaborative learning environment that emphasizes process-oriented, active learning in courses, in research labs, and on field trips.
Whether you enjoy making measurements in the lab, analyzing data and modeling processes through computing, or collecting samples in the field, there are research opportunities in DEEPS that will let you develop your interests.
DEEPS offers students a close community and diverse learning opportunities, including career development events, field trips, and social activities.
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.

Undergraduate Advisors

We encourage you to talk with one of the undergraduate advisors about courses, concentrations, and research possibilities.