Graduate Education at UIUC

At the graduate level CWACES encourages interdisciplinary research that provides funding opportunities for students interested in pursuing water-related environmental studies at the Master’s and PhD levels with affiliated faculty. It also seeks to create new sources of funding for these students, independent of those provided by individual departments or research projects.

School of Earth , Society and Environment (SESE)

The Departments of Atmospheric Sciences, Geography and Geology recently joined to form the School of Earth , Society and Environment (SESE). CWACES has close ties to this new school, which was designed to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations among the faculty of its constituent departments. Similarly, CWACES does this with its focus on generating educational and research funding opportunities through a multi-disciplinary approach to water-related issues. CWACES and SESE symbiotically generate funding opportunities for graduate students to do innovative projects through the center itself along with contributions from each of the three departments, where students can go to seek advisors and research opportunities.

Existing Graduate Programs in LAS

Students interested in the study of water from both physical and social perspectives have several graduate programs to choose from in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that are already in place.

Advanced Degrees in Atmospheric Sciences

The Department of Atmospheric Sciences offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, allowing students to focus on many different aspects of water. Active research is done in the areas of satellite remote sensing, severe weather, regional and global climate change, land-atmosphere interactions, and cloud microphysical processes (e.g. formation of rain and ice crystals, aerosols, etc.). To learn more, go here .

Advanced Degrees in Geography

The Department of Geography offers M.A., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, allowing students to choose from three different options that are outlined below. As their descriptions indicate, water is a prominent component in the expertise of several faculty members involved in each of these options. For more information about these programs, go here and click on the link for graduate programs.

Environmental Studies in Physical Geography

This option provides students with the opportunity to focus on watersheds in human dominated environments, physical climatology, aerobiology, and periglaciology (the study of land forms in the vicinity of glaciers).

Society, Space and Environment

This option comprises three focus areas that can be readily connected with water issues. These areas are developmental geography (political ecology of land use, environment and health, rural urban interactions, etc.), urban analysis (urban health inequalities, urban political processes, women in cities, etc.), and politics and the environment (environmental policy, resource conflicts, environmental security, etc.).

Geographic Information Science

This option allows students to explore how we process, analyze, and model geographic information. Areas included in the GIS program are dynamic systems modeling, spatial data analysis, economic impact analysis, regional economic development, dynamics of watersheds and fluvial systems, and remote sensing analysis of land cover disturbance and change.

Advanced Degrees in Geology

The Department of Geology offers an M.S., M.S. in Teaching Earth Sciences, and a Ph.D. in several topic areas that are relevant to water issues. Active research is done in several areas, including geochemistry, geomicrobiology, geophysics, hydrogeology, mineralogy and petrology, paleontology, planetary science, sedimentary geology, and structure and tectonics. To learn more about these programs go here.