University of Arizona

THE UNIVERSITY OF Arizona (UA or U of A) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885, when Arizona was still a territory. UA includes Arizona's only allopathic medical school. In 2006, total enrollment was 36,805 students. UA embraces its threefold mission of excellence in teaching, research, and public service. Now in its second century of service to the state, UA has become one of the nations top 20 public research institutions.

The UA graduate school offers several programs of study in atmospheric and environmental science. The Department of Atmospheric Sciences offers programs leading to the master of science and doctoral degrees. Research is conducted through the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in areas such as climate [Page 1018]and global change, land-atmosphere interaction, convective processes, atmospheric dynamics, radiative transfer, remote sensing, atmospheric aerosols, atmospheric chemistry, cloud and precipitation physics, lightning, atmospheric electricity, weather forecasting, and numerical weather prediction. The Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science (SWES) offers graduate work leading to M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in soil, water, and environmental science. Two tracks are offered, environmental science and soil and water science. In addition to the major, each Ph.D. student must complete a minor, which can be intra- or interdepartmental. Many, if not most, SWES graduate students enroll in several non-SWES courses as part of their program. This reflects the multidisciplinary characteristics of the SWES program in general, and also that a minor is required for all Ph.D. students.

The most frequently studied outside courses are in chemistry, chemical and environmental engineering, hydrology and water resources, and microbiology. With an M.S. or Ph.D. in environmental science, students will be prepared for careers in business and industry, governmental agencies, educational institutions, and private consulting firms. Many Ph.D. students obtain faculty positions at colleges and universities. The Environmental Studies Laboratory was created in 1999 to provide facilities and equipment for the research of past, present, and future environmental variability and change. Current research encompasses paleoclimate studies across the globe, wildfire studies in southwestern North America, and relationships between climate and society across multiple spatial and temporal scales. The laboratory is just one of several complementary investigative groups of environmental and earth system sciences in the Department of Geo-sciences and at UA. The laboratory is involved in a number of efforts aimed at improving the quality of and participation in K-12 education.

Research carried out by staff and students at the Environmental Studies Laboratory and their forerunners at the University of Colorado and Columbia University has centered around two broad themes. The oldest concentrates on paleoenvironmental science and its application toward understanding the full range of environmental variability, with a focus on climate and ecology. More recently, the laboratory has worked on improving connections between environmental sciences and society, with the specific goal of increasing the scientific basis of environmental decision making. Both themes involve a conscious effort to work across broad temporal scales and over spatial scales that extend from local to global. By working on projects in many key systems around the world, the hope is to craft a better understanding of the global system.

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