University of Illinois

THE UNIVERSITY OF Illinois is a system of public universities. It consists of three campuses: Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield. The governing body of the three campuses is the board of trustees. The campus at Urbana-Champaign is known as the U of I and UIUC, whereas the Chicago campus is known as UIC, and the Springfield campus UIS. The largest university in the Chicago area, UIC has 25,000 students, 15 colleges, including the nation's largest medical school, and annual research expenditures exceeding $290 million. Playing a critical role in Illinois healthcare, UIC operates the state's major public medical center and serves as the principal educator of Illinois' physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

The modern UIC was formed in 1982 by the consolidation of two University of Illinois campuses: the Medical Center campus, which dates back to the 19th century, and the comprehensive Chicago Circle campus, which in 1965 replaced the two-year undergraduate Navy Pier campus designated to educate returning veterans. UIC's student body is recognized as one of the nation's most diverse, and the students reflect the global character of Chicago.

The School of Earth, Society, and Environment brings the resources of the Departments of Atmospheric Science, Geology, and Geography at the University of Illinois together to study Earth systems. The school awards bachelor of science degrees in atmospheric science, geography, and geology, as well as in the interdisciplinary major Earth Systems, Environment, and Society (ESES). The school also actively pursues advanced research and programs of graduate studies. At the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, students can pursue master of science (M.S.), and doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. The University of Illinois is deeply involved in climate research at many levels, both within the department and in interdisciplinary research across the campus.

Faculty and students in the department carry out a number of research projects directed toward understanding climate variability and climate change. Students work with professors to conduct research to help explain the interactions between climate and the biosphere, ocean, and human activities, as humans alter the cycles of greenhouse gases such as carbon and methane. Students use global climate models to make projections of future changes under various plausible economic scenarios and simulate important geophysical processes, such as the past, present, and possible future behavior of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation.

Students also conduct research on how energy, water, and carbon are transported between the land surface and the atmosphere in systems ranging from agroecosystems to rainforests. Quantifying and understanding the causes of climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The ESES major is an academic, liberal arts, and sciences degree. Students interested in a getting a more applied degree might be interested in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES) program, which offers a wide range of NRES and horticulture courses, from plant propagation to wildlife ecology.

Courses offered by UIC in the area of climate change include: ATMS 447: Climate Change Assessment, ATMS 448: Climate and Climate Change, ATMS 300: Weather Processes, ATMS 401: Atmospheric Physics, ATMS 402: Principles of Atmospheric Dynamics, ATMS 403: Weather Forecasting, ATMS 449: Biogeochemical Cycles and Global Change, ATMS 491: Topics in Atmospheric Sciences, GEOG 415: Physical Climatology, and IB 440: Plants and Global Change.

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