Academic and Training Program Hub

Students enrolled in the Duke University Marine Laboratory (DUML) Scholars Programs are trained through small seminar experiences, experiential learning, enhanced faculty-student mentorship, scientific research, and professional development.All scholars are encouraged to spend at least one semester and/or summer term at the Duke University Marine Lab. Each scholar will have funding available for technology development, travel to professional conferences, and Marine Lab travel courses.In addition to the training that they receive, a community of scholars will be developed within each cohort of scholars, among alumni of the program, and with the scholars in the parallel Duke University Marine Lab Scholars Programs.

In accordance with the Duke Climate Commitment, the Climate Scholars Program focuses on diverse perspectives of the climate crisis and aims to provide undergraduate students across multiple disciplines with a faculty-mentored research experience.Climate Scholars will consider the complexity of global climate disruption through interdisciplinary study. Scholars will build their study on a foundation of climate science after taking two courses in the Earth and Climate Science (ECS) Division, followed by faculty-mentored independent research. Examples of research projects might include:tracking the impact of heat waves on health in Durham;modeling and projecting water resource availability in response to both extreme flooding and drought, as well as policy and technology changes, across the Western US; orconsidering how low-lying communities in Central America are adapting to and will be affected by sea level rise.Climate Scholars will be active participants in their faculty mentor’s lab group and will attend seminars, as well as social events in the climate community, to make connections with faculty, graduate students, staff, and other like-minded undergraduates. Scholars will also have the opportunity to host an interdisciplinary gathering with experts and activists from across campus and the community to discuss intersecting climate-related projects and interests.Climate Scholars are expected to either develop their research project into an honors thesis during their senior year (which may result in publication) or, for students interested in pursuing careers in the corporate or non-profit sectors, complete an internship related to their field of study.

Identifying policy solutions to environmental challenges requires a command of social sciences, alongside topical knowledge and understanding of relevant policy processes. Duke's University Program in Environmental Policy (UPEP) Ph.D. is a 5-year program for intense research training, combining disciplinary specialization − in economics or political science − with an emphasis on understanding policy settings and the precise nature of the problem we hope to solve with policy. That requires integrating multiple perspectives to frame useful applications of disciplinary rigor.Our students and faculty conduct world-class research, in domestic and international contexts, on a wide array of topics in environmental economics, policy, and politics. Graduate placements have included academic positions in disciplinary departments, interdisciplinary units, and professional schools and professional positions in domestic and international public agencies, environmental organizations, research institutes, and consulting firms.The UPEP Ph.D. program is jointly administered by the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Sanford School of Public Policy. It draws on the extensive resources of both schools, as well as numerous departments and research institutes across Duke University. UPEP students work in close proximity to Ph.D. students in other disciplines, within each school as well as across Duke. We have close affiliations with the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and the Duke Global Health Institute.UPEP builds on a long history of Duke University engagement with environmental policy issues. The predecessors of the Nicholas School—the School of Forestry, the Marine Lab, and the Department of Geology—were founded in the 1930s. The Sanford School of Public Policy traces its history to the formation of Duke’s Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs in 1971. Both schools have offered environment-focused PhD training for many years. In 2010, UPEP was created to bring together groups engaged in social science research and training for environmental policy.

Duke’s University Program in Ecology is one of the foremost in the world. It comprises faculty and students from across campus, including from the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Departments of Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology, the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology in the Medical School, and the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering.Research in the program is as diverse as the researchers themselves, but all research shares questions of how organisms interact with each other and the environment to form dynamic populations, communities, and ecosystems.

The PhD in Marine Science & Conservation (MSC) is designed to ensure that students receive detailed training in a particular discipline of marine natural or social science, while being exposed to sufficient interdisciplinary knowledge that they are able to synthesize information from both the social and natural sciences and apply that information to policy-making. These students will be prepared for careers either in university teaching or research, or outside of the university involving the application of science to policy-making.Doctoral students in MSC emphasize research as the major part of their degree programs. The committee, chaired by the student’s faculty advisor, will recommend which of the program’s required courses students should take along with any additional courses, and generally help to shape the student’s research program.

The graduate program in Environment (ENV) offers students opportunities to work with faculty who specialize in an array of disciplines within the physical, chemical, biological, and social sciences, as well as integration among them. Because of the intensive research nature of this degree, course work is tailored to the particular needs of the research topic agreed upon by the student, the faculty mentor and committees involved. The ENV program is organized around four research themes:Ecosystem Science, which emphasizes conservation ecology, landscape ecology, wetland ecology, forest ecology, soils, biogeochemistry and hydrology of watershedsEnvironmental Chemistry and Toxicology, which emphasizes the fate and effects of natural and anthropogenic stressors, particularly chemicals, in the environmentAquatic and Atmospheric Sciences, which concentrates on problems spanning natural divisions of the biosphere- soil, plants, lakes, watersheds, and the atmosphereEnvironmental Social Systems, which emphasize the management of natural resources and the environment by individuals and societies.

Earth and Climate Sciences (ECS) at the Nicholas School offers a PhD in four broad research areas of geoscience:Earth-surface sciences focus on processes that shape and change landscapes and environments--the interactions between life, water, and landscapes, including coastal geomorphology and ecomorphodynamics, and the evolution of coupled human-landscape systems as climate and societal forcings change.Ocean, atmosphere and climate sciences include ocean circulation, atmospheric dynamics, marine biogeochemistry, and ocean/atmosphere interactions, particularly as they relate to global climate change.Earth resources addresses the geologic formation and human use of mineral, energy, water, and land resources including mineral formation, life-cycle analysis, energy consumption/emissions, water quality as it relates to human health, and the role of technology in the Anthropocene. This area also includes evaluation of the health and economic impacts of changes in air quality and climate associated with policy choices.The history of Earth and life encompasses the temporal evolution of our planet through its lifetime including aspects of paleoclimate, paleoceanography, and paleoenvironment. It asks the fundamental question: how did the geologic history of Earth affect its biotic evolution and biodiversity.

The Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program (ITEHP) is the only training program at Duke which fully prepares students for research careers in Environmental Health and Toxicology. Interdepartmental and multidisciplinary, a PhD degree is awarded by one of several participating Duke departments with the ITEHP certification granted by the Program upon graduation. Upon completion of doctoral studies, these students are experienced in the design, execution and interpretation of current research in environmental health and toxicology. Completion of this training at the doctoral level provides career opportunities in academia, industry, and government, including positions involved in research, risk assessment and policy.