Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 68.46
Liaison Lisa Kilgore
Submission Date March 20, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Cornell University
AC-4: Graduate Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Lauren Chambliss
Communications Director
Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future
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Does the institution offer at least one sustainability-focused major, degree program, or the equivalent for graduate students?:
Yes

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The name of the sustainability-focused, graduate-level degree program (1st program):
Natural Resources

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A brief description of the graduate degree program (1st program):
The Field of Natural Resources offers students the freedom to design a graduate program that addresses their individual interests. Two research degrees are offered: the Master of Science and Doctorate of Philosophy. Concentrations for the degree program include: (1) Applied Ecology; (2) Conservation Biology; (3) Ecosystem Biology and Biogeochemistry; (4) Fishery and Aquatic Science; (5) Forest Science; (6) Quantitative Ecology; (7) Wildlife Science; (8) Community-based Natural Resources Management; (9) Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management; (10) Policy and Institutional Analysis; (11) Program Development and Evaluation; and (12) Risk Analysis and Management.

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The website URL for the graduate degree program (1st program) :
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The name of the sustainability-focused, graduate-level degree program (2nd program):
Soil and Crop Sciences

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A brief description of the graduate degree program (2nd program):
The Graduate Field of Soil and Crop Sciences provides programs leading to PhD, MS, and MPS programs in the following five concentrations: Agronomy, Field Crop Science, Soil Science, Environmental Information Systems, and Environmental Management. Students work on projects spanning a range of topics such as advances in management practices for sustainable field crop production, soil biogeochemistry in relation to climate change and environmental concerns, geospatial land processes, and molecular genomic aspects of crop plants and soil microbes.

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The website URL for the graduate degree program (2nd program):
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The name of the sustainability-focused, graduate-level degree program (3rd program):
Civil and Environmental Engineering

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A brief description of the graduate degree program (3rd program):
Civil and Environmental Engineering offers five sustainability-related concentrations: (1) Environmental & Water Resources Systems Engineering (M.S./Ph.D and M.Eng); (2) Environmental Fluid Mechanics & Hydrology (M.S./Ph.D and M.Eng); (3) Environmental Processes (M.S./Ph.D and M.Eng); (4) Geotechnical Engineering (M. Eng); and (5) Transportation Systems Engineering (M.S./Ph.D and M.Eng)

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The website URL for the graduate degree program (3rd program):
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The name and website URLs of all other sustainability-focused, graduate-level degree program(s):
The Atkinson Center provides links to other graduate fields and degree programs related to sustainability: http://www.acsf.cornell.edu/education/grad.php

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Does the institution offer one or more graduate-level sustainability-focused minors, concentrations or certificates?:
Yes

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The name of the graduate-level sustainability-focused minor, concentration or certificate (1st program):
Conservation and Sustainable Development

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A brief description of the graduate minor, concentration or certificate (1st program):
This minor field is oriented to any graduate student who wants to develop interdisciplinary approaches to helping solve real-world problems in conservation and development. The field was formed in response to the increasing challenges facing society to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of growing human populations while maintaining the ecological integrity of natural ecosystems and enhancing the long-term sustainability of food, forage, and fiber production systems. Solutions to today's conservation and development problems will continue to elude a single disciplinary approach; instead holistic perspectives and interdisciplinary research and development approaches are needed.

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The website URL for the graduate minor, concentration or certificate (1st program):
None
The name of the graduate-level sustainability-focused minor, concentration or certificate (2nd program):
Sustainable Energy

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A brief description of the graduate minor, concentration or certificate (2nd program):
The areas of research and education encompassed by the words "sustainable energy" are intended to integrate scientific and engineering principles that focus on the creation, analysis and improvement of energy technologies to address the growing global need for more environmentally sustainable approaches that include renewable, and lower carbon-emission, energy sources.

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The website URL for the graduate minor, concentration or certificate (2nd program):
None
The name of the graduate-level sustainability-focused minor, concentration or certificate (3rd program):
Environmental Quality

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A brief description of the graduate minor, concentration or certificate (3rd program):
This minor field offers qualified engineers and scientists an opportunity to broaden their knowledge in physical, chemical, and biological areas related to environmental-quality problems and their control. It is intended to encourage interdisciplinary study. The objective is to understand human interaction with the environment.

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The website URL for the graduate minor, concentration or certificate (3rd program):
None
The name and website URLs of all other graduate-level, sustainability-focused minors, concentrations and certificates:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Cornell also offers four Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) programs for graduate students. These are: -Cross-Scale Biogeochemistry and Climate (CSBC): http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/igert/ -Food Systems and Poverty Reduction: http://igert.ciifad.cornell.edu/ -Earth-Energy Systems: http://www.earthenergyigert.cornell.edu/ -Materials for a Sustainable Future: http://www.igert.org/projects/230

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