School of Environmental Studies

Environmental Sciences Ph.D. (EVS)

Concentrations in Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry,
Geosciences, & Integrated Research

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GRE is now waived for the Environmental Sciences Ph.D. program.

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About the Environmental Sciences Doctoral Program

The School of Environmental Studies offers an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program that will help you reach your career goals in the extensive fields of environmental science.

Our Ph.D. program endeavors to be more than a traditional "academic" program. The interdisciplinary faculty works with our graduate students to develop the critical thinking necessary to solve critical, real world problems.

Ph.D. Concentrations in Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Integrated Research

The program offers five concentrations of study - Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Integrated Research and also addresses environmental impacts on society and culture. Course work in agriculture, geology and sociology are included as core courses outside the selected concentration. 

• This cross-disciplinary approach prepares graduates for the 21st century workforce as projected by studies conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
• If you have a Masters degree in either Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry or Geosciences, you can potentially complete your coursework in as little as 25 credit hours and the program in as little as three years!

Program Mission

The Environmental Sciences Ph.D. program's mission is to advance scholarly knowledge and promote leadership necessary to effectively address environmental problems by incorporating multiple perspectives from the sciences and other disciplines in the program's teaching and research activities.

• As an effective interdisciplinary scientist, it is essential to understand the impact of our human endeavors on the environment we inhabit.
• Our program's approach insures that students become aware of a wide range of environmental concerns with emphasis on solving complex environmental problems and that their research includes a breadth of environmental understanding beyond the boundaries of a particular discipline.
• This broader understanding allows our students the ability to design effective means of protecting human health and wildlife habitat for the future and gives insight for options related to undoing the consequences of past environmental neglect.
• The ultimate goal of the program is to prepare students for careers in research, management, government service, teaching, and other areas where they can make productive contributions to the solution of environmental problems.

General Degree Requirements

A student must adhere to all policies and procedures governing graduate study at the University, as contained in the Graduate Catalog and administered by the Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies.

Requirements:

› A minimum of 61 semester credits of course work, including doctoral research and dissertation as follows:

• • Up to 18 hours transferred from a master's degree.
    • A minimum of 43 semester credits of course work beyond the bachelor's degree.
  • 12 hours of interdisciplinary core course work.
    • Courses can be chosen from EVSA 6010, EVSB 6010, EVSC 6010, EVSG 6010, EVSS 6010 (Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry, and Geosciences will choose four out of five options that are not associated with their course of study. The Integrated Research concentration may choose any four of the five options)
  • 1 hour of seminar - EVS 7910.
  • 12 hours of 7000-level elective courses which are committee recommended.
  • 18 hours of research and dissertation.

› Completion of all requirements for the degree, including the dissertation will be completed within a period of eight consecutive years.
› Maintenance of a general grade point average of 3.0.
› Satisfactory completion of a comprehensive examination.
› Satisfactory presentation and defense of a doctoral dissertation.

The Environmental Sciences Ph.D. degree at Tennessee Tech is a research degree requiring an orally defended dissertation.

 

For more information please contact:

Dr. Tammy Boles — 931-372-6123 — tboles@tntech.edu

 

COLLEGE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES