Research opportunities encompass a broad spectrum of basic and applied investigations, linked with environmental sciences, engineering, materials science, archaeology, space science, astronomy, economics, international relations, or meteorology.

Our department is known on campus as being open and friendly. With 20 faculty, 40-50 undergraduate concentrators (>50% women), and 60-65 graduate students, classes are comfortably small, and faculty, graduates and undergraduates interact frequently.

Learning to write well is crucial to a career in the sciences.  The Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences offers many courses to develop our concentrators' written communication skills, including writing-designated (WRIT) courses that satisfy Brown's writing requirement.  We advise students to take at least one, and preferably many of these courses.  Concentrations in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences do not allow submissions of written work to be used in place of WRIT courses.  Brown requires all undergraduates to complete at least one WRIT course by the end of their 4th semester, and a second WRIT course during their 5th-7th semesters.