Environmental problems are some of the most challenging facing the world today. Because no single field of study can encompass all issues relevant to the environment, faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences in the early 1990s created a new interdisciplinary major focused on human-environment interactions.

Environmental Sciences is a broad-based science major that is designed to provide students with the scientific training necessary to understand the natural world and the impact humans have had on it. Recently, the program of study in Environmental Science was revised to provide a closer association with Environmental Engineering and Environmental Policy. This allows students to enter a broadly based program, take a number of common courses and then specialize along the lines of engineering, science or policy. The intellectual approach is that of synthesis, where the focus is on the integration of knowledge rather than on further refinement of knowledge within a particular field. More than 200 students have graduated from the program since 1995. See Student to read profiles of current students or recent graduates.

View Brochure (PDF)

For more information about the program please contact:

Professor Kimberly Gray
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Phone: 847-467-4252
Email: k-gray@northwestern.edu

Professor John Hudson
Department of Anthropology
Phone: 847-491-2855
Email: j-hudson@northwestern.edu

Environmental Sciences Program
515 Clark Street