Programs of Study
link to online resumes
of most recent Nicholas graduates
The professional degree programs offered at the
Nicholas School focus on eight areas or concentrations
including concurrent
degrees options in law, business, public policy
and teaching. Additionally many graduates develop
an area of special expertise while earning their
MEM or MF degree with a certificate in Geospatial
Analysis, Global Health Policy, International
Development Policy, Nonprofit
Management, or Environmental Education,
Professional Degree Programs
Coastal Environmental Management
provides an understanding of global, national
and local physical and biological coastal environments
and processes and the human behaviors and policies
that affect, and are affected by, those environments
and processes. The aim is to produce scientifically
informed professionals to fill coastal policy
and management, research or advocacy positions.
The program provides an educational background
in ocean science, marine policy, coastal zone
management, coastal processes, water quality or
fisheries management. Participation in the policy-making
process is emphasized. This program requires one
year in residence in Durham and one year at the
Duke Marine Laboratory in Beaufort.
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Core Courses: Ecology; Marine Policy,
one course in Environmental Policy or Law;
Resource & Environmental Economics, three
courses in quantitative and analytical methods,
and two Ocean Sciences courses.
Ecosystem Science and Conservation
is concerned with the application of ecological
science to the management of terrestrial and aquatic
resources with an economic, ethical and political
context. The Nicholas School offers two distinct
resource ecology programs: Conservation Science
and Policy and Ecosystem Science and Management.
Conservation
Science and Policy emphasizes a rigorous,
analytic approach to decision-making for conservation
applications. Within the Conservation Program,
areas of concentration are defined in terms
of levels or scales of conservation planning.
These include focal species, communities or
ecosystems; site assessment and nature reserve
design; land use policy and planning; and sustainable
development
Ecosystem
Science and Management emphasizes an
integrated, systems-level perspective on natural
resource management. Within the Ecosystems Program,
a Concentration Area typically is identified
as a particular ecosystem (e.g., forests, wetlands)
although for some specializations the focus
in on the unit of analysis (watersheds or landscapes).
Examples of approaches included in these programs
are:
- Field-based approaches with an emphasis on
natural history
- Geospatial analysis (emphasizing geographic
information systems and remote sensing)
- Community-based methods involving stakeholder
participation
- Modeling (statistical and simulation)
- Core Courses: Required courses
in Ecology, two core natural sciences, and one
core social science. Courses in chosen approach/tool,
including statistics, geospatial analysis, community-based/participatory
methods, field ecology, and modeling.
Energy and Environment
emphasizes the understanding of supply and demand
for energy in the modern world, to assess realistic
resource options to supply energy, including renewable
and alternative energy sources, to assess the
environmental impacts of different forms of energy,
their delivery and use, and to design optimal
policy and regulatory options to protect the environment
while supplying energy to the human society. The
program includes background courses in the geological
sciences that focus on location and extraction
of traditional sources of energy, courses in the
engineering sciences on the physics and technologies
of energy supply, and courses in the environmental
sciences, assessing environmental impacts of traditional
and new sources that might be proposed as alternatives.
A strong flavor of environmental economics and
industrial ecology will be instilled throughout
the curriculum.
- Core Courses: Energy and the Environment,
Resource and Environmental Economics, Environmental
Law or Energy Law, The Geology Side of Energy.
Environmental Economics
and Policy emphasizes the skills needed to
analyze natural resource and environmental policy
and to test the potential outcome of the new policy
under consideration by public and private decision-making
bodies. The program is highly analytical and emphasizes
analysis of contemporary national and international
environmental problems. Understanding the effects
of markets and institutions on people and the
environment requires mastery of three broad areas
of knowledge:
- The basic sciences pertaining to a natural
resource or an environmental phenomenon.
- Relevant disciplines in the social sciences.
- Quantitative and qualitative tools for using
knowledge from the physical, biological and
social sciences and arrive at an informed decision.
For the natural resource decision maker, the
most important social sciences are economics,
political science, public policy and law. Quantitative
methods include statistical inference, methods
of optimization and benefit-cost analysis.
- Core Courses: Resource & environmental
Economics; Resource & environmental Policy,
and either natural resource law or environmental
law. Additional electives in economics, law,
public policy or quantitative methods are required.
Environmental Health
and Security emphasizes interactions among
human/environmental health and ecological processes.
The program seeks to instill in the student a
science-based approach combining integrated assessment
for humans, biota, and natural resources. The
program instills risk assessment approaches that
weigh assessment uncertainties against costs associated
with decisions and the costs of gathering and
employing increasingly realistic and accurate
data and models.
Important areas of strength are: watershed management;
air-shed management; toxics, including mechanisms
of toxicity, fate and transport of toxics in air
and water and at their interface; risk assessment;
environmental epidemiology; occupational and environmental
health; and global change, including climate and
land use.
Forest Resource
Management integrates basic forest ecology
with foundations in planning and administration
for the sustainable production of forest resources.
The central focus is problem-solving in complex
ecologic and management systems with the goal
of preparing graduates who can maximize forest
benefits in the context of biological, physical,
economic and social conditions. The program is
accredited by the Society of American Foresters.
Major areas of study include:
- Ecological characteristics of forests and
silvicultural manipulations.
- Economic methods for management and decision
making.
- Computer-based, quantitative techniques for
resource analysis and decision-making.
- Forest regeneration.
- Core Courses: Field Skills; Inventory,
Growth & Yield; Silviculture; Forest Ecosystems;
Cases Studies in Forest Management, and Resource
& Environmental Economics. Courses must be taken
in the broad categories of Measurement and Management
of Forest Resources, Forest Policy and Administration,
and Professional Ethics.
Global Environmental
Change trains students to analyze environmental
changes that occur on a variety of time scales
and geographic scales and to anticipate and respond
to management and policy issues that arise from
these changes. The program provides an integrated
package of environmental science, analytical skills
and policy context. Graduates of the program will
be well equipped to serve as environmental analysts
and managers bridging the gap between advances
in the science of global change and policy initiatives
needed to manage its consequences. The program
has particular strengths in coastal environmental
change, global climate change, and surface processes,
with faculty participating in a wide range of
activities in these areas.
-
Core Courses: Four courses in Modern
Earth Processes, one course in Ecology, one
course in Paleoenvironmental Change, and quantitative
and analytical courses.
Water & Air Resources
focuses on the basic physical and chemical
processes affecting water and air resources and
trains students to apply this understanding -
combined with quantitative, analytical and statistical
techniques - to the management of these natural
resources. Emphasis is placed on:
- Watershed hydrology
- Water quantity and transport
- Water and atmospheric chemistry
- Turbulent transport
- Water and air pollution
- Fate of aquatic and atmospheric pollutants
Courses include basic physical and chemical processes
relevant to hydrologic and atmospheric sciences
and methods of management and decision-making.
The basic processes emphasized are those concerned
with watershed hydrology; stream and lake water
quality; water and atmospheric chemistry; general
meteorology and climatology, and the origins,
transport and fate of pollutants. Quantitative
analysis techniques include statistical methods,
probabilistic and deterministic models and optimization
and simulation methods. These courses are integrated
with others in water and air resource management
and economic analysis.
-
Core Courses: One course in each of
four areas: physical sciences, chemical sciences,
biological or ecological sciences and social
sciences. Also required are three additional
courses in the area of concentration.
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