Environmental Core Reflected in Departmental Name Change
As tectonic plates shift over time, so does scientific focus evolve for researchers chronicling the forces that shape the Earth and other planets. UT’s Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (EEPS) added the “environmental” element to its name in spring 2024 to expand on its existing mission and research initiatives with an eye for future growth.
“Our science won’t change—planetary geoscience and earth’s past, present, and future remain our focus, but the new name encompasses all that we do, including addressing present and future environmental challenges,” said Department Head and Jones/Bibee Professor Alycia Stigall. “Our faculty and students are engaging in these critical issues in important and ever-expanding ways.”
Geosciences have been a core discipline taught at UT since 1879, when studies were part of the School of Natural Science and Geology. Known as the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences for the past 20 years, its faculty and students have engaged in internationally recognized research and teaching about planetary geoscience and the full range of geological disciplines from paleontology and Earth’s history to geochemistry, volcanology, and hydrogeology.
All these areas increasingly encompass environmental geoscience. Currently, more than half of the department’s undergraduate majors are in the environmental studies and water science concentrations. Many graduate students and faculty engage in environmental geoscience research, and many graduates gain employment in the rapidly growing environmental geoscience employment sector, which has a projected workforce growth of 8.4% by 2029.
“Environmental geoscience is an area that is central to who we are as a department today, and it’s essential to our future,” said Stigall. “Our goal is to provide outstanding job preparation for our students to engage in the workforce of Tennessee and the world while also engaging in research that tackles some of the most challenging issues that impact societies today.”
EEPS provides outstanding interdisciplinary pathways for students to prepare for a career in the environmental geoscience field, including concentrations and minors in environmental studies, water science, and geology. The department also recently launched a week-long field course program that provides students in any concentration the opportunity for an intensive field training course. Through this program, students have access to a set of rotating field experiences to hone their skills throughout their degree program.
“Our students also have access to unparalleled opportunities to engage in world class scientific research,” said Stigall. “Possibilities range from driving Mars rovers to obtaining measurements with a world-class instrumentation suite to gathering data on the mountains, rocks, fossils, and rivers of Tennessee.”
The new EEPS name will provide additional visibility within the scientific community, and with funding agencies, for faculty already engaged in environmental geoscience. It will also help attract new faculty with an environmental research focus.
“A departmental identity of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences clearly communicates the centrality of environmental science to the present and future mission of the department,” said Stigall. “It will aid in recruiting the best and brightest faculty and graduate students to expand this important work.”