Gwendelyn Geidel, Ph.D., J.D., Director
Jay Pinckney, Ph.D, Graduate Director

Overview

The Environment and Sustainability Program is an interdisciplinary program established in 1995 (formerly as the School of the Environment) to focus on environmental issues fundamental to all humans. By following a track of courses in diverse colleges, the student has an opportunity to become knowledgeable in environmental issues at the scientific, social, economic, and political levels. The program consists of affiliated faculty in departments, centers, and institutes including business, economics, engineering, law, liberal arts, medicine, public health, science and mathematics. 

Undergraduate Degrees

• Environmental Sciences, B.S.
• Environmental Studies, B.A.

The Environment and Sustainability Program offers two undergraduate majors, a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degreee in Environmental Studies. The Environmental Studies degree emphasizes the Social Sciences and Humanities, compared to the greater science and technology focus of the Environmental Science degree. Like two sides of the same coin, these interdisciplinary degree programs complement each other and examine similar environmental concerns through different approaches.

The BS in Environmental Science curriculum is designed to give students a strong scientific background while allowing them the flexibility to choose courses that address their specific interests. Under the direction of a faculty advisor, students may draw upon subject matter in many different fields of scientific endeavor in order to fulfill specific educational goals. Only in a program such as this can courses from the Environment, Geology, Biology, Chemistry, Marine Science, Mathematics, Economics, Political Science, Physics, Engineering, and Environmental Health Science be combined into an individually-tailored curriculum. Environmental Science majors may choose to specialize in climate systems, energy and infrastructure, natural systems, health and environment, water resources, or other specialties according to their individual interests.

The BA in Environmental Studies degree incorporates critical, social, economic, policy, communications, and/or humanities components that are not within the BS degree. The curriculum prepares students to address complex environmental problems requiring knowledge and understanding from multiple social and science disciplines that are framed in an environmental context. Students learn to make sound analyses and judgements about interdisciplinary environmental challenges, and to seek and develop sustainable solutions that productively integrate social and economic needs with scientific and technical understanding.

Impending environmental challenges include climate change, increasing drought and other extreme weather events and their impacts on infrastructure and food, energy and water supply, loss of biodiversity, increases in infectious disease, and invasive species. Environmental scientists may find themselves conducting field research to quantify such issues, while Environmental Studies majors may use their skills to incorporate that data into policy, advocacy, and sustainable business practices.

Admission, Progression and Transfer Standards

1. Any student applying for transfer to the environmental sciences major from other programs within the University, or from accredited colleges and universities, is required to have a minimum grade point average of 2.80 on a 4.00 scale and a minimum of 24 credit hours. 
2. Environmental Science majors may enroll in an environmental science course a maximum of twice to earn the required grade of C or higher. For the purposes of this standard of progression, withdrawal with a W does not constitute enrollment.

Special Opportunities

The major endorses the use of independent study courses to further students’ intellectual pursuits in alternative ways. Before students may register for an independent study course, they must submit a completed independent study contract which has been approved by the major advisor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. (No student may apply more than 6 hours of independent study credits toward the degree). A grade-point average of 2.75 or greater is required to enroll in independent study courses.

• Environmental Science, B.S.  
• Environmental Studies, B.A.  

Minor in Environmental Studies

A student may pursue a minor in environmental studies with the academic advisor’s approval. The student must declare the selection of the minor in the office of the student’s major academic dean.

• Environmental Studies Minor  

The following Environment and Sustainability Program faculty have appointments in other departments and are listed below by these affiliations.

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Anthropology
Joanna L. Casey, Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1993
Kenneth G. Kelly, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1995
Gail E. Wagner, Ph.D., Washington University, St. Louis, 1987

Department of Art
David W. Voros, M.F.A., Indiana University, 1994

Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences
Dennis M. Allen, Ph.D., Lehigh University, 1978
Wendy B. Allen, M.Ed., University of South Carolina, 1980
James T. Morris, Ph.D., Yale University, 1979

Department of Biological Sciences
Jill Anderson, Ph.D., Cornell University, 2009
Ronald H. Benner, Ph.D., University of Georgia, 1984
Carol Boggs, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1979
Erin Connolly, Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 1997
Berten E. Ely III, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1973, Emeritus
Madilyn Fletcher, Ph.D., University of North Wales, 1975, Emeritus
Bob Friedman, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 2002
Travis C. Glenn, Ph.D., University of Maryland, 1997
Austin L. Hughes, Ph.D., Indiana University, 1984
Lazlo Marton, Ph.D., Jozsef Attila University, 1976
James T. Morris, Ph.D., Yale University, 1979
Timothy A. Mousseau, Ph.D., McGill University, 1988
John B. Nelson, Ph.D., Florida State University
Jay L. Pinckney, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1992
Joseph M. Quattro, Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1991
Tammi Richardon, Ph.D., Dalhousie University (Canada), 1996
Roger H. Sawyer, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, 1970
Stephen E. Stancyk, Ph.D., University of Florida, 1974, Emeritus
Daniel Tufford, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1996
Sarah A. Woodin, Ph.D., University of Washington, 1972, Emeritus

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
John Ferry, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1996
Scott R. Goode, Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1974
Timothy J. Shaw, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, 1988

Earth Sciences and Resource Institute
Camelia Knapp, Ph.D., Cornell University, 2000
Michael Waddell, M.S., University of South Carolina, 1982

Department of English
James Barilla, Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2004
Paula R. Feldman, Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1974
Christy Friend, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1997

Department of Geography
Jessica Barnes, Ph.D., Columbia University, 2010
Gregory J. Carbone, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1990
Edward R. Carr, Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2002; Ph.D., Syracuse University, 2001
Susan L. Cutter, Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1976
Kirstin Dow, Ph.D., Clark University, 1996
Jean T. Ellis, Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 2006
William L. Graf, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1974
Conor Harrison, Ph.D., University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, 2014
April L. Hiscox, Ph.D., University of Conneticut, 2006
Michael E. Hodgson, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1987
L. Allan James, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1988
David M. Kneas, Ph.D., Yale University, 2014
John Kupfer, Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1995
Jerry T. Mitchell, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1998
Cary J. Mock, Ph.D., University of Oregon, 1994

Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences
Claudia Benitez-Nelson, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999
Subrahmanyam Bulusu, Ph.D., Satellite Oceanography, National Oceanography Center (formerly Southampton Oceanography Center), University of Southampton, England, 1998
Gwendelyn Geidel, Ph.D., J.D., University of South Carolina, 1982, 1989
Christopher G. St. C. Kendall, Ph.D., Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK, 1966, Emeritus
Venkat Lakshmi, Ph.D., Princeton University, 1995
Robert C. Thunell, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island, 1978
Raymond Torres, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1997
George Voulgaris, Ph.D., University of Southhampton, UK, 1992
Scott M. White, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2001
Alicia Wilson, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1999
Alexander E. Yankovsky, Ph.D., Physical-Mathematical Sciences/Geophysics, Marine Hydrophysical Inst., Sevastopol, USSR (now Ukraine), 1991

Department of History
Ann Johnson, Ph.D., Princeton University, 2000
Thomas M. Lekan, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999
Robert R. Weyeneth, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1984

Department of Mathematics
Douglas B. Meade, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, 1989
Hong Wang, Ph.D., University of Wyoming, 1992

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Joseph E. Johnson III, Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1968

Department of Political Science
Mark E. Tompkins, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1981
David P. Whiteman, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1980
Laura Woliver, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1986

Department of Religious Studies
Kevin Lewis, Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1980

Department of Statistics
Don Edwards, Ph.D., Ohio State University, 1981

Institute for Public Service and Policy Research

Robert W. Oldendick, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, 1977

SC Lowcountry Center for Humans and Nature

Bruce C. Coull, Ph.D., Lehigh University, 1968, Emeritus

Moore School of Business

Kathleen M. Whitcomb, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1989
Douglas F. Woodward, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1986

College of Education

Heidi Mills, Ed.D., Indiana University, 1986
Stephen Thompson, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, 2002

College of Engineering and Computing

Department of Chemical Engineering
Francis A. Gadala-Maria, Ph.D., Stanford University, 1979
Jonathan Goodall, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2005
Michael A. Matthews, Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 1986
Branko N. Popov, Ph.D., University of Zagreb, 1972
James A. Ritter, Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1989
John W. Weidner, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, 1991

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
M. Hanif Chaudhry, Ph.D., University of British Columbia, 1970
Jasim Imran, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1997
Anthony S. McAnally, Ph.D., Auburn University, 1989
Michael E. Meadows, Ph.D., University of Tennessee, 1976
Charles A. Pierce, Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1998
Richard P. Ray, Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1983

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Michael N. Huhns, Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1975
 Wenyuan Xu, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 2007

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Abdel E. Bayoumi, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, 1982
Jamil A. Khan, Ph.D., Clemson University, 1988
Walter H. Peters, Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1978

School of Law

Joshua Eagle, J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1990
David Linnan, J.D., University of Chicago Law School, 1979

School of Medicine

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and Anatomy
Charles A. Blake, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1972

Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Alvin Fox, Ph.D., University of Leeds, 1976

Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience
Matthew B. Wolf, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1967
Arnold School of Public Health

Department of Environmental Health Sciences
G. Thomas Chandler, Ph.D., Louisiana State University, 1986
Alan W. Decho, Ph.D., Louisiana State University, 1987
Charles E. Feigley, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1978
Sonya Jones, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 2002
Robin (Buz) Kloot, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 2005
Dwayne E. Porter, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1995
Sarah Rothenberg, D. Env., University of California, Los Angeles, 2007

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
James R. Hebert, Sc.D., Harvard University, 1984

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Elaine M. Frank, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1988

Environmental Genomics Core Facility
Joe W. Jones, Ph.D., University of California, 2001

Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities
Sonya Jones, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 2002

SC Honors College
Pearl R. Fernandes, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1993

USC Aiken

Department of Biology and Geology
Andrew R. Dyer, Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 1996
Sarah Michele Harmon, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 2003
William A. Pirkle, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1972
Harry E. Shealy Jr., Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1972
Garriet W. Smith, Ph.D., Clemson University, 1981

USC Beaufort

Department of Biology
Joseph L. Staton, Ph.D., University of Louisiana, 1992

Department of Business Administration
Davis Folsom, Ph.D., University of Connecticut, 1979

USC Sumter

Division of Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
Pearl R. Fernandes, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1993

USC Upstate

Division of Natural Sciences and Engineering
Julian W. Green, Ph.D., Harvard University, 1988

Programs and Courses

Programs

• Environmental Science, B.S.
• Environmental Studies Minor
• Environmental Studies, B.A.

Courses

• ENVR 101 - Introduction to the Environment
• ENVR 101L - Introduction to the Environment Lab
• ENVR 202 - Environmental Science and Policy II