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Introduction

Understanding our planet will be a funda­mental challenge for the scientific community over the next century. Almost every practical aspect of society—population, environment, economics, politics—is and will be increas­ingly impacted by our relationship with the Earth. Facing these challenges requires approaches that transcend disciplinary boundaries. The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) uses an integrative scientific approach that encompasses and includes many aspects of physics, chemistry, astronomy, and biology.

In addition to the collaborative exchange with other Harvard departments such as astronomy, chemistry and chemical biology, organismic and evolutionary biology, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, EPS has reciprocal arrangements with Massa­chusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for graduate students to take and receive credit for courses.

The laboratories, libraries, and lecture rooms of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences are housed in the Univer­sity Museum and in the David and Arnold Hoffman Laboratory of Experimental Geology. The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is housed in Pierce Hall, across Oxford Street from the Hoffman Laboratory. The seismograph station is at the George R. Agassiz Station of the Astronomical Observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts, about 25 miles west of Cambridge.

Laboratory facilities are available for radiogenic and stable isotope geochemistry, trace element geochemistry, geophysics, X-ray diffraction analysis, mineral analysis with an automated electron microprobe, spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron micros­copy, and sedimentology. State-of-the-art high performance parallel computing facilities are used by several groups in the department. The specimen collections in mineralogy, petrology, paleontology, and mining geology are among the best in the world. 

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission are highly flex­ible and each application is judged on its own merits. Preparation in the related sciences of biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics is as important as a solid background in geology. Students with backgrounds in biology, chem­istry, physics, engineering, Earth sciences, and related fields are strongly encouraged to apply. The department requires prospective appli­cants to take the Graduate Record Examina­tion (GRE).

Entering graduate students are expected to have received passing grades in at least four half-courses or equivalent of college-level calculus and linear algebra. Students are expected, in the course of graduate work, to complete the second and third year of college mathematics (intermediate and advanced calculus and differential equations). Students with strong math and physics background doing theoretical work are expected to take higher-level graduate mathematics courses.

Financial Aid

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences guarantees full financial support for four years to all PhD candidates. Funding for the fifth year and beyond is considered on a case-by-case basis. Financial support for graduate students comes from a combination of grants, research assistantships, teaching fellowships, and outside support.

Each graduate student is required to teach two sections. This requirement is generally completed during the second and third year of graduate work. Funding from this required teaching is a part of the first two years of support.

In addition, special summer scholar­ship funding is available for students to do research-related work in the field. The depart­ment usually funds all summer fieldwork proposals.

Prospective students are encouraged to apply for outside funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, Office for Naval Research, Department of Defense, and NASA. Often international students must apply for outside funding such as the Fulbright and Knox fellowships before coming to the United States. Information on these agencies is avail­able in more detail in a separate booklet issued by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Financing Graduate Study. 

Degree Requirements

Residence
Minimum of two years; see The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Handbook. Students should normally plan to complete all require­ments for the PhD degree within four years of their enrollment at Harvard.

Appointment of Advisors
In September, all new students are assigned a preliminary advisor who along with the Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) will help first-year students decide which courses to take during the fall term. Toward the end of the spring term, first-year students submit a Plan of Study listing the courses they plan to take to meet academic requirements and proposing their choice for an advisor and advisory committee (usually three faculty from the department). Each student will meet with one of the Co-Directors of Graduate Studies to review the Plan of Study, to finalize the appointment of the advisor and advisory committee, and to discuss summer research plans. As students’ research interests evolve, the composition of their advisory committee can be adjusted.

Plan of Study/Course Requirements
All students are required to take at least eight graduate-level courses in fulfillment of the PhD degree. Four of these courses must be letter-graded at the 200 level in earth and planetary sciences or related courses at a suitable level in other disciplines such as applied mathematics, applied physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering sciences, mathematics, or physics. Two letter-graded courses must be Applied Math 105a and Applied Math 105b, or other equivalent courses approved by the faculty.

To ensure that graduate students gain exposure to the many areas of earth sciences, they must fulfill a breadth requirement. Students are required to take at least two letter-graded EPS courses outside of their main area of research interest. These courses must be approved by the student’s advisor. By petition to the GSC, courses with an earth or planetary science component in other depart­ments at Harvard may count towards the breadth requirement, provided the course is a lecture course with an exam or a term paper designed for graduate students.

The requirements outlined above are a minimum standard and students will usually take additional courses in both their selected field and others. Students normally satisfy the eight-specified course requirements in the first two years of graduate study in preparation for their qualifying oral examination, however, students need not fulfill these requirements before beginning research and should not put off research on this account.

All degree candidates must maintain an average equivalent to B or better to continue in the program.

Qualifying Oral Examination
All candidates for the PhD degree are expected to take the qualifying oral examination by the end of their fourth semester in the program. The purpose of the oral examination is to determine a student’s depth and breadth of scholarship in a chosen area of specialization (not necessarily their prospective dissertation research), as well as the student’s originality, capacity for synthesis and critical examination, intensity of intellectual curiosity, and clarity of communication.

Progress Reports
In the third and subsequent years of study, students are required to submit to the department, via their advisory committee, a summary of the status of their thesis research, detailing their accomplishments for the past year, and goals for both the coming year and the period until completion. These Progress Reports ensure that students, their advisors, and the Graduate Studies Committee have the same understanding of students’ progress toward the PhD degree.

Final Examination/Dissertation Defense
By the end of the sixth term at Harvard, candidates are required to submit to the department, via their advisory committee, the subject and general objectives of the proposed dissertation research. The dissertation subject must be approved by the advisory committee; details may be modified as the investigation progresses, but any major change in the subject and scope must be approved by the advisory committee. Candidates must submit the dissertation not more than five years after having passed the Qualifying Oral Examination.

The object of the dissertation is to show that candidates have technical mastery of the field in which they present themselves and that they are capable of independent research. The subject should be distinct and limited, and the writer should be able to formulate conclusions modifying or enlarging some aspects of present knowledge.

The final exam is usually held within a month after the dissertation has been submitted. There are two components to the final exam: the first is a private defense before a small faculty committee; the second is a public presentation to the department as a whole.

To learn more about courses, programs of study, and faculty research interests, please visit our website, or write directly to Sarah Colgan, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 20 Oxford Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. Information about admission and financial aid may be obtained by writing to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Holyoke Center, 3rd floor, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. We encourage online submission of the application. See the website.

Recent EPS Dissertation Titles

Joseph Bernstein, “Dynamics of turbulent jets in the atmosphere and ocean”

John Higgins, “The Global Carbon Cycle on Geologic Timescales: Insights from Magne­sium Isotopes and Numerical Models”

Kurt House, “On the Physics and Chemistry of Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage in Terrestrial and Marine Environments”

Karin Louzada, “The Effects of Impact Cratering on Planetary Crustal Magnetism”

Francis Macdonald, “Neoproterozoic stratig­raphy of Alaska and Mongolia”

Laurel Senft, “The Effect of Target Properties on Impact Crater Formation”

Martin Tingley, “A Bayesian approach to reconstructing space-time climate fields from proxy and instrumental time series, applied to 600 years of Northern Hemisphere surface temperature data”

Victor Tsai, “The Use of Simple Physical Models in Seismology and Glaciology”

Jonathan Wilson, “Reconstructing the Physi­ology of Extinct Plants”

Laure Zanna, “Optimal excitation of Atlantic ocean variability and implications for predict­ability” 

Faculty

James G. Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry. Gas-phase kinetics of free radicals; catalytic processes in the atmo­sphere controlling global change of ozone; high-altitude experiments from balloons and aircraft; development of laser systems for stratospheric and tropospheric studies; development of high-altitude, long-duration unmanned aircraft for studies of global change.

Jeremy Bloxham, Mallinckrodt Professor of Geophysics, Professor of Computational Science, Dean of Science. Planetary magnetic fields, dynamo theory, structure and dynamics of the Earth’s core and lower mantle, inverse theory, mathematical geophysics.

Adam M. Dziewonski, Frank B. Baird Jr., Professor of Science, Emeritus. Theoretical seis­mology, internal structure of the Earth, seismic tomography, earthquake source mechanisms, geo dynamics.

Brian F. Farrell, Robert P. Burden Professor of Meteorology. Explosive development of tropical and mid-latitude cyclones, predictability of weather regimes, dynamics of glacial and equable paleoclimates.

John Holdren, Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Belfer Center for International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government; Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Peter Huybers, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Paleoclimate, to include glacial cycles, ocean circulation, and Earth’s surface temperature, explored through observational analysis and mathematical models.

Miaki Ishii, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Internal structure of the earth, seismic source imaging, signal processing, theoretical seismology, and geody­namics.

Daniel J. Jacob, Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering. Air pollution, atmospheric transport, regional and global atmospheric chemistry, biosphere-atmosphere interactions, climate change.

Stein B. Jacobsen, Professor of Geochemistry. Isotope and trace element geochemistry; chemical evolution of Earth’s crust-mantle system; isotopic and chemical evolution of sea water.

David Johnston, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Isotope geochemistry and historical geobiology. Re-animating ancient ecosystems and ocean chemistry using stable isotope systems, chemical speciation techniques, modern microbial experiments (for calibration) and theoretical considerations.

Andrew H. Knoll, Fisher Professor of Natural History. Paleontology and sedimentary geology of Precambrian terrains; evolution of vascular plants in geologic time.

Zhiming Kuang, Assistant Professor of Climate Science. Tropical convection; large-scale atmosphere -ocean dynamics, with an emphasis on the tropics; space-borne measurements of atmospheric CO2 to study the global carbon cycle.

Charles H. Langmuir, Higgins Professor of Geochemistry. The solid Earth geochemical cycle, petrology, volcanology, ocean ridges, convergent margins, ocean islands, composi­tion and evolution of the Earth’s mantle.

Charles R. Marshall, Professor of Biology and Geology. Nature and causes of evolutionary innovation and extinction over geological time scales using techniques in paleontology, devel­opmental biology, statistics, molecular and morphological phylogenetics.

Scot T. Martin, Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Chemistry. Atmospheric parti­cles, cloud formation, and climate change; energy, pollution, and climate; mineral origins of life; energy technology; biosphere-atmo­sphere feedbacks.

James J. McCarthy, Professor of Biological Oceanography and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Biological ocean ography, phytoplankton ecology, nitrogen nutrition of phytoplankton.

Francis Macdonald, Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Earth history; field geology; tectonics; co-evolution of the crust, the ocean, climate, and life as revealed through field and geochemical studies of the strati­graphic record.

Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies. Chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, including interactions with the biosphere, evolution of planetary atmospheres.

Brendan Meade, Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Active tectonics; dynamics of fault systems and plate boundary zones; theoretical geomorphology.

Jerry X. Mitrovica, Professor of Geophysics. Ice age geodynamics, plate tectonics, mantle dynamics and structure, paleo- and modern climate, sea level change, planetary rotation, space geodesy.

Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor of Geochemistry (Co-Director of Graduate Studies). Noble gas geochemistry; record of cosmic dust flux from sediments, pro duction rates of cosmogenic nuclides and application to surface exposure dating, low temperature thermo­chronology, chemical evolution of the mantle­crust-atmosphere system.

Richard J. O’Connell, Professor of Geophysics. Geodynamics: mantle flow, convection and plate tectonics; models of tectonic processes; elasticity and rheology of rocks and minerals.

Ann Pearson, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Carbon isotope biogeochemistry; compound-specific 13C and 14C analysis of lipids and RNA; global organic carbon cycle; microbial metabolism in anoxic marine systems; sources of carbon to marine sediments.

James R. Rice, Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics. Crustal stressing and earthquake source processes, frac­ture theory, solid mechanics, materials science.

Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology; Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; Director of Harvard Univer­sity Center for the Environment. Geochemical oceanography, paleoclimatology, stable isotope geochemistry.

John H. Shaw, Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology and Depart­ment Chair. Structure of the Earth’s crust, active faulting and folding, earthquake hazards assessment, petroleum exploration methods, and remote sensing.

Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences. Experimental and computational study of impact processes; collisional processing and evolution of comets, asteroids and planetary surfaces; physical properties of planetary mate­rials.

Eli Tziperman, Pamela and Vasco McCoy Jr. Professor of Oceanography and Applied Physics (Co-Director of Graduate Studies). Large-scale climate and ocean dynamics, including El Niño, thermohaline circulation, abrupt climate change, glacial cycles, and equable climates.

Steven C. Wofsy, Abbot Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science. Chemistry of the atmosphere on global and regional scales, including strato­spheric and tropospheric chemistry.