Program in Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences
Graduate School
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland
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University of Maryland, Baltimore - Program in Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences - Overview
University of Maryland MEES Program Leads to MS and PhD Degrees
The University of Maryland's Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences (MEES) Program is a graduate program leading to MS and PhD degrees. The mission of the MEES program is to train graduate students in the environmental sciences. There is a clear need for scientists with training in this area, given the multitude of environmental problems faced by society today.
The University of Maryland's MEES Program was established in 1978 as an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional, and system-wide graduate program. Today, it is one of the largest environmental graduate programs in the University System of Maryland with faculty members drawn from four universities and two research institutions, including departments of the Baltimore Campus (UMB), Baltimore County Campus (UMBC), the College Park Campus (UMCP), the Eastern Shore Campus (UMES), and any of the four laboratories of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).
The title of the program emphasizes the University of Maryland's strengths in marine and estuarine sciences, although the program spans environmental science as a whole, irrespective of habitat. To ensure that all students in the program have some understanding of the breadth of information in the field of environmental science, each student is required to have course work in a variety of areas regardless of whether they study on the main campus in College Park, or one of the other USM campuses.
Interdisciplinary Nature of MEES Program at UM Allows Students to Pursue Their Interests
The University of Maryland's MEES program is interdisciplinary; its faculty consists of members from numerous units within the University System of Maryland. In most cases, students within the MEES program work in the laboratory of their research adviser in the department or unit to which the adviser belongs.
This may be a department of the Baltimore City or Baltimore County campuses, the College Park campus, or the Eastern Shore campus; or laboratories of the University of MD Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) -- the Appalachian Laboratory, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, the Horn Point Laboratory, or the Institute of Marine and Environmental technology.
Courses taken by MEES students are taught on all campuses of USM and at the research laboratories. In general, basic or fundamental courses are offered on the campuses, whereas more advanced and specialized courses are offered at both the campuses and research laboratories. A course taught anywhere within USM is available to any graduate student registered at any campus through intercampus enrollment.
The interests of faculty and students within the MEES program have led to six formally defined areas of specialization (AOSs), from which a student may choose. The AOSs are: ecology, environmental chemistry, environmental molecular biology and biotechnology, environmental science, fisheries science, and oceanography. Each student will choose an AOS when applying, and both admission and program requirements will depend on the AOS and the student's background and interests.
University of Maryland MEES Students Well-Equipped to Find Employment after Graduation
The benefits of the MEES program, mentioned briefly above, are several in number. The state of Maryland (and the nation) have made available to them a corps of persons equipped to fill the many responsible research and administrative posts constantly opening in the areas directly covered by the program. Students are able to acquire advanced degrees in areas fulfilling their ambitions without going to institutions outside the state of Maryland, and the job market, in-state alone, favors their employment upon graduation.
The MEES program attracts high quality students, both internationally and nationally. Included in the rationale for the program are the significant facts that, in many ways, the program is the only one of its kind within the nation. The multidisciplinary nature, coupled with strategic physical locations of participating institutions, gives Maryland the ideal opportunity to serve widespread state and federal needs and, at the same time, strengthen its own stature across the nation as an attractive center of graduate learning in the environmental sciences.