From sustainable energy and climate change, to earthquakes, volcanoes, rivers and glaciers, from the origin of life on Earth to the potential for life on other planets, we lead in educating and inspiring the next generation of scientists.
AboutEducationAlumni & Community
The Department of Earth and Space Sciences offers an expansive educational experience. We provide a rigorous interdisciplinary program in which students develop an understanding of the fundamentals of Earth, space, and planetary sciences, and learn relevant skills for a variety of careers.
The Earth and space sciences — geology, geophysics, geobiology and geochemistry — play a critical and unique role in the advancement of knowledge, improvement of the quality of life, and in understanding humanity’s place in the universe. Research in Earth and space sciences draws on methods and theory from chemistry, physics, biology and computational sciences.
Faculty in our department are concerned both with fundamental research and with the dissemination of Earth-science knowledge in the service of society.
Limited resources, geologic hazards, and related environmental change are among the most serious challenges we face. We use our expertise to provide the training and education required to address these challenges, and we are engaged in serious efforts to include a more diverse community of scientists, students and stakeholders than in the past.
A new paper by UW ESS Professor David Catling and Assistant Professor Josh Krissansen-Totton, recently accepted in the Astrophysical Journal, explores how deuterium could play a key role in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Read moreESS alum Carrie Garrison-Laney (UW Washington Sea Grant) is quoted and current ESS graduate student Bering Tse is mentioned in this Washington Post article on Cascadia paleotsunami research.
Read more at the Washington PostThree ESS faculty, professor Fang-Zhen Teng, associate professor Marine Denolle, and professor David Montgomery are among recipients of the College of the Environment’s Seed Grant Program designed to foster new cross-college collaborations that use a system-based approach to understand environmental challenges.
Read more at UW Environment