Courses
Highlights of Curriculum Philosophy
The program emphasizes research training and developing the student’s self-reliance and self-confidence for independent work.
Entering students without an identified thesis advisor are invited to rotate through the mentorship of several faculty members until an advisor can be identified. This process should take place preferably within the first two semesters of the enrollment of a student in the program.
Whenever pedagogically advantageous, the program adopts a team-teaching system, whereby each faculty member teaches the subsection in a course in his or her area of primary expertise.
In keeping up with the international stature of the program, all courses will be offered in English.
Course Distribution
The typical course distribution is as follows:
(1) Required course for all students –Introductory Earth System Science.
(2) Core courses in declared area of concentration –2 courses out of the listed 5 courses in the declared area of concentration of the student.
(3) Elective courses – Any number of the remaining courses offered by the ESS program.If elective courses are not offered by the ESS program, the credits cannot be included in the credits required for graduation
(4) Seminar and Research discussion – to be taken for at least four times. It is the responsibility of the advisor to assist each student in formulating a program of study that will best satisfy his or her personal needs and fulfill the graduation requirements. Depending on the background of the incoming student, a prescribed program of additional courses for making up background deficiencies might be required as part of the degree requirements. Students are expected to complete at least 18 credit units within the first two years of enrollment. Students are also required to take a one-credit course on “Seminar and Research Discussion” in each semester, for a total of four credit hours, during the first two years of their enrollments in the program.
Course Offering
Four types of courses are being offered: (1) Required courses (2) Core courses in each area of concentration (3) Elective courses (4) Elementary Chinese.
1. Required courses:
- Introductory Earth System Science (3 credit units)
- Seminar and Research Discussion (1 credit unit)
2. Core courses: (3 credit units each)
- Atmospheric Sciences
- Global Hydrological Cycles
- Environmental Ecology and Biodiversity
- The Solid Earth
- Anthroposphere and Sustainability
3. Elective courses: (3 credit units each)
- Methods for Atmospheric Monitoring
- Space Weather
- Atmospheric Chemical Models
- Health Risk Assessment for Environmental Pollution Issues
- Introduction to Planetary Atmospheres and Astrobiology
- Marine Biogeochemical Cycle
- Marine Organic Chemistry
- Aquatic Chemistry
- Isotopic Geochemistry
- Marine Biogeochemistry Laboratory
- Marine Biogeochemical Models
- Strong Motion Seismology (2 credit units)
- Observational Seismology (2 credit units)
- Tectonic Geomorphology (2 credit units)
- Wave Propagation
- Computational Seismology (2 credit units)
- Crustal Deformation (2 credit units)
- Earthquake Source Mechanism (2 credit units)
- Seismic Exploration (2 credit units)
- Marine Biogeochemistry
- Physical Oceanography
- Marine Ecology
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Changes
- Atmospheric Dynamics
- Aerosols and Air Pollution
- Global Seismology
- General Geophysics
- Geology and Tectonics
- Land-Atmosphere Interactions
- Atmospheric Radiation
- Cloud physics
- Aquatic Biogeochemistry
- Aquatic Biogeochemistry Laboratory
- Regional Paleoceanography
- Paleolimnology
- Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
- Earth System Model
- Ocean-atmosphere interaction and ocean climate
- Quaternary Geochronology
- Isotope Geology
- Climate and Ocean: From past to future
- Invitation to Paleoceanography
- Land-Atmosphere Interaction
- Solar forcing and climate
- Marine organic carbon biogeochemistry special topics*
- Quaternary geochronology
- Stable isotope geochemistry
- Regional Paleoceanography
- Marine Biogeochemistry
- Marine Biogeochemistry Lab
- Introduction of Geochronology*
- Introduction to Volcanic Processes*
- Statistical Seismology
- Scientific Programming
- Seismic Data Analysis
- Seismic Hazard Assessment
- Special topics on Synthetic Aperture Radar (I)
- Regional Paleoceanography
- Marine geology and General Geophysics
- Climate Change: Crisis and its solution
- Earth Resources Nexus: food, energy, and water
- Health Adaptation Research in the Changing Environments
- System of Sustainable Consumption and Production
- Transdisciplinary Approach for Sustainability Research
- Environmental Data Analysis