Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences
Where place meets purpose. Explore the connections between people and planet to solve tomorrow's challenges through cutting-edge geospatial technologies and environmental innovation.
What is Geographic and Environmental Sciences?
Geographic and Environmental Sciences is your gateway to understanding and solving the complex relationships between people, places and our changing planet. Our dynamic field empowers you to explore spatial and temporal connections while developing innovative solutions to pressing global challenges through cutting-edge research and experiential learning. You'll master geospatial technologies like GIS and remote sensing while tackling real-world problems from environmental sustainability to urban analytics and meteorological forecasting.
Whether you're passionate about environmental change, cultural dynamics or urban planning, our specialized tracks prepare you for the fastest-growing careers of tomorrow. Here, your curiosity about the world transforms into the expertise and leadership that creates sustainable communities, protects our environment and builds resilient solutions for future generations.
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Broaden Your Impact with Geographic and Environmental Expertise
Why study Geographic and Environmental Sciences?
Annual job openings projected for environmental scientists & specialists across industry, government & research
Projected employment growth for cartographers & photogrammetrists
Median annual wage across life, physical & social science occupations
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Ready to explore where place meets purpose?
Apply today to join Geographic and Environmental Sciences' vibrant community. Explore our programs, meet faculty, and start your journey toward a successful career.
Career Prospects
Where Science Meets Solutions for Our Changing World
A Geographic and Environmental Sciences degree gives you more than knowledge of the natural world — it gives you the spatial reasoning, data analysis and systems thinking that governments, businesses and research institutions depend on to make decisions about land, resources, climate and communities. From GIS mapping and environmental consulting to urban planning, meteorology and sustainability strategy, this degree opens doors across some of the most consequential fields of the coming decade.
GES graduates work in federal and state agencies, environmental consulting firms, technology companies, urban planning offices, research institutions, nonprofits and the private sector. The skills you build here — analyzing spatial data, modeling environmental systems, understanding how human activity shapes physical landscapes — are skills that translate across industries and grow more valuable as the world grapples with climate change, resource scarcity and rapid urbanization.
You'll graduate with hands-on fieldwork experience, GIS technical skills and an interdisciplinary foundation that employers across five distinct tracks consistently seek. Our graduates turn their passion for place and planet into careers that map the future, protect natural systems and build more sustainable communities.
Explore Career Pathways in Geographic and Environmental Sciences
Map Your Future in the Fastest-Growing Field
Ready to join the 85-98% of our graduates building successful careers in environmental and geospatial sciences? Your passion for place and planet becomes your pathway to solving tomorrow's greatest challenges and shaping a sustainable future.