The Masters of Science and Doctoral programs in Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) enable students to gain advanced knowledge, develop professional skills, and learn cutting-edge methdologies through specialized course work and by conducting research. Study and research are in numerous disciplinary cores including geophysics and tectonics, marine and environmental geology, volcanology/geochemistry/petrology, mineral physics and earth materials, remote sensing, planetary science, and space technology are pursued with advisors in the Dept. of Earth Sciences or the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. Students have access to a wide array of field sites, and world-class laboratory, computing, and ship-based research facilities.
Students with EPS graduate degrees (both MS and PhD) pursue careers in industry, government, or in colleges and universities. Geoscience frontiers and challenges of the future including assessing the causes and risks of natural hazards (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, land and beach degradation, sea level rise), understanding past and future climates, unraveling the evolution and composition of Earth's core, mantle, and crust, gaining knowledge about and managing natural resources (water, mineral, energy, beaches), and discovering processes of planetary bodies within, or well beyond, our solar system.