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Description
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Opening for admission in
Fall of 2000 at SUIC is a new Ph.D. program in Environmental
Resources and Policy (ERP). ERP is the study of
human-ecological systems with natural resources systems such
as agriculture, energy, water, and forestry. The ERP Ph.D.
will be administered directly by the Graduate School with a
Director and a Governing Committee. The program consolidates
the university's current Ph.D.s in Geography and Geology,
while also including the College of Agriculture as an equal
partner. The Colleges of Engineering and Law will also
participate. Over 50 faculty will be involved in the
program, especially those in the departments of Geography,
Geology, Agribusiness Economics, Forestry and Plant and Soil
Science, and General Agriculture.
Driving themes of ERP
include the complexity of dynamic systems and building
sustainable natural resource systems, especially in the
fields of food, water and energy. Computer technologies such
as the Internet and GIS will be emphasized. An active
internship program will also be maintained. The program was
developed, in part, as a response to recent academic
literature and recent statements by the National Science
Board's Task Force on the Environment and inter-disciplinary
think tanks that the study of the relationships between
human populations, economies, natural resources and the
environment is critical and requires inter-disciplinary
approaches, especially approaches that cross the
natural/social science divide.
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