Environmental Studies

Program Offerings

Offering type
Minor

For more than 30 years, the Program in Environmental Studies (ENV), now based in the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI), has aimed to equip Princeton students with the skills to address critical environmental challenges that they will face throughout their careers and in life. Our guiding ethos is grounded in the appreciation that environmental challenges — both present and future — cannot be solved by any one discipline alone, but require concerted, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary efforts, spanning all four divisions of the university. To that end, the program is designed to attract students from all disciplinary backgrounds and with varied interests, and to allow them to tailor their learning while also ensuring that they are exposed to fundamental environmental questions and methods/approaches through a variety of complementary lenses. In that sense, the ENV minor is designed to complement majors and not overlap or compete with them: specifically, it aims to provide a much broader multidisciplinary lens than any individual department or even individual division could.

 

Goals for Student Learning

The ENV program aims to achieve a coherent structure in support of two fundamental goals: (1) to provide a multidisciplinary and complementary academic experience to students from diverse academic backgrounds and disciplines, and with diverse interests in environmental questions; and (2) to do so in a way that allows students the freedom and support to tailor their own path. To this end, the key learning goals of the ENV program are:

  • Via core courses, to give students a broadly accessible introduction to the key environmental concepts and challenges, seen through a variety of lenses: scientific, humanistic, policy, etc. Those students who seek lab experience have the option to take a version of a core course that has a science lab component.
  • Via foundational courses, to give students an in-depth exposure to specific topics of interest treated through at least two very different lenses that span not just different disciplines but different divisions. Students will learn how different disciplines frame research questions on the same topic, what methods they use to pursue them and how they communicate their results both to peers and broadly. It is this ambitiously complementary and multidisciplinary approach — rather than any specific topic per se — that constitutes the major learning goal for the program.
  • Via an ample and varied selection of elective courses, to give students the freedom to pursue the topics of greatest interest either by deepening their knowledge in certain areas or by exploring altogether different topics.
  • Via independent work, to give students the opportunity to sit with their own environment-related question and bring their own background, insights and expertise to tackle it.
  • Via the senior capstone experience, to give a cohort of students that tends to span 12-15 different departments from across all divisions the opportunity to discuss together the environmental issues that they deem most pressing and bring their own insights and expertise to bear.

Prerequisites

None, but students are strongly encouraged to complete at least one of the two 200-level ENV foundational courses, ENV 210A: Scientific Foundations of the Environmental Nexus (SEN), or ENV 210B: Scientific Foundations of the Environmental Nexus (SEL), or ENV 238: Environmental Movements: From Wilderness Protection to Climate Justice (SA) prior to declaring the minor.

Admission to the Program

Students may declare the minor as early as the spring of their sophomore year but no later than fall semester of junior year.

Undergraduates wishing to pursue an environmental studies minor should complete the ENV Minor Enrollment Form. Once submitted, you will be contacted by email to schedule an appointment with the ENV program director, Allison Carruth ([email protected]), or Amber Lee ([email protected]), the undergraduate/graduate program manager, to discuss your program of study.

Program of Study

The Minor in Environmental Studies is open to students concentrating in any academic discipline and designed for students seeking a broad, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary introduction to environmental topics. To be eligible for the minor, students are required to complete two foundational courses, at least one of which is at or above the 300 level, and three elective courses, at least two of which are at or above the 300 level. Of the five courses, at least two courses must be in Humanities and/or Social Sciences and two must be in Natural Sciences and/or Engineering. Find more information on academic Areas of Study at Princeton. A foundation course may be used as an elective course, but an elective course may not be used as a foundation course. No more than one elective course satisfying the requirement for the ENV minor may also be counted toward the student’s departmental major or another minor/certificate.

Students are required to participate in a capstone series of 2-3 dinner discussions in their senior year. 

Independent Work

Independent Research
Students must investigate an environmental topic as a component of their independent work, which can take one of four forms: 

  • a substantial part (e.g., a chapter) of their senior thesis.
  • a junior paper submitted to fulfill departmental requirement; supervising faculty needs to attest to its ENV focus.
  • a 15-20 page final report based on work done (at any stage of their undergrad career) during an HMEI internship supervised by a University faculty. The supervising faculty must review and sign off on the paper as being of sufficient quality to satisfy an independent paper requirement.
  • a 15-20 page independent paper supervised and approved by an HMEI or HMEI-affiliated faculty.

In all these instances, when the supervising faculty is in doubt about whether the environmental focus is sufficient to satisfy the minor requirement, the student needs to reach out to the ENV program director to obtain approval prior to embarking on the work.

Additional Requirements

Students pursuing the ENV minor are required to participate in HMEI’s annual Discovery Day poster show in the spring of their senior year, in which they share with fellow students, faculty and staff the motivation, methodology and final results of their independent research.

Faculty

  • Director

    • Allison Carruth

  • Executive Committee

    • Ian C. Bourg, Civil and Environmental Eng
    • Allison Carruth, Effron Center Study of America
    • Luc Deike, Mechanical & Aerospace Eng
    • Curtis A. Deutsch, Geosciences
    • Navroz K. Dubash, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Lars O. Hedin, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
    • Reed M. Maxwell, Civil and Environmental Eng
    • Anne McClintock, Gender & Sexuality Studies Pgm
    • Rob Nixon, English
    • Michael Oppenheimer, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Amilcare M. Porporato, Civil and Environmental Eng
    • Anu Ramaswami, Civil and Environmental Eng
    • Laure Resplandy, Geosciences
    • Gabriel A. Vecchi, Geosciences
    • Gabriele Villarini, Civil and Environmental Eng
    • Bess Ward, Geosciences
    • David S. Wilcove, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Jerry C. Zee, Anthropology
    • Xinning Zhang, Geosciences

For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

Courses

ENV 304 - Disease Ecology, Economics, and Policy (also ECO 328/EEB 304/SPI 455) Fall SEN

The dynamics of the emergence and spread of disease arise from a complex interplay among disease ecology, economics, and human behavior. Lectures will provide an introduction to complementarities between economic and epidemiological approaches to understanding the emergence, spread, and control of infectious diseases. The course will cover topics such as drug-resistance in bacterial and parasitic infections, individual incentives to vaccinate, the role of information in the transmission of infectious diseases, and the evolution of social norms in healthcare practices. One three-hour lecture, one preceptorial. C. Metcalf

ENV 305 - Topics in Environmental Studies Spring SA

Special topics courses related to the broad field of environmental studies. F. Popper, D. Popper

ENV 306 - Topics in Environmental Studies Spring HA

Special topics courses related to the broad field of environmental studies. Seminar. J. Ruderman

ENV 310 - Environmental Law and Moot Court Spring SA

Examining the relationship between law and environmental policy, this course focuses on cases that have established policy principles. The first half of the seminar will be conducted using the Socratic method. The second half will allow students to reargue either the plaintiff or defendant position in a key case, which will be decided by the classroom jury. L. Mehranvar, D. Greenhouse

ANT 219 - Catastrophes across Cultures: The Anthropology of Disaster (also ENV 219) SA

What is the relationship between "catastrophe" and human beings, and how has "catastrophe" influenced the way we live in the world now? This course investigates various types of catastrophes/disasters around the world by mobilizing a variety of theoretical frameworks and case studies in the social sciences. The course uses an anthropological perspective as its principal lens to comparatively observe often forgotten historical calamities throughout the world. The course is designed to explore the intersection between catastrophe and culture and how catastrophic events can be a window through which to critically analyze society and vice versa. R. Morimoto

ARC 406 - Energy and Form (also ENV 406) Not offered this year

Introduction to concepts of energy utilization and conservation in building. Course presents the physics of building thermal performance, including quantitative methods, and discusses conservation strategies in building design and source energy. Passive design and alternative energy sources, including wind and solar-thermal, will be covered. One three-hour seminar. Staff

ARC 492 - Topics in the Formal Analysis of the Urban Structure (also ENV 492/URB 492) Spring

The Western city, American and European, has undergone a number of mutations since the Renaissance. This course will explore the complex relationships between different cities and architecture, between "real" cities and "fictional" architectural cities. Possible topics might include: urbanization as it affects contemporary life; the American vs. European city; the state of New Jersey, the exurban state "par excellence." One three-hour seminar. M. Gandelsonas

ART 470 - Early Modern European Art (also ECS 471/ENV 470) Spring HA or LA

This seminar explores the history of early modern European printing and its materials, with a focus on Albrecht Dürer. An underlying assumption of the course is that art-making materials and practices are linked to contemporary conceptions and theories of nature. From 1450 to 1850, the natural resources most commonly deployed for printing were wood, metal, and stone. Their use was shaped by environmental conditions, and had an impact on the ecology of their places of origin. While the course will focus on European print culture, and Albrecht Dürer when possible, it also will refer to early modern print materials and practices from East Asia. S. Dackerman

CEE 207 - Introduction to Environmental Engineering (also ENV 207) Fall QCR

The course introduces the students to the basic chemical and physical processes of relevance in environmental engineering. Mass and energy balance and transport concepts are introduced and the chemical principles governing reaction kinetics and phase partitioning are presented. We then turn our focus to the applications in environmental engineering problems related to water and air pollution. Two 80-minute lectures, one precept. Prerequisite: CHM 201 and MAT 104 (can be taken concurrently) or instructor's permission. I. Bourg

CEE 304 - Environmental Engineering and Energy (also ENE 304/ENV 300) Not offered this year

The course covers the environmental and geological engineering principles relevant to the entire energy supply chain from mining and extraction of fuels, to power production, to disposal of wastes and sequestration of greenhouse gases. Both conventional and renewable energy are considered. Students will learn the engineering principles and practices to address environmental challenges and to find the best ways to utilize earth systems to our advantage. This course is a requirement for the Geological Engineering certificate program. Two lectures. Prerequisites: CHM201 and MAT104 or permission of the instructor. C. Peters

CEE 306 - Hydrology: Water and Climate (also ENV 318) Spring SEN

Analysis of fundamental processes in the hydrologic cycle, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, infiltration, streamflow and groundwater flow. Course is required for concentrators. Prerequisite: MAT 201. Two lectures, one preceptorial. R. Maxwell

CEE 334 - Global Environmental Issues (also ENE 334/ENV 334/SPI 452) Spring SEN

This course examines a set of global environmental issues including population growth, ozone layer depletion, climate change, air pollution, the environmental consequences of energy supply and demand decisions and sustainable development. It provides an overview of the scientific basis for these problems and examines past, present and possible future policy responses. Individual projects, presentations, and problem sets are included. Prerequisites: AP Chemistry, CHM 201, or permission of instructor. Two lectures, one precept. D. Mauzerall

CEE 474 - Special Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering (also ENV 474) Fall SEN

This course examines how cities modify their environment, with a focus on the grand urban challenges of the 21st century related to climate, water, and pollution. It starts with an introduction to the challenge of urbanization and how the population and size of cities can be quantified and modeled. We then examine heat, air and water flow in cities, focusing on how they induce urban heat islands, exacerbate floods, modify power consumption, and reduce thermal comfort. We conclude the course with an examination of how buildings and cities can be designed to be more sustainable and sensitive to their climate. Not open to freshmen. Two lectures. G. Villarini

EEB 308 - Conservation Biology (also ENV 365) Fall SEN

Students will use ecological principles and policy analysis to examine conflicts between human activities such as farming, forestry, and infrastructure development, and the conservation of species and ecosystem services. Two lectures, one preceptorial. D. Wilcove

EEB 321 - Ecology: Species Interactions, Biodiversity and Society (also ENV 384) Fall SEL

How do wild organisms interact with each other, their physical environments, and human societies? Lectures will examine a series of fundamental topics in ecology -- herbivory, predation, competition, mutualism, species invasions, biogeographic patterns, extinction, climate change, and conservation, among others--through the lens of case studies drawn from all over the world. Readings will provide background information necessary to contextualize these case studies and clarify the linkages between them. Precepts and fieldwork will explore the process of translating observations and data into an understanding of how the natural world works. Staff

EEB 417A - Ecosystems, Climate Change and Global Food (also ENV 417A) Fall SEN

An introduction to the concepts, approaches, and methods for studying complex ecological systems, from local to global scales. Students will examine nutrient cycling, energy flow, and evolutionary processes, with emphasis on experimental approaches and comparisons between terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Particular attention will be on effects of human activities, including climate change, biodiversity loss, eutrophication, and acid rain. Prerequisites: 210 or 211 or equivalent; CHM 301 or equivalent. Two 90-minute classes. L. Hedin

EEB 417B - Ecosystems, Climate Change and Global Food (also ENV 417B) Not offered this year SEL

An introduction to the concepts, approaches, and methods for studying complex ecological systems, from local to global scales. Students will examine nutrient cycling, energy flow, and evolutionary processes, with emphasis on experimental approaches and comparisons between terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Particular attention will be on effects of human activities, including climate change, biodiversity loss, eutrophication, and acid rain. Prerequisites: 210 or 211 or equivalent; CHM 301 or equivalent. Two 90-minute classes, one three-hour laboratory. L. Hedin

ENE 202 - Designing Sustainable Systems (also ARC 208/EGR 208/ENV 206) Not offered this year SEL

The course presents global anthropogenic impacts on the environment and their relationship to sustainable design. It focuses on understanding principles of applied sciences, and how IoT and Digital Fabrication facilitates rapid and deployable sensors and systems to make and analyze designs. Part 1) Global Change and Environmental Impacts: studying influences on basic natural systems and cycles and how we can evaluate them to rethink building design. Part 2) Designing Sustainable Systems: address learned synergies between making buildings more efficient and less prone to disease transmission through alternative heating cooling and ventilation. F. Meggers

ENE 321 - Resource Recovery for a Circular Economy (also CEE 321/ENV 371)

The course will focus on emerging science and technologies that enable the transition from our traditional linear economy (take, make, waste) to a new circular economy (reduce, reuse, recycle). It will discuss the fundamental theories and applied technologies that are capable of converting traditional waste materials or environmental pollutants such as wastewater, food waste, plastics, e-waste, and CO2, etc. into value-added products including energy, fuels, chemicals, and food products. Z. Ren

ENE 372 - Rapid Switch: The Energy Transition Challenge to a Low-carbon Future (also EGR 372/ENV 372) Spring QCR

The Paris Accord signaled a global consensus on climate risks and the need for a rapid switch to clean energy. Not well comprehended are the scale and pace of the needed transformations. Bottlenecks encountered during rapid, large-scale change, must be anticipated and addressed to achieve climate goals. Princeton's Net-Zero America study (2021) provides highly-granular insights on the scale and pace of change and on impacts to the environment, finances, jobs and more. Students will build on that study to analyze sub-regional energy transitions through multi-disciplinary lenses to assure the successful decarbonization of the U.S. E. Larson, C. Greig

ENE 431 - Solar Energy Conversion (also ECE 431/EGR 431/ENV 431) QCR

Principles and design of solar energy conversion systems. Quantity and availability of solar energy. Physics and chemistry of solar energy conversion: solar optics, optical excitation, capture of excited energy, and transport of excitations or electronic charge. Conversion methods: thermal, wind, photoelectric, photoelectrochemical, photosynthetic, biomass. Solar energy systems: low and high temperature conversion, photovoltaics. Storage of solar energy. Conversion efficiency, systems cost, and lifecycle considerations. B. Rand

GEO 102A - Climate: Past, Present, and Future (also ENV 102A/STC 102A) Fall SEN

Which human activities are changing our climate, and does climate change constitute a major problem? We will investigate these questions through an introduction to climate processes and an exploration of climate from the distant past to today. We will also consider the impact of former and ongoing climate changes on the global environment and on humanity. Finally, we will draw on climate science to identify and evaluate possible courses of action. Intended to be accessible to students not concentrating in science or engineering. Two 80-minute lectures per week. D. Sigman

GEO 102B - Climate: Past, Present, and Future (also ENV 102B/STC 102B) Fall SEL

Which human activities are changing our climate, and does climate change constitute a major problem? We will investigate these questions through an introduction to climate processes and an exploration of climate from the distant past to today. We will also consider the impact of former and ongoing climate changes on the global environment and on humanity. Finally, we will draw on climate science to identify and evaluate possible courses of action. Intended to be accessible to students not concentrating in science or engineering. Two 80-minute lectures per week and one three-hour laboratory per week. D. Sigman

GEO 202 - Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate (also ENV 326) Spring SEN

The ocean and atmosphere control Earth's climate. We explore the circulation of the ocean and atmosphere, their chemical compositions and their interactions that make up the climate system, including exchanges of heat and carbon. We then investigate how these circulations control ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles of the Earth system. Finally, we focus on climate change and human impacts on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. This course is primarily intended for students concentrating in science or engineering or those undertaking the Climate Science minor in Geosciences. One weekly precept complements lectures B. Ward

GEO 360 - Topics in Environmental Justice in the Geosciences (also ENV 356) Spring SEL

Humans have profoundly altered the chemistry of Earth's air, water, and soil. This course explores these changes with an emphasis on the analytical techniques used to measure the human impact. Topics include the accumulation of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) in Earth's atmosphere and the contamination of drinking water at the tap and in the ground. Students will get hands on training in mass spectrometry and spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition of air, water, and soil and will participate in an outreach project aimed at providing chemical analyses of urban tap waters to residents of Trenton, NJ. J. Higgins

GEO 361 - Earth's Atmosphere (also CEE 360/ENV 361) Not offered this year SEN

This class discusses fundamental aspects of Earth's climate with a focus on the fundamental atmospheric processes that render Earth "habitable," and how they may respond to the forcing originating from natural (such as volcanoes) and anthropogenic (such as emission of carbon dioxide and ozone-depleting gases) processes. S. Fueglistaler

GEO 362 - Earth History (also ENV 362) Spring SEN

The chemical cycles of ocean and atmosphere and their interaction with Earth's biota. Topics include: the origin of the ocean's salt; the major and biologically active gases in the atmosphere and ocean; nutrients and ocean fertility; the global carbon cycle; the reactive chemistry of the atmosphere. Prerequisites: CHM 201/202 or higher; GEO 202 and/or GEO 361; or permission of the instructor. Three lectures. J. Higgins

GEO 363 - Environmental Chemistry: Chemistry of the Natural Systems (also CHM 331/ENV 331) Fall SEN

Covers topics including origin of elements; formation of the Earth; evolution of the atmosphere and oceans; atomic theory and chemical bonding; crystal chemistry and ionic substitution in crystals; reaction equilibria and kinetics in aqueous and biological systems; chemistry of high-temperature melts and crystallization process; and chemistry of the atmosphere, soil, marine, and riverine environments. The biogeochemistry of contaminants and their influence on the environment will also be discussed. Two 90-minute lectures. Prerequisite: one term of college chemistry or instructor's permission. S. Myneni

GEO 366 - Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation, Policy (also ENE 366/ENV 339/SPI 451) Not offered this year SEN

An exploration of the potential consequences of human-induced climate change and their implications for policy responses, focusing on risks to people, societies, and ecosystems. As one example: we examine the risk to coastal cities from sea level rise, and measures being planned and implemented to enable adaptation. In addition, we explore local, national, and international policy initiatives to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The course assumes students have a basic background in the causes of human-induced climate change and the physical science of the climate system. Two 90-minute lectures, one preceptorial M. Oppenheimer

GEO 369 - Environmental Materials Chemistry: Researching in Field and Laboratory (also ENV 388/MSE 369) Spring SEN

The course covers concepts related to the chemistry of inorganic and organic materials found in the pristine and contaminated settings in the Earth surface environments, with an introduction to the modern field sampling techniques and advanced laboratory analytical and imaging tools. Different materials characterization methods, such as optical, infrared, and synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy and microscopy, will also be introduced. Field sampling and analysis of materials from diverse soil and coastal marine environments will be the focus during the second half of the semester. S. Myneni

GEO 370 - Sedimentology (also CEE 370/ENV 370) Not offered this year SEN

A treatment of the physical and chemical processes that shape Earth's surface, such as solar radiation, deformation of the solid Earth, and the flow of water (vapor, liquid, and solid) under the influence of gravity. In particular, the generation, transport, and preservation of sediment in response to these processes are studied in order to better read stories of Earth history in the geologic record and to better understand processes involved in modern and ancient environmental change. Prerequisites: MAT 104, PHY 103, CHM 201, or equivalents.Two lectures, required spring break field trip, students do lab work as groups on their own time A. Maloof

GEO 470 - Environmental Chemistry of Soils (also CHM 470/ENV 472) Spring

Focuses on the inorganic and organic constituents of aqueous, solid, and gaseous phases of soils, and fundamental chemical principles and processes governing the reactions between different constituents. The role of soil chemical processes in the major and trace element cycles, and the biogeochemical transformation of different soil contaminants will be discussed in the later parts of the course. Prerequisites: GEO363/CHM331/ENV331, or any other basic chemistry course. Two 90-minute lectures. S. Myneni

GLS 312 - Documentary Filmmaking in Kenya (also AFS 312/ENV 308/VIS 310) Not offered this year LA

This seminar will address two essential questions: How can the art of film advance the causes of science? How do communities use media to support their environmental activism? Based in Kenya, students will be trained in digital video production, screenwriting, and editing, and will produce a series of short and long documentaries. Filming will entail numerous trips into the field, interviewing, and recording. The seminar will help students begin to understand crucial international development issues, e.g., water, wildlife, and land use, and how to communicate memorably about them through video. S. Friedrich

HIS 432 - Environment and War (also ENV 432) Fall HA

Studies of war and society rarely address environmental factors and agency. The relationship between war and environment is often either reduced to a simple environmental determinism or it is depicted as a war against nature and ecosystems, playing down societal dynamics. The seminar explores the different approaches to the war-environment-society nexus and highlights how and why the three spheres should be studied in conjunction. The objective is to assess how and why environmental and societal factors and forces caused and shaped the conflicts and how in turn mass violence shaped societies and how they used and perceived their environments. E. Kreike

MAE 328 - Energy for a Greenhouse-Constrained World (also EGR 328/ENE 328/ENV 328) Not offered this year SEN

This course addresses, in technical detail, the challenge of changing the future global energy system to accommodate constraints on the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Energy production strategies are emphasized, including renewable energy, nuclear fission and fusion, the capture and storage of fossil-fuel carbon, and hydrogen and low-carbon fuels. Efficient energy use is also considered, as well as intersections of energy with economic development, international security, local environmental quality, and human behavior and values. Two 90-minute lectures. J. Mikhailova

SPI 306 - Environmental Economics (also ECO 329/ENV 319) Fall SA

An introduction to the use of economics in thinking about and dealing with environmental issues. Stress on economic externalities and the problem of dealing with them as instances of organizing gains from trade. Applications to a wide variety of problems, among them air pollution (including, importantly, global climate change), water pollution, solid waste and hazardous substances management, species preservation, and population policy. S. Brunnermeier

SPI 350 - The Environment: Science and Policy (also ENV 350) Not offered this year SEN

This course examines a set of critical environmental issues including population growth, ozone layer depletion, climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services and depletion of global fisheries. It provides an overview of the scientific basis for these problems and examines past, present and possible future policy responses. Staff

STC 349 - Writing about Science (also ENV 349/JRN 349) Fall SEN

This course will teach STEM & non-STEM majors how to write about research in STEM fields with clarity and a bit of flair. Goal will be to learn to convey technical topics to non-experts in a compelling, enjoyable way while staying true to the underlying facts, context and concepts. We'll do this through readings, class discussion, encounters with professional writers and journalists of all sorts, across several different media. Most important of all, students will practice what they learn in frequent writing assignments that will be critiqued extensively by an experienced science journalist. M. Lemonick