This Program of Study

The sustainability of development presents probably the most important policy challenges concerning the way forward for our world. None of those central issues could be understood in the sole outlook during a conventional discipline, whether within the social, natural, engineering or health sciences. The objective of the Ph.D. in Sustainable Development is to produce a generation of scholars and professionals outfitted to cope with probably the most crucial problems these days.

Housed in the School of Worldwide and Public Matters (SIPA), the Ph.D. in Sustainable Development combines a conventional graduate education within the social sciences, particularly financial aspects, with study within the natural sciences and engineering, to organize scholars who’re distinctively situated to attempt serious research and policy assessments in furthering the aim of sustainable development.

Many graduates will pursue academic careers in interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate programs having a concentrate on policy and also the atmosphere plus the greater traditional social science disciplines. Others will choose nonacademic positions, taking leadership roles in government ministries within the U . s . States and around the world, focusing on ecological and sustainable development insurance policy for NGOs in worldwide institutions like the IMF and also the World Bank or perhaps in private firms involved in ecological and development projects.

The Curriculum

This program’s curriculum includes some rigorous core needs within the social and natural sciences designed to supply a deep knowledge of the interaction between natural and social systems, and offers students using the versatility to pursue in-depth research inside a variety of critical policy areas.

The program structure is made to combine versatility to pursue a person field of study, with the introduction of broad-based skills and understanding. Along with experts and school at Columbia, students within the program conduct research in a multitude of areas including global warming and it is social effects, causes and methods to extreme poverty, energy systems, farming transitions, water sources, infectious disease, global demographic change, environments, disasters and conflict.

Ten core classes are needed, including three quantitative courses, two social science electives, along with a coherent sequence of 4 natural science courses, for any minimum total of 60 credits.

• Human Ecosystem U9240
• Politics of Sustainable Development U9250
• Ecological and Resource Financial aspects U9245
• Ecological Science for Sustainable Development U6240
• Macroeconomic Policy
• Microeconomic Analysis I and II (G611 – G612)
• Summary of Econometrics I and II (G6411 – G6412)
• Another course in Quantitative Analysis

Additionally to course work, students take part in integrative workshops through the first 3 years from the program, and fulfill a teaching and research requirement. This entails six semesters of labor like a teaching assistant or perhaps a research assistant, as assigned through the director from the program. Students must complete the MA thesis that ought to address an issue in sustainable development using data and methodologies in the four natural science courses carried out the very first 2 yrs from the program.

Finally, students will require an Orals Exam (resulting in the MPhil Degree ), additionally to getting and protecting a PhD dissertation. The PhD dissertation is going to be on the social science subject in sustainable development.

Faculty

This program is co-directed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Frederick Stiglitz. Faculty who have fun playing the program by counseling students, teaching in needed courses or serving on committees, etc. are attracted from a multitude of schools and departments at Columbia College additionally to SIPA. Students’s primary consultant don’t have to be a SIPA faculty member but ought to be part of the Columbia faculty.

You will find presently four departments carefully connected using the Earth Institute which are excellent causes of science course sequences and school counseling with this PhD program. Fundamental essentials Department of Ecosystem, Evolution, and Ecological Biology (E3B) and Department of Earth and Ecological Sciences (DEES) within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Ecological Health Sciences (EHS) in the Postman School of Public Health insurance and Department of Earth and Ecological Engineering (DEEE) (DEEE) in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS).

The Scholars

Students in SIPA’s Sustainable Development PhD program originate from a multitude of backgrounds and therefore are focusing on an assorted group of research topics. Current students have backgrounds in geography, ecological science, civil engineering, financial aspects, chemistry and physics. Most students hold master’s levels, and many have professional experience.
In spring 2008, this program graduated its first Ph.D. by May 2011, it had 12 graduates. In September 2011, it’ll matriculate its eighth class.

The City

Presently, our planet Institute is associated with 30 academic programs at Columbia College. It’s developed numerous innovative courses training students to know and address the pressing and sophisticated problems with ecological protection and sustainability. To attain sustainable development, our planet Institute is performing and applying interdisciplinary research to deal with many mix-cutting issues, while training a brand new generation of problem solvers to tackle these problems in most regions of society. Finding methods to one problem involves tackling various other challenges. This really is fundamentally of sustainability management.

Our Planet Institute also hosts workshops and occasions within the field. Expert panel discussions on Getting Sustainability into Routine Management Decisions and New You are able to City like a Sustainable City are a couple of types of occasions made to complement the curriculum. Students also take advantage of being a member of our planet Institute’s research and exercise programs that concentrate on sustainable development.

To Use

Rigorous operate in natural and social sciences in a graduate level mandates that students have experience of mathematics and also the natural sciences, plus the social sciences and financial aspects, before starting the PhD program. Generally, needs include four semesters of school-level social science, including two semesters of financial aspects, and 6 semesters of school-level science and math. Particularly, all applicants should have effectively completed two semesters of school-level calculus and demonstrate competence in multivariate calculus and straight line algebra. Applicants should also have high scores around the GRE with particular focus on the quantitative score.

Complete applications must be delivered to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) by December 15th, in the latest, for admission for an additional fall term. This program doesn’t accept applications for that spring semester.

Info on application procedures including how you can apply online are available here.

Contact Details

Tomara Aldrich
Program Coordinator
PhD in Sustainable Development
Columbia College School of Worldwide and Public Matters
Worldwide Matters Building, Suite 1404-1408
212.854.9785

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