Weather data is displayed on monitors inside the University at Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex on the UAlbany campus. New majors are expected to bring more students to ETEC for research related to climate change.
ALBANY — The University at Albany is starting new majors related to climate change, but students won’t just study science. They are going to dive into the economics behind climate change, political and social policies, and many other social science topics.
Students can now earn a Bachelor of Science in climate sciences or a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies. The university also added master’s and doctoral programs in climate science.
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Students started joining the majors as soon as the first one, climate sciences, opened.
“When we told them that major was going to come online, even before we had the major officially, we had students all ready,” said Professor Justin Minder. “Climate change was their real passion. I think especially the younger generation, they have a pretty good understanding this is an issue that’s going to be a dominant issue in their lifetime.”
While the climate sciences major focuses on climate change, the new environmental studies major replaces the university’s environmental sciences program.
Professors decided students needed more flexibility in their study of the environment.
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“It’s got a lot of the same bones — you need to understand the chemistry of the environment, the biology, the physics, how the ocean works,” Minder said. “But we shift the emphasis just a little bit to make it a little more holistic.”
Students must take classes in social sciences and humanities.
“Different forms of pollution, loss of biodiversity — understanding the science is only a part of those issues,” he said. “They may learn about the economics of some of these environmental issues, or the ethics behind them, or how environmental change affected prehistoric societies.”
The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the entire issue.
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“Preparing them to really attack these complex issues,” he said.
Senior Michael Villano said he would have switched to the new major if it had been available to him earlier. He is majoring in environmental science.
He decided he wants to become an earth science teacher, which means he needs 30 credit hours in earth science. To get that, he’s going to spend the spring semester in Denmark.
There, he will collect ice cores on trips to Iceland or Greenland and study them in a specialized education program.
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“That will help me get the credits I need,” he said. “And it sounds like a lot of fun.”
In the environmental science major, he did lab work studying changes in the surface temperature of the Red Sea over time.
“Definitely my lab experience opened my mind to that field of science, which I hadn’t been interested in before,” he said.
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Students in the new majors will do lab work at the university’s Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex, assisting in the research there.
“These new programs will tap into UAlbany’s strong expertise and state-of-the-art facilities in weather and climate, including the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, New York State Mesonet, xCITE lab and State Weather Risk Communication Center,” said Dean of UAlbany’s College of Arts and Sciences Jeanette Altarriba. “We are proud to support the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences in offering education and training opportunities that will help shape the next generation of environmental and climate leaders.”