Humans and the Global Environment
Contacts: Jonathan Patz (Professor and Chair); Robert Beattie (Program Coordinator); Carmela Diosana (Education and Outreach Coordinator), Jim Miller (Graduate Advisor), 608-263-4373OVERVIEW
Problems of global environmental sustainability and vulnerability have caught the attention of policy makers, the media, and citizens across the planet. Demand is rising for researchers and professionals who can work in these areas.
To become effective agents of environmental progress, students need interdisciplinary skills - training that incorporates humanistic, natural science, and social science perspectives and which can be applied to problems local to global in scale.
The Certificate on Humans and the Global Environment (CHANGE) helps graduate students understand and solve such problems. CHANGE is a 12-credit graduate certificate program and Ph.D. minor that can supplement any graduate degree program on campus. It is not available as a stand-alone graduate degree.
The unique three-semester curriculum trains students in professional communication and knowledge-management skills while exposing them to cutting-edge understandings of how human and non-human environmental systems operate. The program draws upon UW-Madison faculty expertise in fields as diverse as atmospheric and oceanic science, environmental studies, geography, history of science, population health, sociology, and veterinary medicine.
Doctoral students entered the program are encouraged to apply for CHANGE Fellowships, which provide significant financial support.
CHANGE is part of the Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment's CHANGE-IGERT Program, which is supported jointly by the National Science Foundation and the Graduate School at UW-Madison.
Eligibility and PrerequisitesAdmission to the CHANGE program is open to all UW graduate students, but because it is a cohort-based certificate, class size is limited and admission to the certificate is competitive. The program has no prerequisites, but the course sequence is meant to be completed in three consecutive semesters. Review the program requirements, and if you think CHANGE fits well with your graduate goals, use the online form to apply.