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Environmental Science, Professional Science Masters Program Handbook

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Program Description

The Professional Science Master’s (PSM) in Environmental Science offers working professionals and qualified undergraduates an education that is multidisciplinary and applications-oriented, preparing graduates for professional advancement in the business and regulatory world. 

The PSM is built around a solid core of required technical and nontechnical courses that provide common baseline knowledge for all students. This core is supplemented by a broad selection of electives tailored to an individual’s specialty area. In combination, the core and associated electives form a curriculum that can easily adapt to the needs of individual students. A capstone research project in collaboration with a faculty mentor and a professional in the corporate or government sector allows students to apply their coursework and experience to real-world problems. 

Graduates of the PSM (Environmental Science) program will be able to: 

  1. Read, understand, and critically analyze the ideas presented in published texts (print and digital) and journal articles. 

  2. Write reviews and reports or orally present on current topics in Environmental Science, including critical evaluation of research using cutting-edge practices, including an appreciation of the uncertainties, limitations, and values inherent in those ideas. 

  3. Anticipate the global and social justice implications of environmental and other new knowledge and technological interventions and propose strategies for making outcomes more equitable. Identify and reconcile the differential impact across race, age, gender, class, etc). 

  4. Work effectively in multidisciplinary, cross-sector teams to envision policy approaches to addressing environmental problems as they exist in the real world. 

  5. Demonstrate the ability to listen as well as present information clearly, logically, and critically, both orally and in writing. 

Program Faculty

Affiliated full-time faculty (may advise thesis or capstone research)

  • Tait Chirenje, Professor of Environmental Science. Research areas: Urban trace metal geochemistry, indoor air quality, environmental remediation, indoor air quality, water chemistry, brownfields characterization, international sustainable development.

  • Shah Khan, Assistant Professor of Coastal Zone Management. Research areas: Coastal resilience, coupled human-natural systems, nature-based solutions, water- and climate-sensitive infrastructure.

  • Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, Associate Professor of Marine Science. Research areas: Coastal physical oceanography, estuaries, biological-physical interactions, biogeochemical fluxes.

  • Mathew Severs, Associate Professor of Geology. Research Areas: using geochemistry to answer geological questions that focus on igneous petrology, ore deposits, and tectonics. Techniques used include petrography, bulk rock geochemistry, mineral geochemistry, and microanalyses of fluid inclusions.

  • Mark Sullivan, Professor of Marine Science. Research areas: Ichthyology, early life history of fishes, fisheries management, fisheries oceanography, climate change, marine debris.

  • Catherine Tredick, Associate Professor of Environmental Science. Research area: Applied wildlife management and population response to habitat and landscape change. The human dimension of wildlife management to better understand stakeholder perceptions of wildlife populations and management decisions.

  • Jeffrey Webber, Associate Professor of Geology. Research Areas: understanding the relationships between deformation and metamorphism at a variety of scales from thin sections to crustal exposures.

  • Emma Witt, Associate Professor of Environmental Science. Research Areas: Land management influences on hydrology and ecosystem health. Forest management approaches for water and natural resource management. Impacts of disturbance on surface water and shallow groundwater hydrology 

Affiliated adjunct faculty (may advise capstone research)

  • Joseph Lisa, County Judge, Atlantic County Court System.

  • Jason Simmons, Community Advisor, Federal Highway Administration.

  • Jason Kelsey: Instructor, Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES).

Program Contact Information

Tait Chirenje, Ph.D. Program Chair