Department website: https://www.geo.wvu.edu/students/undergraduate-students/environmental-geoscience-program
Degree Offered
- Bachelor of Arts
Nature of the Program
The B.A. in environmental geoscience is a joint program in the Department of Geology and Geography for students interested in geological and geographical approaches to environmental issues. Emphasis is placed on the physical, human, and spatial aspects of earth and its environment. The broad and interdisciplinary nature of the degree program is designed to produce geoscientists who can identify environmental problems, apply a variety of approaches to their remediation, and be conversant among the wide range of disciplines for which the environment is of special concern.
The course requirements for the degree reflect the diversity of environmental problems that we face today from the atmosphere (air pollution), to the hydrosphere (water pollution), to the lithosphere (ground pollution), and how these problems affect our quality of life. The courses required for the degree also reflect the increased demands placed upon modern environmental scientists that include being able to recognize and understand the sources and impacts of various pollutants within the physical environment, being able to compile and analyze environmental data, understanding the regulatory aspects of environmental protection, and being able to effectively communicate issues of importance with other environmental scientists and with the general public.
Graduates of this program will find employment in a wide array of fields including the assessment and remediation of environmental problems, land-use planning, geographic information systems, involvement in the legislative process by which laws are formulated to protect the environment, the application of such laws as part of a federal or state regulatory agency, or as a member of the journalistic community using the various methods of mass communication to increase the public awareness of situations that adversely affect the environment.
Students who earn a degree in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences must complete the University requirements, the College requirements for their specific degree program, and their major requirements.
Minors
All students have the possibility of earning one or more minors; please check the list of all available minors and their requirements. Please note that students may not earn a minor in their major field.
Faculty
Chair
- Brent McCusker - Ph.D. (Michigan State University)
Associate Chair
- Jaime Toro - Ph.D. (Stanford University)
Professors
- Kathleen Benison - Ph.D. (The University of Kansas)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Sedimentary Geology - Planetary Geology - Dengliang Gao - Ph.D. (Duke University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Exploration Geophysics, Petroleum and Structural Geology - Amy Hessl - Ph.D. (University of Arizona)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Biogeography, Forest Ecosystems, Climate Variability - Brent McCusker - Ph.D. (Michigan State University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Land Use Change, Africa, Policy Making - Shikha Sharma - Ph.D. (University of Lucknow)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Isotope Geochemistry - Jaime Toro - Ph.D. (Stanford University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Structure and Tectonics - Dorothy Vesper - Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Aqueous Geochemistry, Hydrogeology
Associate Professor
- Jamison Conley - Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Spatial Analysis, Geocomputation, Health Geography - Karen Culcasi - Ph.D. (Syracuse University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Geopolitics, Identity, Middle East - Cynthia Gorman - Ph.D. (Rutgers University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Gender, Migration, Human Rights, Refugee Communities - James Lamsdell - Ph.D. (The University of Kansas)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Paleobiology, Arthropods, Macroevolution, Heterochrony, Paleoecology, Phylogenetics - Joseph Lebold - Ph.D. (West Virginia University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Paleoecology, Paleontology, Regional Geology - Brenden McNeil - Ph.D. (Syracuse University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, GIS, Environmental modeling, Forest Ecosystem Services - Maria Alejandra Perez - Ph.D. (University of Michigan)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Cultural Geography, Science & Technology Studies, Speleology, Latin America and the Caribbean - Amy Weislogel - Ph.D. (Stanford University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Sedimentology - Bradley Wilson - Ph.D. (Rutgers University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Social Movements, Local/Global Food Systems, Food Justice
Assistant Professor
- Vikas Agrawal - Ph.D. (West Virginia University)
Associate Graduate Faculty, Chemical Hygiene Officer, Isotopic and Biogeochemical Characterization of Geological Materials, Energy and Environment - Michael Harman - Ph.D. (West Virginia University)
3D visualization, modeling complex landforms and processes, GIS - Aaron Maxwell - Ph.D. (West Virginia University)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Geospatial Instruction, Remote Sensing, Image Analysis, Spatial Modeling - Charles Shobe - Ph.D. (University of Colorado - Boulder)
Regular Graduate Faculty, Geomorphology, Earth Surface Processes, Landscape Evolution, Rivers, Source-to-Sink, Numerical Modeling
Professor Emeriti
- Robert Behling - Ph.D. (The Ohio State University)
- Timothy Carr - Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
- Joe Donovan - Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University)
- Greg Elmes - Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University)
- Trevor Harris - Ph.D. (University of Hull)
- Thomas Kammer - Ph.D. (Indiana University)
- Steven Kite - Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin)
- Kenneth C. Martis - Ph.D. (Michigan University)
- Henry Rauch - Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University)
- Robert C. Shumaker - Ph.D. (Cornell University)
- Richard Smosna - Ph.D. (University of Illinois)
- Timothy Warner - Ph.D. (Purdue University)
- Thomas Wilson - Ph.D. (West Virginia University)
Admissions for 2025-2026
- First-Time Freshmen are admitted directly into the Environmental Geoscience major.
- Students admitted from other majors within WVU must be in good standing (2.0 overall GPA).
- Students transferring from another institution must be in good academic standing (2.0 overall GPA).
Major Code: 1447
Click here to view the Suggested Plan of Study
General Education Foundations
Please use this link to view a list of courses that meet each GEF requirement.
NOTE: Some major requirements will fulfill specific GEF requirements. Please see the curriculum requirements listed below for details on which GEFs you will need to select.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| General Education Foundations | ||
| F1 - Composition & Rhetoric | 3-6 | |
| Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric and Composition, Rhetoric, and Research | ||
or ENGL 103 | Accelerated Academic Writing | |
| F2A/F2B - Science & Technology | 4-6 | |
| F3 - Math & Quantitative Reasoning | 3-4 | |
| F4 - Society & Connections | 3 | |
| F5 - Human Inquiry & the Past | 3 | |
| F6 - The Arts & Creativity | 3 | |
| F7 - Global Studies & Diversity | 3 | |
| F8 - Focus (may be satisfied by completion of a minor, double major, or dual degree) | 9 | |
| Total Hours | 31-37 | |
Please note that not all of the GEF courses are offered at all campuses. Students should consult with their advisor or academic department regarding the GEF course offerings available at their campus.
Degree Requirements
Students must complete WVU General Education Foundations requirements, College B.A. requirements, major requirements, and electives to total a minimum of 120 hours. For complete details on these requirements, visit the B.A. Degrees tab on the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences page.
Departmental Requirements for the B.A. in Environmental Geoscience
All students wishing to obtain a degree in Environmental Geoscience must comply with the following:
- Capstone Requirement: The General Education Foundations requires the successful completion of a Capstone course. For Environmental Geosciences majors capstone is completed by GEOL 400 and its co-requisite Research-intensive Geology and Geography course.
- Writing and Communication Requirement: Environmental Geoscience Bachelor of Arts students fulfill the Writing and Communication Skills requirement by completing ENGL 101 and ENGL 102 (or ENGL 103), and two additional SpeakWrite Certified CoursesTM that are major requirements: GEOG 205 and GEOG 307.
- Calculation of the GPA in the Major: Students must have a 2.0 overall GPA in all courses applied to major requirements. If a course is repeated, all attempts will be included in the calculation of the GPA unless the course is eligible for a D/F repeat.
- Credit Limit: No more than 50 credits of Geology (GEOL) and Geography (GEOG) combined can be used for the B.A. if the student has earned 120 credits overall. If a student has more than 50 credits, then those extra credits must be matched by an equal amount of non-GEOL and non-GEOG courses, and more than 120 credits will be required for graduation. For example, if a student has 52 credits in GEOL and GEOG, the student will need 122 credits to graduate (52 G&G, 68 non-G&G). 191 and 491 courses are excluded from the 50-credit count.
- Benchmarks Expectations: For details, go to the Environmental Geoscience Degree Progress tab.
Curriculum Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| University Requirements | 50 | |
| ECAS B.A. Requirements | 12 | |
| Departmental Requirements | 7 | |
| Biology Major Requirements | 51 | |
| Total Hours | 120 | |
University Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| General Education Foundations (GEF) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (31-37 Credits) | ||
| Outstanding GEF Requirements 1, 5, 6, and 7 | 15 | |
| GEOL 191 | First-Year Seminar | 1 |
| General Electives | 34 | |
| Total Hours | 50 | |
ECAS Bachelor of Arts Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Fine Arts Requirement | ||
| Foreign Language | 12 | |
| Global Studies and Diversity Requirement | ||
| Total Hours | 12 | |
Departmental Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Math and Science Requirement: | 7 | |
Chemistry Requirement: | ||
| Survey of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry 1 and Survey of Chemistry 1 Laboratory | ||
| Fundamentals of Chemistry 1 and Fundamentals of Chemistry 1 Laboratory | ||
Math Requirement: | ||
| Algebra with Applications | ||
or MATH 126 | College Algebra | |
or MATH 128 | Plane Trigonometry | |
or MATH 129 | Pre-Calculus Mathematics | |
or MATH 150 | Applied Calculus | |
or MATH 153 | Calculus 1a with Precalculus | |
or MATH 155 | Calculus 1 | |
| Total Hours | 7 | |
Environmental Geoscience Major Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Core Courses: | 26 | |
| Complete all of the following: | ||
| Planet Earth and Planet Earth Laboratory | ||
| Global Climate System and Global Climate System Laboratory | ||
| Geology for Environmental Scientists | ||
| Climate and Sustainability | ||
| Biogeography: Theory and Method | ||
| Geospatial Problem Solving | ||
| Earth System Science and Earth System Science Laboratory | ||
| Geology (GEOL) and Geography (GEOG) Electives | 9 | |
Any GEOL and GEOG courses at the 300 or 400 level. | ||
| Electives Non-Geology/Geography | 12 | |
| Select four (4) courses from the following list: | ||
| Agricultural and Natural Resources Law | ||
| Art and Environment | ||
| Biometry | ||
| Flora of West Virginia Laboratory | ||
| Plant Ecology | ||
| Plant Geography | ||
| Global Ecology | ||
| Environmental Microbiology | ||
| Pest Management | ||
| Hazardous Waste Training | ||
| Soil Microbiology | ||
| Principles of Weed Science | ||
| Principles of Water Resources | ||
| Environmental Sampling and Analysis | ||
| Soil Fertility | ||
| Soil Genesis and Classification and Soil Genesis and Classification Laboratory | ||
| Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment Laboratory | ||
| Forest Management | ||
| Watershed Management | ||
| Field Watershed Hydrology | ||
| Perspectives on Mathematics and Science | ||
| Philosophy of Science | ||
| Environmental Policy | ||
| Spatial Hydrology and Watershed Analysis | ||
| Environmental Regulation | ||
| Wildlife Ecosystem Ecology | ||
| Marine Ecology | ||
| Freshwater Ecology | ||
| Project-Based Instruction in Mathematics and Science | ||
| Capstone | 4 | |
| Students must complete GEOL 400 and its co-requisite Research-intensive Geology and Geography course | ||
| Environmental Practicum | ||
| Research-Intensive Geology and Geography Courses: | ||
| African Environment and Development | ||
| Environmental Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Introduction to Remote Sensing | ||
| Open-Source Spatial Analytics | ||
| Web GIS | ||
| Paleontology | ||
| Environmental Geology | ||
| Research Methods Laboratory | ||
| Deep Time Earth Systems | ||
| Physical Hydrogeology | ||
| Sustainable Energy | ||
| Environmental Isotopes | ||
| Total Hours | 51 | |
Suggested Plan of Study
| First Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| ENGL 101 (GEF 1) | 3 | Foreign Language 102 | 3 |
| Foreign Language 101 | 3 | CHEM Requirement (GEF 8) | 4 |
| MATH Requirement (GEF 3) | 3 | GEOG 107 & 107L (GEF 8) | 4 |
| GEOL 101 & 101L (GEF 2) | 4 | SUST 201 & 201L (GEF 8) | 4 |
| GEOL 191 or GEOG 191 | 1 | ||
| General Elective | 1 | ||
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Second Year | |||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| ENGL 102 (GEF 1) | 3 | ECAS Fine Arts Requirement (GEF 6) | 3 |
| Foreign Language 203 | 3 | Foreign Language 204 | 3 |
| GEOL 200 | 4 | GEOG 350 | 4 |
| GEOG 205 (GEF 4) | 3 | GEOL/GEOG Elective 1 | 3 |
| General Elective | 2 | General Elective | 2 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Third Year | |||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| GEF 5 | 3 | Non-GEOL/GEOG Elective 1 | 3 |
| ECAS Global Studies and Diversity Requirement (GEF 7) | 3 | Non-GEOL/GEOG Elective 2 | 3 |
| GEOG 307 | 3 | Non-GEOL/GEOG Elective 3 | 3 |
| GEOL/GEOG Elective 2 | 3 | Non-GEOL/GEOG Elective 4 | 3 |
| GEOL/GEOG Elective 3 | 3 | General Elective | 3 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Fourth Year | |||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| GEOL 400 (Capstone) | 1 | General Electives | 15 |
| Research-Intensive GEOL/GEOG course | 3 | ||
| General Electives | 11 | ||
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Total credit hours: 120 | |||
Degree Progress
By end of their 4th semester in the major, students should have successfully completed
- 8 hours of introductory GEOL sequences;
- GEOL 200; GEOG 107&107L; MATH 124;
- CHEM 111 or CHEM 115.
- All majors must meet with a G&G department adviser each semester.
Students who do no meet these benchmarks may be removed from their major.
Major Learning Outcomes
Environmental Geoscience
Upon successful completion of the B.A. degree, Environmental Geoscience majors will be able to:
- Identify the presence of conditions that create natural environmental problems/hazards.
- Identify the activities of humans that create environmental problems/hazards.
- Detail the potential economic and social costs of remediation of natural and anthropogenic environmental problems.
- Critically access reports, news articles, news reports, and debates and analyze the arguments so they can come to form an opinion on what is being debated.
- Recognize that sources of information on environmental issues may be biased and that additional opinions must be sought in order to set forth conclusions which have merit.
- Communicate clearly and effectively in writing and the spoken word about environmental issues to audiences of diverse backgrounds and formal education levels.
- Demonstrate an understanding of content terminology required to communicate information regarding natural and manmade environmental problems/hazards.
WVUTeach: Earth and Space Science
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ARSC 120 | Inquiry Approaches to Teaching | 1 |
| ARSC 220 | Inquiry-Based Lesson Design | 1 |
| GEOL 376L | Research Methods Laboratory | 3 |
| MATH 318 | Perspectives on Mathematics and Science | 3 |
| UTCH 221 | Knowing and Learning in Mathematics and Science | 3 |
| UTCH 322 | Classroom Interactions in Math and Science | 3 |
| UTCH 420 | Project-Based Instruction in Mathematics and Science | 3 |
| UTCH 430 | Apprentice Teaching in Math and Science | 10 |
| Total Hours | 27 | |