Seminar Requirements for Environmental Sciences 

M.S. Students

        The intention of the 1 credit of seminar requirement for M.S. students is to expose them to this form of presentation of research findings, and to give them some breadth of exposure to current research activities in Environmental Science among Program faculty, students and invited guests.  There are three ways in which the requirement can be fulfilled.  Alternative 1 consists of a regularly scheduled seminar class.  For Alternatives 2 and 3, which are by arrangement, at the beginning of the semester students should notify the Graduate Program Secretary who the instructors are for their seminars.  She will then know which faculty to distribute the rosters to.

 1.  New students are encouraged to take 16-375:613 (Fall semester), Section 01, which has been offered for several years by Dr. Lily Young.  This section usually meets Thursday afternoons from 2:50 to 4:10.  Presentation of a seminar is not required.  Grading is Pass/Fail, although assignment of a letter grade has sometimes been required by the Graduate School.  This course offers an introduction to the Program Options and to the research of several faculty members.

 2.  Students also may complete the requirement by taking 16-375:612 or any other section of 16-375:613 (or alternative approved by their Advisor), which may be offered by any graduate faculty member on a "by arrangement" basis.  Often this is done in conjunction with laboratory group meetings, in which other students are not registered for seminar.  As for any course, the requirements are set by the instructor.  It is typically expected that a student will attend the equivalent of 12-14 seminars of about 1 hour each.  A presentation by the student may or may not be required.  Written summaries of seminars attended may be required, at the instructor's discretion, although this is not typical.  A regular letter grade is assigned.

 3.  If neither of the two alternatives above is available to the student, an advisor may approve an "independent" seminar.  The student registers for 16-375:612 or 16-375:613, and attends 12-14 advisor approved (Departmental, College-wide, Graduate Student Association, outside, or other) seminars.  In this case, since the "instructor" is not present to evaluate the student's participation, the advisor needs to require some type of brief oral or written report on each seminar so that a regular letter grade can be assigned.

Ph.D. Students

For Ph.D. students, an additional objective of the seminar requirement (2 credits) is to provide the student with an opportunity to present a seminar.  One credit can be through Alternative 1 (or 3) above, but the second (or both) must be through Alternative 2 and include at least 30 minutes of oral presentation.  The presentation can be in the lab group, at the GSA run seminars, or in another forum.  A related requirement, to be enforced by the advisor, is that the student present his/her work at a professional conference or meeting, although this can be a poster session.

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