About the Program

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences offers a PhD degree in Earth and Planetary Science. The central objective of the graduate program is to encourage creative thinking and develop the capacity for independent and original research. A strong undergraduate background in the physical sciences is especially helpful, and a significant number of our graduate students have their training in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, or astronomy. Graduate students are formally accepted into the Earth and Planetary Science program, and they normally work directly toward a PhD.

The department offers a one-year MA program; however, admission to the program is available only to graduates of our bachelor's degree program in Earth and Planetary Science. We do not accept applications to the MA program from other majors or universities. 

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Admissions

Admission to the University

Minimum Requirements for Admission

The following minimum requirements apply to all graduate programs and will be verified by the Graduate Division:

1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
2. A grade point average of B or better (3.0);
3. If the applicant has completed a basic degree from a country or political entity (e.g., Quebec) where English is not the official language, adequate proficiency in English to do graduate work, as evidenced by a TOEFL score of at least 90 on the iBT test, 570 on the paper-and-pencil test, or an IELTS Band score of at least 7 on a 9-point scale (note that individual programs may set higher levels for any of these); and
4. Sufficient undergraduate training to do graduate work in the given field.

Applicants Who Already Hold a Graduate Degree

The Graduate Council views academic degrees not as vocational training certificates, but as evidence of broad training in research methods, independent study, and articulation of learning. Therefore, applicants who already have academic graduate degrees should be able to pursue new subject matter at an advanced level without the need to enroll in a related or similar graduate program.

Programs may consider students for an additional academic master’s or professional master’s degree only if the additional degree is in a distinctly different field.

Applicants admitted to a doctoral program that requires a master’s degree to be earned at Berkeley as a prerequisite (even though the applicant already has a master’s degree from another institution in the same or a closely allied field of study) will be permitted to undertake the second master’s degree, despite the overlap in field.

The Graduate Division will admit students for a second doctoral degree only if they meet the following guidelines:

1. Applicants with doctoral degrees may be admitted for an additional doctoral degree only if that degree program is in a general area of knowledge distinctly different from the field in which they earned their original degree. For example, a physics PhD could be admitted to a doctoral degree program in music or history; however, a student with a doctoral degree in mathematics would not be permitted to add a PhD in statistics.
2. Applicants who hold the PhD degree may be admitted to a professional doctorate or professional master’s degree program if there is no duplication of training involved.

Applicants may apply only to one single degree program or one concurrent degree program per admission cycle.

Required Documents for Applications

1. Transcripts: Applicants may upload unofficial transcripts with your application for the departmental initial review. Unofficial transcripts must contain specific information including the name of the applicant, name of the school, all courses, grades, units, & degree conferral (if applicable). 
2. Letters of recommendation: Applicants may request online letters of recommendation through the online application system. Hard copies of recommendation letters must be sent directly to the program, by the recommender, not the Graduate Admissions.

3. Evidence of English language proficiency: All applicants who have completed a basic degree from a country or political entity in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This applies to institutions from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and Quebec (Canada). However, applicants who, at the time of application, have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a US university may submit an official transcript from the US university to fulfill this requirement. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement:

   • courses in English as a Second Language,

   • courses conducted in a language other than English,

   • courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and

   • courses of a non-academic nature.

Applicants who have previously applied to Berkeley must also submit new test scores that meet the current minimum requirement from one of the standardized tests. Official TOEFL score reports must be sent directly from Educational Test Services (ETS). The institution code for Berkeley is 4833 for Graduate Organizations. Official IELTS score reports must be sent electronically from the testing center to University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Division, Sproul Hall, Rm 318 MC 5900, Berkeley, CA 94720. TOEFL and IELTS score reports are only valid for two years prior to beginning the graduate program at UC Berkeley. Note: score reports can not expire before the month of June.

Where to Apply

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page. 

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Candidates for the PhD degree must pass the oral qualifying examination by the end of the second year and complete a thesis to the satisfaction of the appointed thesis committee. Students must have two research propositions to present at the qualifying examination, each developed under the supervision of a different professor on substantially different topics. There are no required courses for the PhD program.

Master's Degree Requirements

The master of arts degree requires 24 semester units of upper division and graduate courses with at least 12 units of graduate coursework, followed by a comprehensive oral examination. 

Research units can count toward the 24 total, but not toward the 12 grad level. 200-level seminars can only be counted toward the total 24 credits if they require active student participation in a focused topic area (e.g. pass/fail seminars in which students passively listen do not qualify).

Specifically:

• EPS 255 (Department Seminar), EPS 260 (intro to faculty research for 1st-year PhD students), EPS 254 (BSL seminar), EPS 298 (BASC seminar), EPS 290 research group meetings, and similar seminars cannot be used to satisfy MA requirements.

• EPS 256 (Earthquake of the Week) can be used if taken for a letter grade.

• EPS 290 courses can be used only if they have a focus and title that distinguishes them from research group meetings.  E.g. in Fall 2020 Bruce Buffett taught “Computational Methods in GFD” as EPS 290, and William Boos taught “Global Circulation of Planetary Atmospheres” as EPS 290; both could be used toward the grad-level MA credits.

• EPS 280 (research with a faculty advisor) can be used for up to 6 units total, but may not be counted toward the 12 grad-level credits required for the MA (they can count toward the 24 unit total).

Your faculty advisor and the graduate student services advisor will need to approve your courses for the MA.

The MA program is open only to students who have completed their undergraduate degree in our department.

Curriculum

Courses

Earth and Planetary Science

Faculty and Instructors

* Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Faculty

Richard Allen, Professor. Seismology earthquakes earthquake hazard mitigation earth structure tomography natural hazards.
Research Profile

Jillian Banfield, Professor. Nanoscience, Bioremediation, genomics, biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, geomicrobiology, MARS, minerology.
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Jim Bishop, Professor. Ocean carbon cycle dynamics, remote sensing, aquatic chemistry, marine biogeochemistry, land - ocean biogeochemistry, chemical oceanography, ocean sensors and autonomous observing systems, Carbon Explorer, Carbon Flux Explorer .
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Kristie A. Boering, Professor. Physical chemistry, climate change, atmospheric chemistry, environmental chemistry, ozone, earth and planetary science, isotopic compositions of atmospheric trace gases, stratospheric ozone, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, molecular hydrogen, methane.
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William Boos, Associate Professor. Atmospheric science, climate dynamics, monsoons, Earth's hydrological cycle.
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Bruce Buffett, Professor. Dynamics and evolution of planetary interiors, including mantle convection, plate tectonics, and planetary dynamos.
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Roland Burgmann, Professor. Geophysics, geology, earth and planetary science, geomechanics, tectonics, structural geology, active tectonics, fault zone processes, crustal deformation, space geodesy.
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* Eugene Chiang, Professor. Planetary science, theoretical astrophysics, dynamics, planet formation, circumstellar disks.
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Ronald C. Cohen, Professor. Physical chemistry, water, climate, air pollution, atmospheric chemistry, environmental chemistry, analytical chemistry, ozone, nitrogen oxides, CO2, clouds.
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William D. Collins, Professor in Residence. Climate change, uncertainty of extremes, climate modeling, coupled models of the climate system, global climate models, solar and terrestrial radiation.
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Kurt Cuffey, Professor. Continuum mechanics, climate, geomorphology, glaciers, glaciology, climate history, stable isotopes, geographical thought.
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William E. Dietrich, Professor. Morphology, earth and planetary sciences, geomorphology, evolution of landscapes, geomorphic transport laws, landscape evolution modeling, high resolution laser altimetry, cosmogenic nuclide analysis.
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Douglas S. Dreger, Professor. Wave propagation, geophysics, earth and planetary sciences, waveform data, geophysical inverse problems, seismic radiation, regional distance methodology, crustal structure affects on ground motions in the greater San Francisco Bay area.
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Bethanie Edwards, Assistant Professor. Oceanography, chemical oceanography, environmental microbiology, molecular tools for microbial ecology, mass spectrometry, lipidomics, lipid metabolism, marine biogeochemistry, microbial carbon cycling, ocean carbon cycle dynamics.
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Inez Fung, Professor. Global change, environmental policy, ecosystem scienes.
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Benjamin Gilbert, Associate Adjunct Professor. Nanogeoscience – geochemical interactions of natural nanoscale minerals; the development and application of synchrotron x-ray experiments and analysis methods for the study of mineral nanoparticles.

Raymond Jeanloz, Professor. Planetary geophysics, high-pressure physics, national and international security, science-based policy.
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Harriet Lau, Assistant Professor. Large-scale properties of Earth; Global-scale geodynamic processes across different timescales; Frequency-dependent Rheology.
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Kanani Lee, Associate Adjunct Professor. Physics and chemistry of Earth and planetary materials at ultra-high pressure and temperature conditions; formation and evolution of Earth and (exo)planets in general.

* Michael Manga, Professor. Hydrogeology, fluid mechanics, geomorphology, earth and planetary science, geological processes involving fluids, including problems in physical volcanology, geodynamics, dynamics of suspensions, flow and transport in porous materials, percolation theory.
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Burkhard Militzer, Professor. Saturn, structure and evolution of Jupiter, and extrasolar giant planets.
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Steven R. Pride, Adjunct Professor. Crusted seismology, poroelasticity, electrical properties of rocks, physics of brittle fracture.

James W. Rector, Professor. Geophysics, Oil and Gas, Unconventional Shale Gas Reservoirs, Horizontal Drilling, Fracking, Near Surface Seismology, Tunnel Detection, Treasure Hunting, and Geophysical Archaeology, Borehole Seismology.
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Paul Renne, Professor in Residence. Geochemistry, geochronology, paleomagnetism.
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Barbara A. Romanowicz, Professor. Earth and planetary science, deep earth structure and dynamics, earthquake processes and scaling laws, real time estimation of earthquake parameters, development of modern broadband seismic and geophysical observatories, planetary seismology.
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David Romps, Professor. Climate, atmosphere, atmospheric science, weather, clouds, fluid dynamics.
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Stephen Self, Adjunct Professor. Physical volcanology, field studies of products of large eruptions, environmental impact of volcanism.

David Shuster, Professor. Noble gas geochemistry, thermochronometry, cosmogenic nuclide, alpine glacial erosion, chemical weathering, lunar impacts, magnetism, Martian meteorites.
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Daniel Stolper, Assistant Professor. Biogeochemistry, Earth History, Geobiology, Global Climate Studies, Organic Geochemistry, Stable Isotope Geochemistry.
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Nicholas Swanson-Hysell, Associate Professor. Geology, stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, paleogeography.
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Lecturers

Horst Rademacher, Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

Walter Alvarez, Professor Emeritus, Professor of the Graduate School. Stratigraphy and Earth history, tectonics, stratigraphy of pelagic limestones.

George H. Brimhall, Professor Emeritus. Earth and planetary sciences, geology, ore-forming processes, mineral exploration science, non-renewable resource issues, photo-voltaic semi-conductor resources.
Research Profile

Mark S. T. Bukowinski, Professor Emeritus. Geophysics, earth and planetary sciences, planetary interiors, theoretical mineral physics, deep earth minerals, geochemical processes, thermal and chemical evolution.
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Imke De Pater, Professor Emeritus. Radio, planetary science, infrared, observations.
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Don DePaolo, Professor Emeritus, Professor of the Graduate School. Application of mass spectrometry, radiogenic isotope geochemistry, and principles of physics and chemistry to fundamental problems in geology.
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Lynn Ingram, Professor Emeritus. Geophysics, geology, earth and planetary science, geography, stratigraphy with strontium isotopes, paleontological, paleoclimate, California climate change, paleosalinity, shellmounds, geochemical data, paleoclimatic and paleo-environmental reconstruction in aquatic environments using sedimentological.
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Lane Johnson, Professor Emeritus. Earth and planetary science, geophysical methods of studying structure and processes within the earth, seismic sources, monitoring of nuclear test ban treaties, theoretical and computational methods of treating wave propagation in realistic earth models.
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James Kirchner, Professor Emeritus. Evolutionary ecology, biogeochemistry, earth and planetary sciences, geomorphology, watershed hydrology and geochemistry.
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Mark A. Richards, Professor Emeritus. Crustal deformation, earth and planetary sciences, mantle convection, large-scale mantle structure, rotational dynamics and gravity fields of terrestrial planets, history and dynamics of global plate motions, igneous processes in the mantle and deep crust.
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Chi-Yuen Wang, Professor Emeritus, Professor of the Graduate School. Earth and planetary science.
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Hans-Rudolf Wenk, Professor Emeritus, Professor of the Graduate School. Crystallography, earth and planetary science, structural geology and rock deformation, seismic anisotropy, investigating development of preferred orientation under expreme conditions using neutron diffraction, synchrotron x-rays, and electron microscopy.
Research Profile