Program Overview
The Graduate Program in Life & Environmental Sciences (LES) at UC Merced trains scientists with the interdisciplinary expertise to address the most pressing global challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem sustainability. By integrating the life and environmental sciences, the program emphasizes how biological and non-biological (chemical, physical, geological) systems interact, from soil and water dynamics to the ecology and evolution of organisms to atmospheric chemistry.
LES is the only natural sciences graduate program in the University of California system built around integrating biological and non-biological environmental science disciplines. The program is housed in the LES Department, which has operated as an interdisciplinary unit since 2012 and as a department since 2018. Through rigorous coursework, hands-on research, and training in quantitative and communication skills, graduates are prepared to lead interdisciplinary efforts in academia, industry, government, and policy.
Program Highlights:
- Integrated curriculum built on three cornerstones and a Global Change & Sustainability theme
- Cohort building through shared core courses, seminars, and retreats
- Rigorous quantitative and computational training (R, data visualization, advanced statistics)
- Communication and outreach to peers, policymakers, and the public
- A diverse, gender-balanced, early-career faculty
Research Areas & Emphases
The LES program is organized around three cornerstones that define the program's structure and guide student research, connected by an integrating theme:
- Evolution of Life and Earth: the (co-)evolution of life and Earth's systems over time, and the interplay between biological evolution and geological processes.
- Interactions: biotic and abiotic interactions at scales from molecules to ecosystems.
- Flows & Transitions: the movement and transformation of matter and energy within and between ecosystems, including nutrient cycling, biogeochemical transformations, and energy flows.
- Integrating Theme – Global Change & Sustainability: global environmental challenges and strategies for resilience and sustainability.
Faculty research spans atoms to ecosystems, marine and terrestrial environments, and past, present, and future change, including microbial ecology, paleoecology, soil science and biogeochemistry, atmospheric science and air quality, geomorphology, forest and community ecology, evolutionary and computational biology, and agroecology. The Central Valley and Sierra Nevada provide a distinctive natural laboratory for research.
Degrees Offered
LES offers three degree paths:
- Ph.D. in Life and Environmental Sciences: original research leading to a dissertation, with an oral qualifying exam and dissertation defense.
- M.S. Plan I (thesis): coursework plus a research thesis, defended in an oral exam.
- M.S. Plan II (non-thesis): coursework plus either a capstone literature review or a comprehensive exam.
The M.S. is primarily intended for students in the Ph.D. program, either en route to the Ph.D. or as a terminal degree for students who leave before completing Ph.D. requirements. Students may be admitted directly into the M.S. Plan I program only when full grant funding (such as a GSR position) is available to support them.
No second-language requirement.
Program Learning Outcomes
Graduates of the LES program will demonstrate:
- Interdisciplinary Fluency in Life and Environmental Sciences: broad understanding of Evolution, Interactions, and Flows & Transitions within and between Earth and living systems, integrated into their research and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
- Global Change and Sustainability: the ability to explain how the three pillars are influenced by global change, shape sustainable futures, and inform solutions for ecosystem resilience.
- Quantitative and Analytical Skills: proficiency in quantitative methods and data analysis.
- Communication Skills: effective oral and written communication to peers, interdisciplinary collaborators, policymakers, and the public.
- Ethics and Professional Integrity: ethical research practice with transparency, reproducibility, and accountability.
- Broader Impacts and Community Engagement: engagement with communities through outreach, policy, or public engagement.
