Earth and Climate Sciences at Bates

Visit the full Earth and Climate Sciences site

Earth and climate sciences are key to addressing scientific issues relating to energy, mineral, and water resource security, ecosystem and environmental stewardship, hazards risk assessment, adaptation and mitigation, and climate variability and change.

The Department of Earth and Climate Sciences strives to instill in students a lifelong curiosity of the Earth across vast spatial and temporal scales. We study the planet as a dynamic, interconnected system that evolves through time to shape our environment and to sustain life. At Bates, we investigate planetary history and habitability across diverse spatial and temporal scales — from the study of processes that affect our planet over deep time to the immediate impacts of sudden tectonic ruptures and rapid anthropogenic change.

Contact Us

Dr. Beverly Johnson
44 Campus Ave
Carnegie Science
Phone: 207-786-6062 bjohnso3@bates.edu

What You Will Learn

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To work with your peers and faculty to build new knowledge and solve real-world problems

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To translate complex data into compelling narratives for policymakers, the public, and the scientific community

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How to design and conduct independent research and learn about new cultures while working with faculty and collaborators around the globe

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To apply field observations from the Maine coast to global climate models and the geological history of other rocky planets

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To gain hands-on mastery of sophisticated laboratory, field, and computational skills

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How to present your research at professional regional and national conferences, where you’ll get the opportunity to network with global experts

Life After Bates

We prepare students for professional careers and to be well-informed, engaged citizens who use their expertise ethically to contribute to equity and social justice. We count among our notable alumni project scientists at NASA, professors at Harvard and Boston College, hydrogeologists, policy shapers, and researchers. Our alumni network is a cornerstone of the EACS experience, serving as a professional bridge for students as they transition from the classroom to the workforce. We facilitate direct connections with graduates who are leaders in their fields, and our alumni frequently return to campus to mentor current majors and help them navigate their own paths from the Maine coast to the global stage.

94%

of 2020-2024 Bates graduates are employed and/or attending graduate school — settled into their next opportunity within 6 months of graduation.

I loved geology because it combines every science: biology, ecology, chemistry, geochemistry, physics. It’s a little bit of everything. And you get to be outside a lot; the opportunity for field work was incredible. A geochemistry course in particular is the class that finally helped me decide I wanted to become a geologist. It really opened things up for me.

— Madeline Bruno ‘17

Selected Places of Employment/Service

Enel X
Haley & Aldrich
Wood Group
Radar Solutions International Inc.
VHB
Marine Biological Laboratory
Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership
Harvard University
Mount Holyoke Range State Park
Excel Academy

Selected Graduate Schools

University of California, Berkeley
University of Canterbury
Boston College
Columbia University
Tufts University
Oregon State University

Students in boots work in a field while studying blue carbon cycling in salt marshes at Bates-Morse Mountain in Phippsburg.

A student stands in front of parked cars writing notes in a notebook.

A student assists their professor in unraveling chords.

A student writes an entry in their yellow field notebook.

A group of students holding equipment gather around their professor in front of Lake Andrews to evaluate water qualities during an Environmental Geochemistry lab.

A student wearing latex gloves uses tweezers to place a small object in a test tube.

Students form a group to record data as one student writes in their yellow field notebook in front of Lake Andrews.

A professor helps a student during a lab in Carnegie Science Hall.

Why Study Earth and Climate Sciences at Bates?

Studying EACS at Bates means choosing a program where you aren’t just a student — you’re a scientist from day one. You join a community that uses the dramatic landscape of Maine as a gateway to understanding global systems and planetary evolution. We offer the rare combination of high-tech field and laboratory access, an intimate faculty-to-student ratio, and the freedom to pursue research that ranges from local coastal resilience to the fundamental requirements for life on other worlds. From our 100-level courses to the senior thesis, we stress the importance of experiential learning and discovery, communication, and collaboration.

Featured Courses

Meet the Faculty

Our faculty are world-class teacher-scholars who bridge the gap between high-level research and undergraduate mentorship. With PhDs from premier institutions, they are recognized leaders in their fields as well as prolific authors whose research appears regularly in top scientific journals. Beyond the classroom, they hold leadership and editorial roles in global organizations like the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the European Geosciences Union, ensuring that Bates students are learning from the very people shaping the global conversation on climate change, tectonics, and planetary habitability.