Applicable only to students admitted during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon entry to the program, all students are assigned a faculty adviser chosen to reflect the students’ expressed area of interest. The Chair of the D.Env. Graduate Program Committee (program chair) advises students in general terms and a specific program of study is planned in consultation with each student’s faculty adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser frequently regarding their academic program and degree progress. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, performance in the Solutions Course, and during the dissertation prospectus review. The program chair, the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator provide assistance with policy and procedure and, when necessary, act to resolve any conflicts that arise. Once per year students meet with the IoES Student Success Committee. This informal student-centered meeting is to review the student’s progress toward completion of the degree and their professional development goals and to identify any matters that need attention.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environment and sustainability skill seminars, environmental science and engineering seminars, and solutions courses.

Core Courses. Thirteen courses from five categories are required. All core courses must be taken for a letter grade.

• Graduate Core (two courses). Courses that examine case studies to introduce issues and methods in environment and sustainability. Required courses: Environment 200A and 200B.
• Environmental Science (three courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses: Environmental Health Sciences C240; C225 or C264 or other transport and fate elective; and one environmental science elective course.
• Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153, and two engineering elective courses.
• Environmental Management, Law, and Economics (three courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses: Environment 134, Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290), and one environmental management elective course.
• Analytical Tools and Methods (two courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Required courses: one statistics elective course and one analytical tool or method elective course.

Elective Courses. Three courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program chair. All elective courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 13 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 13 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environment and Sustainability Seminar. Courses that develop written and oral presentation skills. Students take Environment 290 twice, once during their first and once during their second year.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in seminar courses or by attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Solutions Course. The Solutions Course, Environment 400, constitutes intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of a current environmental problem. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. The student’s individual faculty adviser will assist the student is identifying a solutions course project.  Upon selecting a solutions course project, the student will nominate a doctoral committee. The doctoral committee will oversee the student’s progress in the solutions course project.

Before proceeding to the solutions course, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better), and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. A total of 24 quarter units of Environment 400 (eight units per quarter) must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. Enrollment in more than one solutions course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a solutions course.

Normally, solutions course credit is only earned from courses offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. However, students may petition the faculty for permission to earn solutions course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin a residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. Beginning in the first year, the student’s faculty adviser will assist the student in identifying potential residency opportunities. Upon their appointment, doctoral committee members also assist the student in identifying and obtaining a residency position. The host institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the program chair. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each academic quarter of residency, the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599. The length of the residency period depends upon the nature of the residency and the needs of the student’s research, but typically lasts between 18 to 24 months, with a maximum of 24 months (6 quarters).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of the Departmental Written Qualifying Examination and the University Oral Qualifying examination, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ solutions course experience. The Departmental Written Examination is administered by the doctoral committee in the first quarter of the solutions course. The Departmental Written Examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee at the conclusion of the solutions course research project. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA at the start of the solutions course. The doctoral committee may be reconstituted with the approval of Graduate Division in the event that the dissertation topic differs significantly from the solutions course topic. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Dissertation Prospectus Review

In the third year of the program (first year of the residency) the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation before the doctoral committee. In this review, the doctoral committee assesses progress and provides the candidate guidance on the dissertation research plan.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	16	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2019-2020 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon entry to the program, all students are assigned a faculty adviser chosen to reflect the students’ expressed area of interest. The Chair of the D.Env. Graduate Program Committee (program chair) advises students in general terms and a specific program of study is planned in consultation with each student’s faculty adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser frequently regarding their academic program and degree progress. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, performance in the Solutions Course, and during the dissertation prospectus review. The program chair, the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator provide assistance with policy and procedure and, when necessary, act to resolve any conflicts that arise. Once per year students meet with the IoES Student Success Committee. This informal student-centered meeting is to review the student’s progress toward completion of the degree and their professional development goals and to identify any matters that need attention.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environment and sustainability skill seminars, environmental science and engineering seminars, and solutions courses.

Core Courses. Thirteen courses from five categories are required. All core courses must be taken for a letter grade.

• Graduate Core (two courses). Courses that examine case studies to introduce issues and methods in environment and sustainability. Required courses: Environment 200A and 200B.
• Environmental Science (three courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses: Environmental Health Sciences C240; C225 or C264 or other transport and fate elective; and one environmental science elective course.
• Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153, and two engineering elective courses.
• Environmental Management, Law, and Economics (three courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses: Environment 134, Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290), and one environmental management elective course.
• Analytical Tools and Methods (two courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Required courses: one statistics elective course and one analytical tool or method elective course.

Elective Courses. Three courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program chair. All elective courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 13 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 13 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environment and Sustainability Seminar. Courses that develop written and oral presentation skills. Students take Environment 290 twice, once during their first and once during their second year.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in seminar courses or by attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Solutions Course. The Solutions Course, Environment 400, constitutes intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of a current environmental problem. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. The student’s individual faculty adviser will assist the student is identifying a solutions course project.  Upon selecting a solutions course project, the student will nominate a doctoral committee. The doctoral committee will oversee the student’s progress in the solutions course project.

Before proceeding to the solutions course, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better), and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. A total of 24 quarter units of Environment 400 (eight units per quarter) must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. Enrollment in more than one solutions course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a solutions course.

Normally, solutions course credit is only earned from courses offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. However, students may petition the faculty for permission to earn solutions course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin a residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. Beginning in the first year, the student’s faculty adviser will assist the student in identifying potential residency opportunities. Upon their appointment, doctoral committee members also assist the student in identifying and obtaining a residency position. The host institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the program chair. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each academic quarter of residency, the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599. The length of the residency period depends upon the nature of the residency and the needs of the student’s research, but typically lasts between 18 to 24 months, with a maximum of 24 months (6 quarters).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of the Departmental Written Qualifying Examination and the University Oral Qualifying examination, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ solutions course experience. The Departmental Written Examination is administered by the doctoral committee in the first quarter of the solutions course. The Departmental Written Examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee at the conclusion of the solutions course research project. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA at the start of the solutions course. The doctoral committee may be reconstituted with the approval of Graduate Division in the event that the dissertation topic differs significantly from the solutions course topic. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Dissertation Prospectus Review

In the third year of the program (first year of the residency) the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation before the doctoral committee. In this review, the doctoral committee assesses progress and provides the candidate guidance on the dissertation research plan.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	16	24

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

None. Students must have a Master’s Degree to apply (see Admissions Requirements).

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Students are advised in general terms by the program graduate adviser, but a specific program is planned in consultation with each student’s individual faculty adviser. Students should meet with those individuals several times a year to plan their programs. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, and performance in the Problems Courses. The primary assessment is by program faculty with review and assistance as needed by the student’s adviser and the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environmental science and engineering seminars, a technical writing course, and problems courses.

Core Courses. Eleven core course requirements must be satisfied. All core courses must be taken on a letter grading basis (not for S/U grading). Courses must be taken from the following categories:

Environmental Science (four courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses are as follows: Environmental Health Sciences 212, C225, C240, C264.

Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses are as follows: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153, 155 and one elective engineering course to be approved by the program faculty.

Environmental Management, Law, and Policy (two courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses are as follows: Environment M134, Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290).

Analytical Tools and Methods (two courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Two courses approved by the program faculty. Suggested courses are: Biostats 100A/B, 110A, CEE 103, 110, Econ 203A/B/C, EEB C219, ENV 159, 260, Management 217A, Political Science 200A/B/C, 204A/B/C, 209, Public Policy 203, Stats 100A/B, 101A, Urban Planning M206A/B.

Elective Courses. Four courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses will be selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program faculty. All elective courses must be taken on a letter-grading basis (not for S/U grading).

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 11 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 12 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in a seminar course or attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Effective Technical Writing Course. All students must enroll in Environment M412 during the first or second year.

Problems Courses. Problems courses constitute intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of current environmental problems. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. Before proceeding to the problems courses, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better), and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. Twenty-four quarter units of Environment 400 must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. The requirement may be met by completing three consecutive quarters (eight units per quarter) on a single theme; or as a minimum, at least two consecutive quarters devoted to a single theme plus one quarter participation or activity approved by the faculty. Enrollment in more than one problems course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a problems course.

Problems Course Workshops. All students must enroll in Environment M413, M414, and M415 before advancing to candidacy.

Normally, problems course credit is only earned from courses offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. However, students may petition the faculty for permission to earn problems course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin an residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. The institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the Chair of the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each long session quarter of residency the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of written and oral examinations, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, the master’s field, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ problems course experience. The written examination is administered by the program faculty. The written examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee, a four-person faculty committee that guides the student through the remainder of the program. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Dissertation Prospectus

After advancement to candidacy, typically in the first year of the residency, the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation and defend it before the doctoral committee.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	15	24

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination for student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for termination for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for termination based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon entry to the program, all students are assigned a faculty adviser chosen to reflect the students’ expressed area of interest. The Chair of the D.Env. Graduate Program Committee (program chair) advises students in general terms and a specific program of study is planned in consultation with each student’s faculty adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser frequently regarding their academic program and degree progress. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, performance in the Solutions Course, and during the dissertation prospectus review. The program chair, the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator provide assistance with policy and procedure and, when necessary, act to resolve any conflicts that arise. Once per year students meet with the IoES Student Success Committee. This informal student-centered meeting is to review the student’s progress toward completion of the degree and their professional development goals and to identify any matters that need attention.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environment and sustainability skill seminars, environmental science and engineering seminars, and solutions courses.

Core Courses. Thirteen courses from five categories are required. All core courses must be taken for a letter grade.

• Graduate Core (two courses). Courses that examine case studies to introduce issues and methods in environment and sustainability. Required courses: Environment 200A and 200B.
• Environmental Science (three courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses: Environmental Health Sciences C240; C225 or C264 or other transport and fate elective; and one environmental science elective course.
• Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153, and two engineering elective courses.
• Environmental Management, Law, and Economics (three courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses: Environment 134, Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290), and one environmental management elective course.
• Analytical Tools and Methods (two courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Required courses: one statistics elective course and one analytical tool or method elective course.

Elective Courses. Three courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program chair. All elective courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 13 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 13 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environment and Sustainability Seminar. Courses that develop written and oral presentation skills. Students take Environment 290 twice, once during their first and once during their second year.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in seminar courses or by attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Solutions Course. The Solutions Course, Environment 400, constitutes intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of a current environmental problem. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. The student’s individual faculty adviser will assist the student is identifying a solutions course project.  Upon selecting a solutions course project, the student will nominate a doctoral committee. The doctoral committee will oversee the student’s progress in the solutions course project.

Before proceeding to the solutions course, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better), and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. A total of 24 quarter units of Environment 400 (eight units per quarter) must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. Enrollment in more than one solutions course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a solutions course.

Normally, solutions course credit is only earned from courses offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. However, students may petition the faculty for permission to earn solutions course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin a residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. Beginning in the first year, the student’s faculty adviser will assist the student in identifying potential residency opportunities. Upon their appointment, doctoral committee members also assist the student in identifying and obtaining a residency position. The host institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the program chair. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each academic quarter of residency, the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599. The length of the residency period depends upon the nature of the residency and the needs of the student’s research, but typically lasts between 18 to 24 months, with a maximum of 24 months (6 quarters).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of the Departmental Written Qualifying Examination and the University Oral Qualifying examination, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ solutions course experience. The Departmental Written Examination is administered by the doctoral committee in the first quarter of the solutions course. The Departmental Written Examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee at the conclusion of the solutions course research project. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA at the start of the solutions course. The doctoral committee may be reconstituted with the approval of Graduate Division in the event that the dissertation topic differs significantly from the solutions course topic. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Dissertation Prospectus Review

In the third year of the program (first year of the residency) the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation before the doctoral committee. In this review, the doctoral committee assesses progress and provides the candidate guidance on the dissertation research plan.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	16	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon entry to the program, all students are assigned a faculty adviser chosen to reflect the students’ expressed area of interest. The Chair of the D.Env. Graduate Program Committee (program chair) advises students in general terms and a specific program of study is planned in consultation with each student’s faculty adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser frequently regarding their academic program and degree progress. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, performance in the Solutions Course, and during the dissertation prospectus review. The program chair, the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator provide assistance with policy and procedure and, when necessary, act to resolve any conflicts that arise. Once per year students meet with the IoES Student Success Committee. This informal student-centered meeting is to review the student’s progress toward completion of the degree and their professional development goals and to identify any matters that need attention.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environment and sustainability skill seminars, environmental science and engineering seminars, and solutions courses.

Core Courses. Thirteen courses from five categories are required. All core courses must be taken for a letter grade.

• Graduate Core (two courses). Courses that examine case studies to introduce issues and methods in environment and sustainability. Required courses: Environment 200A and 200B.
• Environmental Science (three courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses: Environmental Health Sciences C240; C225 or C264 or other transport and fate elective; and one environmental science elective course.
• Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153, and two engineering elective courses.
• Environmental Management, Law, and Economics (three courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses: Environment 134, Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290), and one environmental management elective course.
• Analytical Tools and Methods (two courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Required courses: one statistics elective course and one analytical tool or method elective course.

Elective Courses. Three courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program chair. All elective courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 13 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 13 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environment and Sustainability Seminar. Courses that develop written and oral presentation skills. Students take Environment 290 twice, once during their first and once during their second year.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in seminar courses or by attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Solutions Course. The Solutions Course, Environment 400, constitutes intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of a current environmental problem. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. The student’s individual faculty adviser will assist the student is identifying a solutions course project.  Upon selecting a solutions course project, the student will nominate a doctoral committee. The doctoral committee will oversee the student’s progress in the solutions course project.

Before proceeding to the solutions course, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better), and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. A total of 24 quarter units of Environment 400 (eight units per quarter) must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. Enrollment in more than one solutions course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a solutions course.

Normally, solutions course credit is only earned from courses offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. However, students may petition the faculty for permission to earn solutions course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin a residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. Beginning in the first year, the student’s faculty adviser will assist the student in identifying potential residency opportunities. Upon their appointment, doctoral committee members also assist the student in identifying and obtaining a residency position. The host institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the program chair. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each academic quarter of residency, the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599. The length of the residency period depends upon the nature of the residency and the needs of the student’s research, but typically lasts between 18 to 24 months, with a maximum of 24 months (6 quarters).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of the Departmental Written Qualifying Examination and the University Oral Qualifying examination, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ solutions course experience. The Departmental Written Examination is administered by the doctoral committee in the first quarter of the solutions course. The Departmental Written Examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee at the conclusion of the solutions course research project. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA at the start of the solutions course. The doctoral committee may be reconstituted with the approval of Graduate Division in the event that the dissertation topic differs significantly from the solutions course topic. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Dissertation Prospectus Review

In the third year of the program (first year of the residency) the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation before the doctoral committee. In this review, the doctoral committee assesses progress and provides the candidate guidance on the dissertation research plan.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	16	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon entry to the program, all students are assigned a faculty adviser chosen to reflect the students’ expressed area of interest. The Chair of the D.Env. Graduate Program Committee (program chair) advises students in general terms and a specific program of study is planned in consultation with each student’s faculty adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser frequently regarding their academic program and degree progress. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, performance in the Solutions Course, and during the dissertation prospectus review. The program chair, the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator provide assistance with policy and procedure and, when necessary, act to resolve any conflicts that arise. Once per year students meet with the IoES Student Success Committee. This informal student-centered meeting is to review the student’s progress toward completion of the degree and their professional development goals and to identify any matters that need attention.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environment and sustainability skill seminars, environmental science and engineering seminars, and solutions courses.

Core Courses. Thirteen courses from five categories are required. All core courses must be taken for a letter grade.

• Graduate Core (two courses). Courses that examine case studies to introduce issues and methods in environment and sustainability. Required courses: Environment 200A and 200B.
• Environmental Science (three courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses: Environmental Health Sciences C240; C225 or C264 or other transport and fate elective; and one environmental science elective course.
• Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153, and two engineering elective courses.
• Environmental Management, Law, and Economics (three courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses: Environment 134, Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290), and one environmental management elective course.
• Analytical Tools and Methods (two courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Required courses: one statistics elective course and one analytical tool or method elective course.

Elective Courses. Three courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program chair. All elective courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 13 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 13 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environment and Sustainability Seminar. Courses that develop written and oral presentation skills. Students take Environment 290 twice, once during their first and once during their second year.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in seminar courses or by attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Solutions Course. The Solutions Course, Environment 400, constitutes intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of a current environmental problem. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. The student’s individual faculty adviser will assist the student is identifying a solutions course project.  Upon selecting a solutions course project, the student will nominate a doctoral committee. The doctoral committee will oversee the student’s progress in the solutions course project.

Before proceeding to the solutions course, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better), and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. A total of 24 quarter units of Environment 400 (eight units per quarter) must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. Enrollment in more than one solutions course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a solutions course.

Normally, solutions course credit is only earned from courses offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. However, students may petition the faculty for permission to earn solutions course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin a residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. Beginning in the first year, the student’s faculty adviser will assist the student in identifying potential residency opportunities. Upon their appointment, doctoral committee members also assist the student in identifying and obtaining a residency position. The host institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the program chair. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each academic quarter of residency, the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599. The length of the residency period depends upon the nature of the residency and the needs of the student’s research, but typically lasts between 18 to 24 months, with a maximum of 24 months (6 quarters).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of the Departmental Written Qualifying Examination and the University Oral Qualifying examination, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ solutions course experience. The Departmental Written Examination is administered by the doctoral committee in the first quarter of the solutions course. The Departmental Written Examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee at the conclusion of the solutions course research project. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA at the start of the solutions course. The doctoral committee may be reconstituted with the approval of Graduate Division in the event that the dissertation topic differs significantly from the solutions course topic. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Dissertation Prospectus Review

In the third year of the program (first year of the residency) the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation before the doctoral committee. In this review, the doctoral committee assesses progress and provides the candidate guidance on the dissertation research plan.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	16	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon entry to the program, each student is assigned a faculty adviser chosen to reflect the student’s expressed area of interest. The Chair of the D.Env. Graduate Program Committee (program chair) advises students in general terms and a specific program of study is planned in consultation with each student’s faculty adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser frequently regarding their academic program and degree progress. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, performance in the Solutions Course, and during the dissertation prospectus review. The program chair, the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator assist with policy and procedure and, when necessary, act to resolve any conflicts. Once per year students are evaluated during a spring review for degree progress. This evaluation by the program chair and faculty advisor assesses academic progress and identifies any matters that need attention.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; environmental assessment and modelling; life cycle assessment; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environment and sustainability skill seminars, environmental science and engineering seminars, and solutions courses.

Core Courses. Thirteen courses from five categories are required. All core courses must be taken for a letter grade.

• Environmental Science (three courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses: Environmental Health Sciences C240 or other toxicology course; C225 or C264 or other transport and fate elective; and one environmental science elective course.
• Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153 (may be replaced with engineering elective if equivalent previously taken), and two engineering elective courses.
• Environmental Management, Law, and Economics (three courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses: 1) one course from Environment 134, Environment 160, Public Policy C115/CM250, or Management 246, 2) Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290) or Environment 205A/B/C, and 3) one environmental management elective course.
• Analytical Tools and Methods (four courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, life cycle assessment, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Required courses: one statistics elective course, one big data course, one environmental monitoring course, and one additional analytical tool or method elective course.

Elective Courses. Three courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program chair. All elective courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 13 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 13 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environment and Sustainability Seminar. Courses that develop written and oral presentation skills. Students will take two courses, consisting of Environment 290 twice, or Environment 290 and another approved course that emphasizes scientific and technical writing.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in seminar courses or by attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Solutions Course. The Solutions Course, Environment 400, constitutes intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of a current environmental problem. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. The student’s individual faculty adviser will assist the student is identifying a solutions course project.  Upon selecting a solutions course project, the student will nominate a doctoral committee. The doctoral committee will oversee the student’s progress in the solutions course project.

Before proceeding to the solutions course, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better) and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. A total of 24 quarter units of Environment 400 (eight units per quarter) must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. Enrollment in more than one solutions course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a solutions course.

Normally, solutions course credit is only earned from ENV 400 offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. Students may, however, petition the faculty for permission to earn solutions course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin a residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. Beginning in the first year, the student’s faculty adviser will assist the student in identifying potential residency opportunities. Upon their appointment, doctoral committee members also assist the student in identifying and obtaining a residency position. The host institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the program chair. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each academic quarter of residency, the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599. The length of the residency period depends upon the nature of the residency and the needs of the student’s research, but typically lasts between 18 to 24 months, with a maximum of 24 months (6 quarters).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of the Departmental Written Qualifying Examination and the University Oral Qualifying examination, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ solutions course experience. The Departmental Written Examination is administered by the doctoral committee in the first quarter of the solutions course. The Departmental Written Examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee at the conclusion of the solutions course research project. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA at the start of the solutions course. The doctoral committee may be reconstituted with the approval of the Division of Graduate Education in the event that the dissertation topic differs significantly from the solutions course topic. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Dissertation Prospectus Review

In the third year of the program (first year of the residency) the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation before the doctoral committee. In this review, the doctoral committee assesses progress and provides the candidate guidance on the dissertation research plan.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	16	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Environmental Science and Engineering

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Graduate Degrees

The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability offers the Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) degree.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon entry to the program, each student is assigned a faculty adviser chosen to reflect the student’s expressed area of interest. The Chair of the D.Env. Graduate Program Committee (program chair) advises students in general terms and a specific program of study is planned in consultation with each student’s faculty adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser frequently regarding their academic program and degree progress. Ongoing evaluations of academic progress are made at the end of each quarter in courses completed toward degree requirements, grades in all course work, performance in the examination sequence, performance in the Solutions Course, and during the dissertation prospectus review. The program chair, the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator assist with policy and procedure and, when necessary, act to resolve any conflicts. Once per year students are evaluated during a spring review for degree progress. This evaluation by the program chair and faculty advisor assesses academic progress and identifies any matters that need attention.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Specialties within the program include (but are not limited to) the assessment and management of hazardous substances in the air, soil, and water environments; migration of contaminants in surface and groundwater; health risks of toxic substances; mitigation of adverse effects on the biological environment; restoration ecology; environmental assessment and modelling; life cycle assessment; and environmental economics. Students may also balance their work with a greater emphasis on either the science/engineering or science/policy side of their specialty.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Course requirements consist of core courses, elective courses, environment and sustainability skill seminars, environmental science and engineering seminars, and solutions courses.

Core Courses. Thirteen courses from five categories are required. All core courses must be taken for a letter grade.

• Environmental Science (three courses). Courses that describe the characteristics of terrestrial, air, and water environments; the biota; the geological, biological, chemical, hydrological, and atmospheric processes of the environment; and the interrelationships between these compartments. Required courses: Environmental Health Sciences C240 or other toxicology course; C225 or C264 or other transport and fate elective; and one environmental science elective course.
• Environmental Engineering (three courses). Courses in engineering, mathematics, and the applied physical and life sciences covering topics such as modeling of environmental systems, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, design and evaluation of pollution control systems, plus courses that describe the tools and methods needed to address environmental problems, such as field and laboratory analytical methods, statistics, computer science, and advanced applied mathematics. Required courses: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153 (may be replaced with engineering elective if equivalent previously taken), and two engineering elective courses.
• Environmental Management, Law, and Economics (three courses). Courses that relate to the social and institutional factors relevant to environmental problem solving such as the development and implementation of regulations, dynamics of public participation, and socioeconomic analysis of current and historical trends in environmental and energy policy. Required courses: 1) one course from Environment 134, Environment 160, Public Policy C115/CM250, or Management 246, 2) Urban Planning M264A/B (same as Law 290) or Environment 205A/B/C, and 3) one environmental management elective course.
• Analytical Tools and Methods (four courses). Courses that introduce students to the tools and methods required for interdisciplinary research such as probability and statistics, decision analysis, life cycle assessment, geographical information systems (GIS), numerical analysis and experiment and survey design. Required courses: one statistics elective course, one big data course, one environmental monitoring course, and one additional analytical tool or method elective course.

Elective Courses. Three courses selected to provide depth in one area for students whose previous degrees emphasized disciplinary breadth or to provide additional courses in an area related to a student’s goals within environmental science and engineering. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the student’s academic adviser and must be approved by the program chair. All elective courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Credit for Prior Work. Entering environmental science and engineering students may already have completed some of the required course work in their undergraduate and graduate work. Three of the 13 core courses can be waived based on prior course work. Any other course requirement satisfied by previous work must be replaced with an elective in any field of environmental science and engineering that is pertinent to the goals of the student. Thus, a minimum of 13 core and elective courses must be completed after admission to the program. A minimum of 10 core and elective courses must be taken at UCLA or another University of California campus.

Environment and Sustainability Seminar. Courses that develop written and oral presentation skills. Students will take two courses, consisting of Environment 290 twice, or Environment 290 and another approved course that emphasizes scientific and technical writing.

Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar. While completing core and elective requirements, full-time students must attend the equivalent of two quarters of weekly seminars in the general area of environmental science and engineering, either by enrolling in seminar courses or by attending 16 separate departmental seminars each year.

Solutions Course. The Solutions Course, Environment 400, constitutes intensive multidisciplinary applied research directed toward the solution of a current environmental problem. Students are required to quantify and measure necessary parameters, perform critical evaluations, edit and process technical and socioeconomic information, meet deadlines, and communicate through a final report to the competent lay person as well as to the technical specialist. Sometimes two or three faculty from different academic disciplines oversee a team of student researchers. The student’s individual faculty adviser will assist the student is identifying a solutions course project.  Upon selecting a solutions course project, the student will nominate a doctoral committee. The doctoral committee will oversee the student’s progress in the solutions course project.

Before proceeding to the solutions course, students must have completed eight of the required core courses, successfully passed all core and elective courses taken (B- grade or better) and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 for all classes taken after entering the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. A total of 24 quarter units of Environment 400 (eight units per quarter) must be completed during the three quarters prior to advancement to candidacy. Enrollment in more than one solutions course per quarter is not allowed. No more than eight units of other course work may be taken when enrolled in a solutions course.

Normally, solutions course credit is only earned from ENV 400 offered through the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. Students may, however, petition the faculty for permission to earn solutions course credit through multidisciplinary environmental projects offered in other departments at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Residency

After advancement to candidacy, students begin a residency in their field of interest at an outside institution. Arrangements for the residency are the students’ responsibility but program faculty will assist. Beginning in the first year, the student’s faculty adviser will assist the student in identifying potential residency opportunities. Upon their appointment, doctoral committee members also assist the student in identifying and obtaining a residency position. The host institution and the nature of the appointment must be approved by the doctoral committee and the program chair. Supervision during the field training experience will be by the doctoral committee and the field program supervisor. A letter of agreement between UCLA and the institution is required. During each academic quarter of residency, the student must register at UCLA for eight units of Environment 599. The length of the residency period depends upon the nature of the residency and the needs of the student’s research, but typically lasts between 18 to 24 months, with a maximum of 24 months (6 quarters).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A two-tiered examination sequence, consisting of the Departmental Written Qualifying Examination and the University Oral Qualifying examination, is required for advancement to candidacy to the D.Env. degree. The examinations must be successfully completed before the residency can begin. The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s understanding of the core and breadth areas, current issues in the environmental field, and subjects covered in students’ solutions course experience. The Departmental Written Examination is administered by the doctoral committee in the first quarter of the solutions course. The Departmental Written Examination may be repeated once. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is administered by the doctoral committee at the conclusion of the solutions course research project. Generally, the doctoral committee is appointed during the second year of the student’s tenure at UCLA at the start of the solutions course. The doctoral committee may be reconstituted with the approval of the Division of Graduate Education in the event that the dissertation topic differs significantly from the solutions course topic. The oral examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Dissertation Prospectus Review

In the third year of the program (first year of the residency) the candidate is required to present a written prospectus of the dissertation before the doctoral committee. In this review, the doctoral committee assesses progress and provides the candidate guidance on the dissertation research plan.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Well-prepared students who hold strong baccalaureate and master’s degrees should be able to complete the requirements for the D.Env. degree in 13 to 15 quarters, including the residency period.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
D.Env.	6	16	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is not advanced to candidacy is made by the program faculty. A recommendation for academic disqualification for a student who is advanced to candidacy is made by the doctoral committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Environmental Science and Engineering Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification based on the inability to communicate (in writing or orally) as required for success in the program area.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum and requirements if students participate in a federal training grant in this area such as: https://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/ and https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Division of Graduate Education, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 9 mandatory core courses (34 units): Biostatistics 201A, 201B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan). A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciencesThe advanced laboratory course may be waived with the consent of the faculty advisor and Department Chair  if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course.

In addition to the core courses, at least 24 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene (IH) may choose to complete additional IH core and elective courses that prepare them for a career in this field and to become Certified Industrial Hygienists (see https://gobgc.org/cih/). These additional courses provide training on occupational exposure to chemical, physical, biological, and mechanical agents, psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Students will learn IH principles including identification, recognition, anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks in the workplace environments. These required core courses are EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A and 454 (24 units). Additional courses are required of students that participate in an IH training program through the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (https://erc.ucla.edu/) and NIEHS Superfund Research Program: Emerging Nano & Technologies Training Program (https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/). Students who are U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) may qualify and apply to participate in one of these training programs and receive traineeship with financial support. If you have questions, please contact the IH Program, Director, Professor Candace Tsai.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. The report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include:  air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences 200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences 414A and 414B; and one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 201: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s  Advisor. Some commonly used formats include the critical evaluation of a set of scientific papers or the preparation of a research proposal. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written examination, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter. A doctoral committee consisting of at least four faculty members is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA. Students should consult with their doctoral committee to confirm the format of the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the department Chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum and requirements if students participate in a federal training grant in this area such as: https://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/ and https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Division of Graduate Education, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 9 mandatory core courses (34 units): Biostatistics 201A, 201B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan). A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciencesThe advanced laboratory course may be waived with the consent of the faculty advisor and Department Chair  if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course.

In addition to the core courses, at least 24 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene (IH) may choose to complete additional IH core and elective courses that prepare them for a career in this field and to become Certified Industrial Hygienists (see https://gobgc.org/cih/). These additional courses provide training on occupational exposure to chemical, physical, biological, and mechanical agents, psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Students will learn IH principles including identification, recognition, anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks in the workplace environments. These required core courses are EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A and 454 (24 units). Additional courses are required of students that participate in an IH training program through the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (https://erc.ucla.edu/) and NIEHS Superfund Research Program: Emerging Nano & Technologies Training Program (https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/). Students who are U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) may qualify and apply to participate in one of these training programs and receive traineeship with financial support. If you have questions, please contact the IH Program, Director, Professor Candace Tsai.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. The report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include:  air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences 200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences 414A and 414B; and one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 201: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s  Advisor. Some commonly used formats include the critical evaluation of a set of scientific papers or the preparation of a research proposal. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written examination, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter. A doctoral committee consisting of at least four faculty members is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA. Students should consult with their doctoral committee to confirm the format of the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the department Chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.