University of California, Davis
AC-4: Graduate Program

The Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) program provides an opportunity to do interdisciplinary research to address pressing transportation, environmental, economic, policy and social challenges facing California, the U.S., and the world. The education programs at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis (ITS-Davis) are designed to meet the world’s growing needs for highly qualified, thoughtful and dedicated leaders in sustainable transportation. In addition to coursework and research, students interact with researchers and leaders from industry, government, public interest groups, and academia through seminars, internships, and visiting lectures. Our interdisciplinary approach transcends the boundaries of traditional engineering-based studies to include social and behavioral sciences, ecology, and management. Students gain advanced knowledge of civil, mechanical and environmental engineering; economics; policy studies; statistics; travel behavior; management; technology assessment; and environmental studies. Students graduate with the qualitative and quantitative skills necessary for professional administration, research, and teaching in transportation technology or planning, policy and management.

The Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Management (EPM) program, housed within the John Muir Institute of the Environment, provides advanced training in applying environmental science to real-world environmental policy and management issues. The program leverages the position of UC Davis as among the world’s strongest campuses in environmental research and science.

The UC Davis Masters program in International Agricultural Development (IAD prepares students for careers in global agricultural and rural development. This interdisciplinary program is designed to provide students with knowledge and skills that enable them to implement, facilitate and manage programs that enhance agricultural development and rural life. Students are prepared to accomplish diverse improvements, facilitate innovation in agricultural, natural, social and economic systems, and make a meaningful difference in the world. The program includes both breadth and depth components. Breadth components, which comprise core courses required of all M.S. students, aim to establish an understanding of the issues in international agricultural development. These include the history and theory of development, project development and management, fundamentals of farming systems, and agricultural economics. In the depth component, students pursue an area of specialization within the agricultural and social sciences. The areas include, but are not limited to, agricultural and resource economics, agricultural engineering, agronomy, animal science, anthropology, aquaculture, avian science, community development, ecology, economics, entomology, environmental design, environmental toxicology, food science, gender, geography, horticulture, hydrologic science, human nutrition, plant pathology, plant biology, plant protection and pest management, political science, pomology, preventive veterinary medicine, range science, sociology, soils and biogeochemistry, sustainable agriculture, vegetable crops, and viticulture.

Agricultural and Resource Economics: The M.S. and joint M.S./M.B.A. programs provide advanced training in economic analysis, statistical methods, and elective fields such as agricultural marketing, international trade, natural resources and environmental economics, economic development, financial management, and managerial economics. The Ph.D. program emphasizes rigorous training in microeconomic theory and applications, quantitative methods, and applied public policy analysis combined with production economics, industrial organization, international economics, labor economics, development economics, and environment and natural resource economics.
https://grad.ucdavis.edu/programs/gare

Graduate Group in Ecology: Students gain advanced knowledge in one of the following areas: agricultural ecology; conservation ecology; ecosystems and landscape ecology; ecotoxicology; environmental policy analysis; human ecology; integrative ecology; marine ecology; physiological ecology; or restoration ecology. Students graduate with the qualitative and quantitative skills necessary for professional research and teaching in ecological theory and its applications. The group's diverse and dynamic collection of 180 students and 130 faculty come from 24 different departments/ units on campus. Offering both Master's and Ph.D. degrees, the Graduate Group is organized into nine areas of emphasis that include both basic and applied ecology. The GGE defines ecology broadly to span scales from genes to landscapes and explicitly includes human ecology and policy. GGE members become the professionals best trained to protect our natural resources. They strive to develop basic ecological theory as well as work with resource management agencies to help solve ecological problems.
https://ecology.ucdavis.edu/

The Conservation Management Program promotes four tenets for successful conservation decision making: (1) A basic foundation in ecology is fundamental to developing the management and decision-making skills required to effectively manage ecosystems. This ecological foundation includes skills in statistics, experimental design and quantitative ecology. (2) Training in the social sciences of human ecology and environmental policy are required for conservation within the context of complex human cultures and stakeholder groups. (3) Practical skills for decision-making, planning and communication are essential for enabling scientists to step into leadership roles. (4) Integration and application of these various skills toward real conservation problems should be part of the graduate school experience. Our goal is to provide graduate training opportunities around these four tenets for students desiring careers in conservation.

The certificate program provides students with broad and deep exposure to environmental and natural resources law. The program was initiated as part of the school's commitment to quality environmental legal education. The certificate is awarded upon successful completion of two core courses - Environmental Law and Administrative Law; a substantial research paper on an environmental or natural resources topic; and 11 units of elective environmental law classes.

Climate change and related water problems pose some of the most formidable challenges to science and society today. The IGERT in Climate Change, Water and Society (CCWAS) at UC Davis is designed to provide a new generation of scientists with the disciplinary depth and the multidisciplinary breadth to address effects of climate change on water resources, including unification of hydrologic and climate science toward a more advanced understanding of hydroclimatology and better translation of science into action. In partnership with our cooperating institutions – the Colorado School of Mines, California State University, Fresno, the Centre for Advanced Studies in Arid Zones(CEAZA; University of La Serena, Chile), and University of Concepción, Chile - the CCWAS IGERT will provide transformative interdisciplinary training spanning: atmospheric science, computer science, ecology, engineering, geology, hydrologic science, political science, resource economics, and other disciplines related to climate change, water, and society. Students who complete the CCWAS IGERT curriculum will receive the Climate Change, Water, and Society certificate.

Chinyi Lydia Kao, student employee in the UC Davis Office of Sustainability, assisted in compiling this credit response.