Department of Earth Sciences

Welcome to Earth Sciences

The Department of Earth Sciences offers comprehensive degree programs leading to:

Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Arts

Master of Science

The Masters of Science in Integrated Scientific Applications (MSISA) offers four specializations.

  • Weather Intelligence and Risk Management (WIRM)
  • Climate Science Applications (CSA)
  • Geoinformatics (GI)
  • Environmental Earth Systems Management (EESM)

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Why Millersville's Meteorology Program?

Our students are given experiences that grow their knowledge base and build skills essential to their careers.

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Why Study Oceanography at Millersville?

Our Ocean Sciences program is among the Top 10 Values in Oceanography.

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Earth Sciences

Millersville's Department of Earth Sciences provides access to the latest technologies to give you experience in...

Department Newsletter

See what some of our outstanding alumni are doing!

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Department News

MU Earth Sciences Now Teaching Python 3

decariabook-new.jpgMillersville University’s Department of Earth Sciences was one of the first in the nation to begin teaching a course for meteorology and ocean science majors on the Python programming language. Since 2012 Dr. Alex DeCaria has been teaching ESCI 386 – “Scientific Programming, Analysis and Visualization with Python”. Many scientists and researchers still use Python 2 due to the extensive libraries and programs that have been written in that language, and the fact that Python 3 is not backward-compatible with Python 2. However, Python 3 is now becoming more robust and its use is growing in popularity, particularly in the atmospheric and ocean science communities. Unidata has shifted its Python training to Python 3, and its MetPy package is now written for Python 3. Starting with the Spring 2018 semester, our Python class has switched to teaching Python 3, and Dr. DeCaria is working on a second edition of his book, Python Programming and Visualization for Scientists, that will be Python 3 compatible.

geo2.jpgGeology Field Trip to New York

This spring, students from Dr. Talor Walsh’s Field Geology and Dr. Lynn Marquez’s Petrology classes traveled to New York for a weekend of studying different varieties of rocks. Students traveled to twelve different stops throughout the weekend, identifying rocks, their structures, and their origins, as well as mapping several of the outcrops. Students had a great time despite the cold temperatures!

Educational Deployment of Wyoming King Air at MU

In November 2017, Millersville University Meteorology (R. Clark, T. Sikora, and B. Billings) lead a partnership with three other universities (Penn State, Rutgers, and University of Baltimore-Baltimore County) for a two week educational deployment of the University of Wyoming King Air aircraft (UWKA) that served as the stimulus for 175 undergraduate and graduate students to be immersed in the study of the atmosphere from an airborne platform.

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