Overview

The Nicholas School's Climate Change Science and Applications (CCSA) certificate program is open to all Master of Environmental Management (MEM) and Master of Forestry (MF) students. To earn the certificate, students must complete 12 credit hours of required coursework in physical or natural science, social science, and integrated assessment modeling, as well as a climate-related elective specific to their individual concentration area. They also must demonstrate mastery of skills learned through these courses by applying them in their Master鈥檚 project or another equally substantive faculty-supervised capstone research project.

Faculty Experts

The certificate brings together courses taught by many of the top experts on climate change science, policy and law at the Nicholas School and from across Duke's campus. A partial list of these courses includes:

  • 鈥淭he Climate System,鈥 taught by Wenhong Li;
  • 鈥淐limate and Society,鈥 taught by Drew Shindell;
  • 鈥淐limate Change Economics and Policy,鈥 taught by Billy Pizer;
  • 鈥淐limate Change Law,鈥 taught by Jonathan Wiener;
  • 鈥淚ntegrated Assessment Modeling,鈥 taught by Dan Loughlin;
  • 鈥淕lobal Environmental Change,鈥 taught by Paul Baker;
  • 鈥淚ntroduction to Coastal Environmental Change Processes,鈥 taught by A. Brad Murray;
  • 鈥淢arine Climate Change,鈥 taught by David Johnston;
  • 鈥淎ir Quality Management,鈥 taught by Junfeng Zhang and John Vandenburg;
  • 鈥淓cological Diversity and Climate Change,鈥 taught by James Clark;
  • 鈥淟andscape Analysis and Management,鈥 taught by Dean Urban; and
  • 鈥淚ntroduction to Atmospheric Chemistry,鈥 taught by Prasad Kasibhatla.


Certificate coursework will be augmented with workshops and panel discussions on current topics in climate science, co-hosted by Duke鈥檚 and the . Students can also select courses taught at North Carolina State University or the University of North Carolina to fulfill their elective requirement.