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Environmental science encompasses collaborative and perspectives from a variety of fields to provide students with an interdisciplinary approach to science. Students may integrate course work from a variety of fields, such as engineering, education, mathematics, geology, chemistry, agriculture and biology to gain a powerful approach for addressing problems in environmental science in an effective way. They will be prepared to lead initiatives that require a combination of scientific knowledge with data analysis and business strategies. The proposed new concentration will have a thesis or non-thesis route to allow students to choose the option that best fits their career and research goals. Tennessee Tech has a history of fostering interdisciplinary teaching and research initiatives and there is a strong critical mass of faculty in other disciplines who could serve as mentors and faculty advisors to master’s students. The addition of a new concentration in Environmental Science will increase the sustainability and stability of the PSM program by increasing enrollment and graduation rates, stimulating external grant funding for projects related to Environmental Science, and providing a pathway for industry or government employees as well as undergraduate environmental science students interested in pursuing a graduate degree at Tennessee Tech.

Since 2006, the Council of Graduate schools endorsed the PSM program model and currently over 100 institutions have developed these interdisciplinary graduate programs that are characterized by science and mathematics with skills-based courses in management and leadership with an internship component. The proposed PSM program with a concentration in Environmental Science meets all those criteria and will seek PSM recognition from the Council.