Graduate Consortium on Energy and Environment: About the Program

New!  Apply Online   Next application deadline is Monday, May 21, 2012.

Contact Educational Progams Manager Eric Simms for more information.

Training a New Generation of Scholars

The Harvard Graduate Consortium on Energy and Environment will foster a new community of doctoral students who will be well versed in the broad, interconnected issues of energy and environment while maintaining their focus in their primary discipline. Through debate and dialogue in coursework and seminars, students will be able to identify the obstacles, highlight the opportunities, and define the discussion of an energy strategy for the 21st century and beyond.

Program Description

The Consortium is open to Ph.D. or Sc.D. students at Harvard who have completed at least one year in their home department or school and can demonstrate that participation in the Consortium will advance the goals of their research experience. Once admitted to the Consortium, students are required to take three of the four courses offered -- including either Energy Policy or Geopolitics of Energy -- each designed to give doctoral students an introduction to critical aspects of energy issues. Students are also required to participate in a weekly reading seminar that will provide an overview of the energy field from a wide range of perspectives, and will be led by faculty members from around the university. Each student in the program will be eligible to apply for a graduate fellowship and up to $1,000 to attend conferences or other appropriate professional activities during their time in the program.

Courses

(Click on course title to download course description)

• Energy Consequences (Fall)
  

  This course will give students an introduction to climate and climate change, the carbon cycle, air and water pollution from energy systems, impacts of land use on natural ecosystems, and implications of energy use for human health.

• Geopolitics of Energy (Fall)
  

  This course takes energy security as its launching point, exploring not only how countries shape their grand strategies to meet their energy needs, but also how such actions have implications for other countries and the international system.  It looks at new technologies and innovations - such as those making the extraction of shale gas economical - and how they are changing patterns of trade and could shape new alliances. Finally, it considers the consequences of a successful shift away from petroleum based economies to anticipate how a new energy order will alter global politics in a fundamental way. 

• Energy Technology (Spring)
  

  This course will provide students with an understanding of the principles governing energy generation and interconversion; current and projected world energy use; and selected important current and anticipated future technologies for energy generation, interconversion, storage, and end usage.

• Energy Policy (Spring)
  

  This course will provide students with an introduction to economic and policy dimensions of the energy choices needed to meet economic and environmental goals in both the near and long term. It will cover both international and domestic programs and policies.

• Reading Seminar (Fall, Spring)

  Articles will be assigned each week on various topics related to the energy field, with discussion to be led by faculty across the university. Regular attendance during the entire academic year is mandatory.