Where can EEPS take you?

 

What can you do with an EEPS degree?

There is no single EEPS career. Graduates work on problems involving climate, water, natural hazards, energy, resources, geospatial data, planetary exploration, and environmental decision-making. Others take the same quantitative and scientific training into fields that are not traditionally labeled Earth science.

Climate, environment & water

Measure and model environmental systems, assess change, manage water resources, and help organizations understand environmental risk.

Examples: hydrologist · environmental scientist · climate analyst · environmental consultant

Geospatial, sensing & data

Use satellites, drones, lidar, GIS, sensors, and computation to understand places and processes from local to planetary scales.

Examples: geospatial scientist · remote-sensing analyst · GIS specialist · data scientist
 
 
 
 

Energy, resources & the subsurface

Apply geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and modeling to energy systems, critical minerals, subsurface storage, and resource assessment.

Examples: geoscientist · subsurface analyst · energy analyst · resource geologist

Natural hazards & infrastructure

Understand earthquakes, landslides, flooding, terrain, and other physical processes that affect communities and infrastructure.

Examples: hazard analyst · engineering geologist · geophysicist · risk analyst

Space & planetary exploration

Study planets, moons, meteorites, and spacecraft data through remote sensing, geochemistry, geophysics, modeling, and mission science.

Examples: planetary scientist · mission scientist · research analyst · instrument scientist

Research & graduate study

Build new knowledge in universities, national laboratories, research institutes, government agencies, and graduate or professional programs.

Examples: research technician · graduate researcher · laboratory scientist · academic researcher

Policy, consulting & decisions

Translate technical evidence into decisions about environment, climate, energy, regulation, conservation, land use, and public policy.

Examples: consultant · policy analyst · science advisor · sustainability analyst

Beyond traditional Earth science

EEPS training in quantitative reasoning, incomplete evidence, spatial data, and complex systems also transfers to technology, software, law, finance, risk, and other fields.

Examples: software/data roles · law · finance/risk · technical consulting

Still figuring it out?

That is normal. Courses, research, fieldwork, internships, and conversations with alumni can help you discover which kinds of problems and work fit you best.

See how EEPS can help →

 

Recent EEPS Graduates

George Kingsland

AB ’25 · Staff Geologist

Geosyntec Consultants

Geosyntec Consultants

Sam Schultz

AB ’25 · Assistant Geologist

Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell

Sophie Dorosin

AB ’25 · Associate Consultant

Bain & Co.

Bain and Company

Fernanda Loza

AB ’25 · Jr. Geologist

KSN, Inc.

KSN Inc.

Find your next opportunity

EEPS Jobs searches for current jobs, internships, fellowships, postdoctoral positions, research programs, and other opportunities relevant to Earth, environmental, planetary, and geospatial science.

Explore EEPS Jobs

What will you learn to do?

EEPS is not only a body of knowledge. Students learn how to collect evidence from the physical world, analyze complex observations, and reason about systems that cannot always be observed directly.

Measure the physical world

Collect field, laboratory, sensor, and instrument data and understand how those measurements were made.

Analyze spatial & environmental data

Work with GIS, remote sensing, statistics, computation, large datasets, and modern AI-assisted methods.

Model complex systems

Use physical, chemical, biological, and mathematical reasoning to understand how natural systems behave.

Work across scales

Connect processes from minerals and microbes to landscapes, climate systems, planets, and deep time.

Communicate evidence & uncertainty

Explain what the data support, what remains uncertain, and why it matters for scientific or practical decisions.

How EEPS helps you get there

Students do not need to arrive with a career plan. EEPS offers several ways to test interests, build experience, and connect academic work to what comes next.

Faculty research

Work on real scientific questions with faculty and research groups, often beginning as an undergraduate.

Field, laboratory & technical experience

Build experience with scientific instrumentation, geospatial methods, computation, laboratory analysis, and field measurement.

Internships & external research

Use EEPS Radar and faculty networks to identify internships, REUs, field programs, fellowships, and other experiences.

Alumni connections

Learn from graduates working across government, industry, research, technology, environmental organizations, and other sectors.

Career advising

Use WashU's Center for Career Engagement for individual advising, application materials, interviews, employer events, and university-wide resources.

Graduate & professional study

Faculty advisers can help students evaluate research, graduate school, professional programs, and other advanced-study paths.

Start exploring

You do not need to know exactly where you are headed. Start with the problems that interest you, build the skills to investigate them, and use courses, research, alumni, and real opportunities to see where they lead.

Explore EEPS Facilities  Explore the undergraduate program  Center for Career Engagement