About the Program

Join a collaborative community dedicated to using math and physics to better understand how the Earth and other planets work. Our advanced degree options prepare you to address critical global challenges, including natural hazards, resource management, and environmental changes. Through rigorous coursework and hands-on research, you will build quantitative skills alongside expert faculty mentors. This program provides the advanced training and career preparation needed to step into leading research and professional roles within academia, industry, and government, driving impactful scientific discovery.

What You’ll Study

What you will study at the graduate level depends on your particular degree, academic interests, and professional goals. Key features of our program offerings include:

• How we study courses that describe how geophysicists approach their work. PhD students take courses in 3 of 4 areas. MS students take 1-3 courses from the How We Study list. Areas include: computational methods involving data intensive numeral or computing models, laboratory-scale studies of physical properties, observations of earth and planets using imaging and other forms of remote sensing, and physics-based modeling of Earth processes and materials.

• What we study courses are broader and allow students to explore what geophysicists at Stanford study, including atmosphere, climate, cryosphere, energy, oceans, tectonics and other subjects. PhD students take 2-3 unit classes towards this requirement, and MS students take 1-2 courses. Students choose classes in consultation with their advisor. 

• Breadth requirements for PhD students can be satisfied by a Secondary Research Project or Secondary Coursework. The Secondary Research Project is a stand-alone research project that is separate from PhD research. The Secondary Coursework option includes 12 units of lecture courses.