Welcome to the Department of Environmental Studies at Florida International University. Established in 1994, and growing out of an Environmental Studies Program that had operated for some 20 years, the Department is today making ever greater contributions to deeper knowledge and better management of the environment in South Florida, Latin America, and beyond. We have 15 core faculty members and more than 30 affiliated faculty members who are undertaking exciting research on topics ranging from biogeochemistry to urban ecology. We have grown to have nearly 150 majors distributed between our BS and BA degrees, and over 50 graduate students in the M.Sc. in Environmental Studies degree. Within the next year we expect to implement a Ph.D. program. Faculty and students work together in the common endeavor of borrowing what is most useful from many disciplines and applying them to research and management on global, regional, and local environmental dilemmas. The Department takes maximum advantage from its location on the edge of the Everglades and at the gateway of Latin America, but also serves both the scholarly community and communities facing environmental change elsewhere in the world. The Department believes that rigorous academic and scientific inquiry must be combined with the goal of finding a more sustainable "fit" between human social systems and ecological systems. We are an interdisciplinary department at the forefront of research between natural and social systems. We invite you to explore our web page and get in touch with any of us if you want to know more.

Joel Heinen, Chair and Associate Professor