Graduate education programs at UC San Diego maintained their top national rankings in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report survey. Among them, Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s earth sciences graduate program in geophysics and seismology ranked fifth in the nation for the second year in a row.
Scripps’ geophysics and seismology program draws upon a strong research program in both theoretical and experimental geophysics primarily based in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. It provides students with the training necessary to conduct research on physical conditions and processes within the earth and oceans.
Scripps geophysicists are pioneers in developing new instrumentation and analysis techniques to measure geophysical phenomena. They construct three-dimensional models of the structure of the earth's crust, mantle, and core, and are continually devising new methods to improve the accuracy of earthquake locations, real-time analysis and presentation of seismic data.
“We continue to provide our graduate students with a deep knowledge of basic geophysical principles that can be applied to global problems in the earth sciences,” said Cathy Constable, director of the Earth Sciences Section and professor of geophysics at Scripps Oceanography. “We are honored to be recognized by U.S. News and World Report for having an outstanding geophysics and seismology program at Scripps.”
The rankings are based upon expert opinion about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students.