Welcome to the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

I invite you to familiarize yourself with the school and all that distinguishes it—from our location on the edge of the Pacific Ocean to our outstanding students and faculty, our superb facilities housed in the “greenest” laboratory building in the United States, and, above all, our richly integrated multidisciplinary academic programs. It is my hope that you will experience the school as a dynamic and exciting place that makes a powerful contribution to the world.

The environmental plight of our planet is perhaps the single most important issue of our time, and how we manage its resources and natural systems, and our own linked human actions will largely determine the quality of life to be enjoyed by our children and the generations beyond. There is, accordingly, a great need for leaders who are highly trained not only in the physical sciences, but also in policy-making, economics, business, and management. The world needs people who can harness knowledge, technical skills, and analytical ability to a vision capable of ensuring that living well means living sustainably. Those leaders are being trained at the Bren School.

The school’s faculty comprises distinguished professors who are leaders in their respective fields and hold prominent positions on working groups engaged in developing environmental policy at the highest national and international levels. Further, the school's student-to-faculty ratio ensures that students in both the master's program and the mentored PhD program have extraordinary access to their professors. And because the school is embedded in a university offering nationally ranked programs in an array of related disciplines, students can extend their specializations with classes in areas that reflect their particular interests.

Finally, the Bren School offers a superb location where the mountains meet the sea and such issues as ocean conservation, land use, and water-quality and management are front and center. More than a pleasing place to learn, our campus provides an inspiring context for those who have the mind, the skills, the vision, and the commitment to make a difference.

Thank you for visiting, and please contact us with any questions you might have.

Sincerely,

John Melack, Acting Dean

Bren School of Environmental Science & Management