Learn about the strategic goals of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, as well as our five departments and three research units, that serve to guide our decision-making as we train future leaders and advance earth, energy, and materials sciences and engineering.
EMS Mission
To develop new discoveries about how the earth’s systems interact with one another and with people and their institutions and to use the knowledge gained from those discoveries to inspire students to become new generations of leaders.
Our Vision
EMS is a recognized leader in all of its disciplines. Not only is it known for ground-breaking research and high-quality teaching, but, increasingly, as an adviser to industry and government on important but still contentious matters like climate change and energy security. To that end, the college proposes a bold new vision that recognizes its role as a leading source of discovery, pedagogy, and sound advice:
The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences is where the field manual for the earth and its resources is created by pioneers and learned by new generations of leaders
College's Strategic Plan
For more than a century, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences has been a beacon of intellectual leadership on issues of utmost importance to the welfare of the Commonwealth and the nation. The thinking and planning reported in the college’s strategic plan for 2015-19, "A Blueprint for Sustained Excellence in the Earth, Energy, and Material Sciences and Engineering," is an extension of the bold but calculated eagerness of the college’s faculty, staff, and students to keep the college in a leadership position atop the earth, energy, and material sciences and engineering.
Read our strategic plan: