Welcome to The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources!
As the Dean of the School, I welcome you and invite you to explore our academic programs and many research and outreach activities. This is a challenging but exciting time to focus on the environment. The faculty, staff, and students of the Rubenstein School are passionate about creating the kinds of positive changes that will lead to a more sustainable future for ourselves and our planet.
Scientific understanding, culture and social connections, and technology are growing and evolving at exponential rates. The challenges of feeding a growing population, improving standards of living across the globe, protecting biodiversity, managing our forests, water, and other natural resources, and facing the realities of our energy consumption and climate change can seem daunting. But there are also many innovative and creative ideas that can inspire us and that show us change is possible — that we can consciously build a better tomorrow.
Our community includes about 100 faculty and staff members spanning many disciplines, more than 620 undergraduate students in six majors, and about 120 graduate students pursuing M.S and Ph.D. degrees. Our headquarters is the recently renovated George D. Aiken Center, a model of energy efficiency and ecological design. Other sites include the Environmental Studies Program at the Bittersweet building, the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory on the shores of Lake Champlain, our 535-acre research forest in nearby Jericho, and our shared facilities and research programs at the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, about a mile from campus.
The Rubenstein School is committed to an integrative approach to teaching, research, and service. Our faculty is highly entrepreneurial, blending teaching and scholarly activities with a commitment to experiential, problem-based, and service learning. Our academic programs are intentionally multidisciplinary and focused on training the next generation of innovative, environmentally and socially responsible, and accountable leaders and citizens.
—Dean Mary Watzin
