www.sciencemasters.com<\/a>. To receive this level of national recognition, ESU\u2019s program combines advanced training in an emerging and interdisciplinary field in the sciences with courses in professional skills such as communications and leadership, and an internship experience.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is a wonderful accomplishment for our institution,\u201d said Dr. Marcia G. Welsh, president of ESU. \u201cOur ability to offer this graduate degree program speaks to ESU\u2019s vision to build a solid learning community while maximizing the integration of technology into our already strong science and business management and leadership programs. Most assuredly, our students will be well-equipped to lead companies and organizations of any scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s designed to prepare students for leadership positions in high-technology positions in business and government,\u201d said Dr. Marilyn J. Wells, ESU vice provost and dean of the Graduate College. \u201cYou need your brilliant scientists for research and development, but you also need people who can build teams, manage projects and strategically develop an organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe programs are developed closely with the input of an employer advisory board because we need to know what they need,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n
PASSHE received a $50,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to assist in the development of at least five new Professional Science Master\u2019s Initiative programs at several of its universities. The programs are designed to meet workforce demand in high technology sectors, creating new student opportunities in graduate education. Kutztown University, another PASSHE school, offers a Professional Science Master\u2019s degree in computer science.<\/p>\n
The ESU Professional Science Master\u2019s students will learn geotechnology, which the U.S. Department of Labor has identified as one of the most important emerging fields. Geotechnology uses computer technology and satellites to map everything from shoreline erosion to flood plain boundaries to population shifts. The international science journal Nature<\/em> has said of the practitioners: \u201cThese high-tech geographers have turned computer mapping into a powerful decision-making tool.\u201d<\/p>\nESU\u2019s program will be under the direction of Dr. Shixiong (Shawn) Hu, chair of the geography department. Students will graduate with a master of science (MS) in General Science with applications of Geographic Information System (GIS)\/Remote Sensing (RS) to Environmental Science. They will be required to take 36 credits in courses such as Applied Geographic Information Science, Introduction to Remote Sensing, and oral and written communication.<\/p>\n
The Council of Graduate Schools approved ESU\u2019s Professional Science Master\u2019s program in June, making it part of a growing trend in graduate education. In 2008, only 58 institutions offered PSMs, today 124 do.<\/p>\n
“This is an exciting opportunity for students to pursue an interdisciplinary cutting-edge graduate education, embracing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), while developing the business acumen sought by prospective employers,\u201d said Dr. Tom Tauer, ESU assistant provost.<\/p>\n
Instead of a thesis, the PSM typically requires students to complete a collaborative research project, as well as an internship with an employer in the business, government or non-profit sectors. ESU expects to make use of its senior membership in the Marine Science Consortium which has affiliations\u00a0with NASA\u2019s Wallops Island Flight Facility inVirginia,\u00a0 and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n
Students will gain hands-on skills in field data collection, laboratory analysis and environmental modeling which businesses and agencies are looking for. \u201cThese master\u2019s degree graduates will be ready to go from Day One,\u201d Wells said. \u201cEmployers get a fresh set of eyes and new young minds.\u201d<\/p>\n
A master\u2019s of General Science was one of the first graduate degrees the university offered when the Graduate College launched its first programs in 1962.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taking\u00a0a degree program in the sciences in which we\u2019ve had a historical strength, and preparing students for 21st<\/sup> century careers,\u201d Wells said. \u201cIt\u2019s building on our legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting this fall, ESU\u2019s Graduate College is offering a nationally recognized Professional Science Master\u2019s (PSM) degree program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[42,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-release","category-provost"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}