The College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences comprises the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, the School of Aviation, and the School of Meteorology. We are training and educating engaged individuals for successful careers in diverse sectors such as geographic information science, climatology, water conservation, land-management, professional pilot, air-traffic control, aviation management, meteorology, climate science, and observation technology. In short, we craft the future of the land and skies.
The Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability (DGES) has three majors: Geography, Environmental Sustainability, and Geographic Information Science (GIS) which all offer a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science. Geography, Environmental Sustainability, and Geographic Information Science are all strongly interlinked. Together, they provide new ways of thinking and tools for understanding and managing the planet. Yet each is sufficiently distinct and provides different career paths and opportunities for students and practitioners.
The department’s educational mission and scholarship covers the entire spectrum of geography, environmental sustainability, and geographic information science. Faculty research interests in conservation biology, hydrology, global and tropical climatology, land-use land cover, and biogeography. In human geography, faculty research interests include urban and environmental politics, humanities and visual arts, economic and natural resource development, indigenous cultures, specific regions, such as Latin America, Africa, Russia and East Asia, and indigenous use of media. Research in environmental sustainability focuses on renewable energy resources principally, energy and wind power development, ecosystem valuation, and sustainability perception. Many faculty members make extensive use of geographical information systems (GIS) in both geography and environmental sustainability research, in addition to investigating cutting edge methodological issues in geographic information sciences.
Faculty members also use a wide range of quantitative and analytic methods, including statistics remote sensing, archival methods and qualitative methodologies. The faculty is involved in wide ranging research associated with areas including natural hazards, land-use and land cover change, water resources, applied climatology and sustainability. The faculty is currently working in many geographical areas, including the United States, Canada, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South and East Asia.
Thus, unique among all disciplines, geographic inquiry sits at the intersection of the social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences. Within the department, the research interests and expertise of faculty members cover the entire spectrum of geography including biogeography and human impacts on species distribution, applied climatology, renewable energy resources, hydrology and water resources, land cover and land use change, cultures, indigenous identities, environmental justice, political ecology, geohumanities, regional specialties, environmental policy, and natural hazards.
The University of Oklahoma School of Aviation was established in 1947, after purchasing the airport land in 1940, as an independent, Provost-directed department chaired by the airport manager J.E. Coulter. The school’s initial charge was to provide flight instruction for OU students seeking flight certification. The Bachelor of Science in Aviation was developed in the mid-1970s and was first offered as a degree in 1978.
In 1994, the Department of Aviation joined the OU College of Continuing Education and in 2017 moved to the newly formulated College of Professional and Continuing Studies. As part of this transition, the Department of Aviation changed its name to the School of Aviation Studies. In 2022, the school moved to the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences and became the School of Aviation.
The mission of the School is to provide each student with the knowledge and the skills of a competent pilot and/or industry professional, combined with a liberal education and business concentration that will provide them an initial and long-term competitive advantage as professionals in global organizations and in society. The School of Aviation is responsible for credit and noncredit aviation education, FAA Part 141 and 61 pilot training, and FAA AT-CTI curriculum and simulation courses. A Bachelor of Science Degree with four aviation concentrations and four aviation minors are offered.
The School of Aviation's modern training assets include: 15 Piper Warrior III aircraft (two with glass Avidyne flight systems and with Garmin 430 GPS units), one Cessna 152 Aerobat, two Twin Engine Piper Seminole, one King Air C-90 B Turbo Prop, two advanced FAA Aircrew Training Devices (Red Bird Simulator and Frasca Simulator). This modern aircraft fleet offers students advanced technology and also provides air transportation through the Faculty and Staff Transport (FAST) Program. Additionally, the AT-CTI program boasts a complete array of all available air traffic control simulations to include a Tower Simulation Cab for tower and ground operations, and an ATC Enroute Radar Simulation Facility Lab.
The School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma is the largest such program in the nation, with approximately 250 undergraduate and nearly 90 graduate students. The School is routinely ranked near the top of the nation in terms of undergraduate awards, such as the annual number of undergraduate scholarships awarded from the NOAA Hollings and American Meteorological Society (AMS) programs. Our graduate students are also quite successful in competing for awards with a Blue Water and Marshall Sherfield Fellowship among the top honors. Our students have received numerous best poster and best oral presentation awards at recent conferences and symposium.
The well known research expertise in the School of Meteorology is the study of convective storms and mesoscale circulations utilizing high-resolution modeling and observational analysis including advanced radar systems and ground-based remote sensing. An outside review of the School during its last Academic Performance Review placed the School as a world-leading institution in these areas. This excellence is based on the close proximity and collaboration with the University’s research centers, the Climate Science Center and the National Severe Storms Laboratory. However, the research portfolio of the School has broadened in recent years to include topics ranging from polar meteorology to climate variations and atmospheric chemistry.
The School of Meteorology is located on the 5th floor of the National Weather Center on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. The 244,000-square-foot building opened its doors in September 2006. One of the largest facilities of its kind in the world, it houses 12 University, state, and federal organizations with more than 650 employees, faculty, researchers, and students. The center accommodates OU’s academic and research programs in meteorology and the Norman-based weather research and operations programs of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The undergraduate and graduate programs are unique due to our co-location with NOAA, Department of Interior, and Department of Energy programs as well as several university strategic organizations, which broaden the education, training and research portfolio of the School. The graduate program is selective with an admission process based on a holistic look at the applicant’s academic abilities and accomplishments, references, awards, research experience and fit to our research funding. We typically offer between 15-24 Teaching and Research Assistantships in the program each year. The School of Meteorology is generally considered at or near the top spot for graduate research on convective storms, radar, and mesoscale meteorology and has expanded through the addition of new faculty giving us excellent researchers in climate, polar processes and atmospheric chemistry including tropospheric-stratospheric exchanges.
