SMS at a Glance

• The intercampus advantage: combined resources and facilities of the Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell campuses
• A comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach, integrating natural and social sciences
• M.S. and Ph.D programs of extraordinary depth, breadth, and flexibility
• Over 70 courses spanning the natural marine sciences and marine policy, resource management, economics, and law
• Seven concentrations of study:
  • Integrated Coastal Management
  • Ocean and Human Health
  • Living Marine Resources Science and Management
  • Marine Biogeochemical Cycles and Environmental Change
  • Analysis and Modeling of Marine and Atmospheric Systems
  • Coastal Systems Science
  • Marine Observation Technologies
• Commuting and distance-learning options
• Extensive on- and off-campus research facilities
• Affiliations with state, federal, and international governmental agencies, NGOs, and industry

SMS Overview

What is SMS?

The University of Massachusetts Intercampus Graduate School of Marine Sciences and Technology (SMS) is a new, innovative graduate school, established in 2002. Its goal is to become a nationally and internationally recognized educational center-of-excellence which contributes to the scientific understanding, management, and protection of our coastal and ocean ecosystems and resources and the sustainable growth of Massachusetts' coastal communities. The school offers both M.S. and Ph.D. programs, preparing students for positions in academia, government, and the private sector concerned with marine science, technology, and policy. Emphasis is placed on the education of researchers and scholars who will contribute not only to basic research but also to the application of that research in a coherent approach to resource management and economic development issues.

The Intercampus Advantage

SMS combines and builds upon the existing and substantive marine-related graduate programs, faculty expertise, and facilities at four University of Massachusetts campuses: Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell. This provides educational and research opportunities of extraordinary depth, breadth, and flexibility, opportunities which would be unavailable to students on any one campus alone. SMS students can choose from over 70 courses spanning natural and social elements of marine science, tap the expertise of over 70 affiliated faculty members, and take advantage of an extensive and varied research infrastructure, such as the new, world-class marine-research complex at the Dartmouth campus' School for Marine Science and Technology.

Research and training opportunities are further augmented by SMS's affiliations with several on- and off-campus research centers and institutes, such as the Urban Harbors Institute on the Boston campus and the U.S. Department of the Interior's S.O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center near the Amherst campus. SMS also shares close ties with a number of state, federal, and international governmental agencies, NGOs, and industry involved with the marine sciences and marine policy. For example, the Department of Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sciences at the Boston campus, an integral component of SMS, has long played a support and advisory role for several Massachusetts governmental agencies involved with the cleanup of Boston Harbor.

SMS students choose a "home" campus where they typically take most of their courses and conduct most of their research. But students can also commute to any of the other campuses or opt to reside at another campus for one or more semesters during their course of study to take certain courses or to take advantage of research opportunities at that campus. Additionally, some courses (including at least two core courses each semester) are taught via the school's advanced distance-learning facilities.

The Interdisciplinary Approach

Recognizing that the underlying issues and problems we face in understanding, managing, and protecting our ocean and coastal resources invariably involve a complex mix of natural, social, and economic elements, and the growing demand in the job market for individuals who can effectively work at the interface of science and policy, a fundamental and distinguishing feature of SMS is its multi- and interdisciplinary approach to the study of marine sciences and technology.

Accordingly, to ensure that all SMS students have a common grounding in concepts and skills central to interdisciplinary marine studies and research, all SMS students are required to complete four core courses -- one each in the areas of biological, chemical, and physical oceanography, and marine policy and management. To build on the core courses, each SMS student selects an area of concentration (listed above in SMS at a Glance) and chooses electives appropriate to this concentration. Reflecting the interdisciplinary character of SMS, both natural and social science courses support certain concentrations, and many courses support more than one concentration.