The Library of the Field Museum of Natural History is also available. Many of the faculty are engaged in collaborative research projects with their counterparts at other universities and research installations, such as the Field Museum of Natural History, the Advanced Photon Source, Intense Pulsed Neutron Source and other units at Argonne National Laboratory, near Chicago, the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and various marine laboratories, especially Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, the University of Washington, and Friday Harbor, Washington. Opportunities for inter-institutional collaboration are also provided by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a link between eleven midwestern universities. Recent field trips to Baja California, the Death Valley region, Big Bend National Park, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Iceland, Nova Scotia, and San Salvador, Bahamas have been subsidized. The degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy are granted to students who have met all requirements of the division and of the department and who, in the judgment of the department, have qualifications that will enable them to make positive contributions in any one of several areas of the geophysical sciences.
Emphasis is on the Ph.D. degree and preparation for careers in research and teaching.
It is usual for graduate students to have two years of combined course work and independent reading and research prior to the candidacy exam. After passing the preliminary examination and being admitted to candidacy, students are encouraged to proceed rapidly with their research so as to produce a major work in as short a time as possible, commonly two to four years. The divisional requirement for the degree of Master of Science is nine courses. Three or more 300-level courses in the department. An average grade of B and no grade less than C in courses offered for the degree.