The School, which consolidated under the leadership of Karl Taylor Compton in 1932, is composed of 6 academic departments who grant SB, SM, and PhD or ScD degrees; as well as a number of affiliated laboratories and centers.
[4] The Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (Course 12, or EAPS) traces its origins to the establishment of MIT by the geologist and education reformer William Barton Rogers in 1861.
Today, EAPS seeks to understand the fundamental workings of natural systems by examining physical, chemical, and biological processes occurring across a vast spectrum of time and space.
Its highly integrated research requires direct observation as well as modeling, and the department fosters interdisciplinary ventures that open new avenues of exploration.
The Center for Global Change Science (CGCS) at MIT was founded in January 1990 to address fundamental questions about climate processes with a multidisciplinary approach.
The core research program in the CUA consists of four collaborative experimental projects whose goals are to provide new sources of ultracold atoms and quantum gases, and new types of atom-wave devices.