Mission
The primary mission of the Ecological Sciences and Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (ESE-IGP) is to provide students with educational and research experiences that integrate engineering and science concepts to solve major environmental problems using an ecological approach.
Here, we define "science" as observation/monitoring of systems and elucidation of processes/phenomena at appropriate scales, while "engineering" is defined as the design of a system--based on scientific understanding--which mitigates a problem of interest. Thus, the academic discipline departments provide the foundation while the interdisciplinary graduate program promotes complementary integrating themes.
This program will also serve as a catalyst to promote collaborative interdisciplinary environmental and ecological research among Purdue University faculty members.