ENV 762a () / 2025-2026

Foundations of Applied Math for the Environment (FAME) Fall-2 meets Oct 20-Dec 17

Credits: 1.5 Fall 2025: Tu, 9:00-10:20, Bowers

The language of mathematics is an important leg in the stool of interdisciplinary research and analysis, and many graduate courses at YSE involve mathematical content. However, many graduate students have not taken a math course in years, and their math skills are rusty. Furthermore, many graduate-level mathematical concepts may be entirely new. Experience suggests that many students either opt out of taking courses they are truly interested in or muddle through, struggle with the math, and miss important concepts. FAME is meant to help students refresh or acquire new math skills and succeed in content and provide a foundational “toolbox” for graduate-level courses. FAME provides a structured opportunity to learn a range of mathematical concepts used in environmental research. The course assumes that, at a minimum, students took college algebra (and have been exposed to calculus). Concepts are presented heuristically in a “how to” and “why” approach with examples from environmental research and policy questions. The goal is for students to be conversant and have intuition about (i.e., to demystify) why logs, exponents, derivatives, integrals. Also covered is a bit of history of math and an introduction to computer programming.