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DSOC · Disaster Sciences

Degree programs for the practice of preparedness

Disaster Science at WKU draws on Meteorology, Geo-Sciences, Environmental Systems, Public Health, and Engineering, focused on every phase of disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response, with a working operations center as the laboratory.

Programs

Three ways in

Program 01

Meteorology

Launched in 2009 with nine students; today more than 100 strong, with DSOC and CHAOS as hands-on laboratories.

wku.edu/meteorology → Program 02

Disaster Science

Preparing students for every phase of disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response, with a working operations center as the laboratory.

wku.edu/eeas → Program 03

EMDS Certificates

Emergency Management Disaster Science: a strong technical base in incident management, standalone, or folded into existing master's and doctoral programs.

wku.edu/emds →

All three live in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences (EEAS) within the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.

Companion programs

Credentials that travel across majors

These programs allow EMDS to help fulfill program requirements as a co-credential or related electives.

  • Meteorology
  • ESGS
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Criminology
  • Sports Rec Management
  • Military Science
  • Geoscience
  • Homeland Security Science
  • Public Health

Research & scholarship

The written record

Listings are being compiled and will publish here soon.

REF-01

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Placeholder: a curated list of faculty and student publications is in progress.

Coming soon
REF-02

Other publications

Placeholder: reports, proceedings, and public-facing science writing will be listed here.

Coming soon
REF-03

Funded grants

Placeholder: active and completed funded projects will be listed here.

Coming soon

How we got here

Fifteen years, four milestones

  1. Meteorology Program launches

    From a modest starting point of nine students to a program that today has over 100.

  2. EMDS certificates added

    Emergency Management Disaster Science certificates at both undergraduate and graduate levels, plus an EMDS option within the Homeland Security Sciences master's.

  3. DSOC dedicated

    Students gain a real operations center for weather and emergency-preparedness support, coursework with consequences.

  4. Consortium development begins

    Integration across all five WKU colleges: Public Health, Recreation and Sports Management, Leadership, Communications, and Business.

Why it works

Coursework with consequences

These programs position the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences and the Ogden College of Science and Engineering as a world leader in disaster-centric research-to-operations education.

Students don't simulate the work. They staff the storm desk, deploy to national events, and ship decision-support tools that agencies actually use.

See who's on shift

Students in the DSOC classroom during a live weather briefing
EST 347 · DSOC Classroom