YSE Launches New Certificate Program in Environmental Data Science

From forest conservation to biodiversity loss to agricultural systems and land use, data drives solutions. A new Yale School of the Environment online certificate program is aimed at demystifying the process of working with data to better prepare professionals to understand and address local and global environmental issues.

Environmental Data Science Certificate Program

You don’t need to be a data expert to start making a difference—just the right training.

With a focus on the need for collaboration across fields, such as economics and ecology, and the interdisciplinary nature of environmental problems, the Environmental Data Science Certificate Program will emphasize the importance of contextualizing data.

“In business and policy, decisions are increasingly data driven. They are evidence-based. It is imperative that natural resource management, environmental, and climate decisions are also data driven and evidenced based,” Eli Fenichel, the Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resources Economics, said.

The program — led by Fenichel and research scientists and lecturers Jennifer Marlon, executive director of the Yale Center for Geospatial Solutions; and Simon Queenborough, Musser Director of YSE’s Tropical Resources Institute — will help participants develop skills and expertise in data acquisition, ensuring data quality, interpreting data through various analysis techniques, converting data into insights and solutions, and communicating the findings through visualization. Participants will learn to clean and code data using R and Python, collaborate with GitHub, and prepare environmental data sets.

“You won't just learn how to crunch numbers. You'll learn how to think critically about the context of the data. Who does it affect? What assumptions underlie it, and how does it connect to on-the-ground realities?” Marlon said.

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The six-month online program will include core content, special topics, and a capstone project in which participants will propose solutions to an environmental challenge using actionable insights they gained from data analysis.

“In addition to students learning to tap into the more than 40 terabytes of data produced per person per year to use toward shaping wise environmental, natural resource, and climate policies, the program is designed to help the students develop data science leadership through additional instruction on data communication, ethics, and the role of data in decision making,” Fenichel said.

Applications for the environmental  data science program, which is one of six YSE online certificate programs, opened July 1. Classes begin October 2.

“At its core, data science is about transformation,” Fenichel noted. “We believe anyone can learn the skills to harness the power of data.”