Academic Focus of the Master's Program

The MSc in Integrated Climate System Sciences (ICSS) combines all sciences addressing the climate system. This includes natural sciences as well as climate-relevant aspects of social and economic sciences.
This interdisciplinary approach will enable you to understand the processes of climate variability and climate change and its respective consequences for societies, including how they respond to these.
Your curriculum will focus on earth system sciences, considering natural processes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere and biosphere. To describe the earth system and its complexities, you will mainly use mathematical methods and numerical modeling. Observation and monitoring data are used to validate the models.
Another focus is on the climate-relevant aspects of social and economic sciences to understand political and social processes and conflicts caused by or arising from climate change.
This approach will enable you to develop a comprehensive understanding of the past, current and future climate variability of the earth system, letting you perceive Earth as an integrated system.

Become an expert in integrated climate system sciences!

The SICSS MSc program is designed to give you a strong background in natural sciences and modelling skills and an understanding of the climate-relevant aspects of social and economic sciences.
SICSS will encourage you to look beyond your own discipline. You will become both an expert in your specific field and proficient in interdisciplinary thinking.
Based on this sound scientific education the SICSS MSc program offers three tracks:

• Physics of the climate system
• Biogeochemistry of the climate system
• Climate-related economics and social sciences

During the first semester the SICSS MSc program will give you an understanding across the three program tracks. From the second semester the program opens the opportunity to give your personal curriculum either an “in depth” focus on one of the tracks or an “interdisciplinary” approach where you combine various courses from the three tracks.  

Please note: The SICSS MSc program does not include any technological component (although it may indirectly show up in economic courses), any engineering approaches (where original research is not the focus) and any business and management aspects (although international legal and safety issues are addressed).