Discover Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS)

Dwindling natural resources...advancing climate change...a constant stream of pollutants...all pose serious threats to our oceans and atmosphere. If you want to work alongside internationally known scientists and scholars—while you learn how to solve urgent environmental problems—then Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) may be the place for you.

SoMAS offers 4 degree programs and 2 minors. Courses are offered both at the Stony Brook and Southampton campuses, with housing available to students on the Stony Brook campus.

We explore sea and sky, from frozen polar environments to the tropics, to increase understanding of the oceans and atmosphere and to apply that knowledge to resolving societal and environmental issues locally, regionally, and globally. Along the way we give undergraduates a solid science education and rigorous preparation for graduate study or careers in a variety of fields.

Hands-on field and laboratory experience is an important part of being a SoMAS undergraduate. A typical morning might find you aboard our 80-foot research vessel Seawolf, collecting samples of water, sediments, and animals from local marine habitats and then bringing them back to the lab to do experiments. Or you might probe the secrets of the seafloor, using sophisticated echosonar technology to locate shipwrecks at the bottom of New York Harbor.

Our locations make us ideally suited to studying New York’s diverse environments. But study abroad can take you even farther afield, to places like Jamaica’s coral reefs, as part of our popular Tropical Marine Ecology course, or Tanzania’s Lake Victoria, where you’ll examine the interaction between the environment and human health.

Stony Brook University offers all the advantages of a top-ranked university, and yet is among the most affordable in the U.S. Take a virtual tour today and discover Stony Brook University.