Welcome to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
The Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, named in honor of one of Florida Atlantic University's greatest benefactors, is the primary source of scientific research and education for more than three million people living and working in our service region of Southeast Florida. Through its academic departments and research centers, our College provides outstanding opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate science majors.
In addition to the eight academic departments in the College—Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Exercise Science and Health Promotion, Geosciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physics, Psychology, and Urban and Regional Planning, there is a group of strong interdisciplinary and sub-disciplinary research centers engaged in cutting-edge research. These include The Center for Biological and Materials Physics, The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, the Center for Cryptology and Information Security, the Center for Geo-Information Sciences, the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions, and the Center for Environmental Studies.
The education and research programs of our College span the sciences and mathematics with major efforts in many fields ranging from biotechnology, bioinformatics, and brain science to cryptology, developmental systems, dynamical systems, environmental sciences, exercise sciences, geo-information science, marine science, and space-time physics. The College's programs are offered at FAU's campuses in Boca Raton, Davie, Jupiter, and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and our buildings include more than 300,000 square feet of state-of-the-art instructional and research space.
Besides providing general education in science to all FAU students, the College currently provides educational and research opportunities to 8,300+ undergraduate and close to 600 graduate science majors. During the 2020-2021 academic year, the college awarded 1,480+ baccalaureate degrees, 110 master’s degrees, and 37 doctorates. The college offers Ph.D. degrees in Integrative Biology, Chemistry, Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Experimental Psychology, and Geosciences as well as a full suite of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.
Research and scholarship are central to our College's mission and play vital roles in the life of the College as a whole. External research funding, the great majority of it coming from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, underwrites major programs of research by our faculty and students. Science faculty members throughout the college have developed state-of-the-art research programs in diverse disciplines and important new interdisciplinary areas. Our faculty members have active collaborations that extend not only across FAU's colleges and campuses, such as with the FAU institutes, including the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, I-SENSE, HBOI, and I-HEALTH, but also with local research institutions such as UF Scripps, and the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. In addition, the college has affiliations with National Laboratories such as those at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge and international collaborations that span the globe.
In the knowledge-based and innovation-dependent economy of the 21st Century, our College's undergraduate and graduate programs prepare students who can enter the workforce ready to meet local, national and international needs in a globally competitive environment. We invite you to explore the many opportunities that await you in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science — where together we create the future!
Valery E. Forbes, Ph.D.
Dean and Professor, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science