A brief history of the department The Department of Environmental Sciences has been officially designated as a department by Louisiana State University (LSU) since July 2001. The origins of this academic unit extend well back into the last century. From the 1930s until the late 1970s it was known as the Salt Dome Research Institute. One of its interesting missions was to study the applicability of salt domes as potential storage sites for radiological waste disposal in the 1960s. Finally, early in the 1980s its mission was transformed to include more environmental, ecological and human health risk issues. As a result of changes in mission and emphasis, the Salt Dome Research Institute was renamed the Institute for Environmental Studies. Consequently, the Institute of Environmental Studies developed a Master of Science degree program in 1984 and began training graduate students. After 20 years of training graduate students, the Institute of Environmental Studies (now the Department of Environmental Sciences) was officially recognized as an academic unit on the LSU campus and renamed the Department of Environmental Studies (ENVS) in 2001. The Department is one of two academic departments within the School of the Coast & Environment (SC&E) and has conferred more than 260 M.S. degrees since 1983. Department of Environmental Sciences School of the Coast and Environment Louisiana State University 1285 Energy, Coast and Environment Building Baton Rouge, LA 70803 Phone:(225) 578-8521 Fax:(225) 578-4286