History
The forerunner of the Department of Environmental Sciences was an agricultural chemistry research unit in the world-renowned California Citrus Research Center and Agricultural Experiment Station (CRC-AES) which was established in Riverside in 1907. The results of research conducted by scientists in this unit led to large-scale reclamation of salt-affected lands in California, and a better fundamental understanding of base exchange, plant nutrition, and physical conditions of irrigated soils. The University of California general campus at Riverside was established in 1948, opened for classes in 1954, and initiated its Graduate Division in 1960. Since 1960, the graduate program in Soil Science has conferred 122 Master's degrees and 192 Ph.D. degrees. UCR currently has a 1,200 acre campus with 16,826 total students (Fall 2006), 2,083 of whom are graduate students. As a result, most classes are relatively small, making possible a close interaction with faculty. The campus houses the Citrus Research Center-Agriculture Experiment Station, Dry Lands Research Institute, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, and Statewide Air Pollution Research Center. Nearby are the Riverside Office of the Center for Water Resources, and two U.S.D.A. research laboratories: the U.S. Salinity Laboratory and the U.S. Forest Fire Laboratory.