Environmental    Faculty focused on Environmental Studies conduct research in a wide variety of areas. The research they conduct is interdisciplinary in nature and nationally recognized.  Students in the department are nearly always involved in faculty research projects and have found these experiences to be valuable in building career skills that help make them competitive in the job market.  Examples of past and current student-faculty projects include paleontological quantification and classification, examination of extraforal nectaries, excavating archeological sites on local historic properties, monitoring aquatic habitats in the Potomac River, and exploring ecological relationships in communities in succession. Astronomy/Physics  Astronomy has often been called "the original science", and is in fact one of the Seven Liberal Arts of classical education. The AstroPhysics Group is the research group made up of institutional faculty, staff, and students engaged in astronomical and astrophysical activities at Shepherd University. The Group is housed within the Shepherd University Institute for Environmental Studies. We have several ongoing research programs in cosmology, virtual reality, astronomy education, and historical astronomy. This research serves as the foundation of the Group, keeping us immersed in the dynamic fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Our continued publication and presentation activities in these fields keep our course offerings current and meaningful.