“We aren’t starting from the ground,” he said. “A lot of what we are trying to do we already have here. We are just making the programs and resources more robust.”

David Trilling, a professor in the department and the graduate coordinator for the program, said the doctoral program will give NAU a chance to compete for research grant funding as well as give students an opportunity to conduct independent research.

Trilling said the first two years of the program, which typically takes a student between five and six years to complete, will be centered on taking course which will promote a broad understanding of planetary sciences. The remaining years will be spent working with a research mentor conducting their own research.

Trilling said there are four students enrolled in the program now, and said they hope to enroll five new students annually, so at full capacity the program will have about 25 students.

“They will have a strong, hopefully positive influence on the personality of the department,” Trilling said. “Ph.D students are always integral to the personality of the department. If the Ph.D students are enjoying it and are having fun, the whole department is a positive environment, and if the Ph.D students are working hard, the department can be really productive.”