Education
The Hub aims to build a vibrant educational ecosystem that brings together undergraduate and graduate students with faculty from across Duke’s campus to collaboratively learn, engage, and develop innovative solutions to the most pressing critical mineral challenges.
At the center of our educational initiatives is Critical Minerals Nexus, Geosciences, Engineering and Policy, a Bass Connections course set to launch in January 2026.
There are also a number of existing courses across departments that are connected to critical minerals, as well as several relevant degree and certificate programs for both undergraduate and graduate students. We invite you to explore these opportunities and sign up for a course with Hub faculty soon!
Bass Connections
Our Bass Connections course, Critical Minerals Nexus: Geosciences, Engineering and Policy, brings together faculty from across disciplines—each engaged with different aspects of the critical mineral system—with students at all levels. This collaborative approach will foster interdisciplinary learning and integrate research across fields.
Leveraging our strategic location and strong partnerships across relevant sectors, students will gain hands-on experience through field trips, which will span the entire critical mineral lifecycle—from extraction and processing to integration into energy technologies and recovery at end of life to support circular resource flows.
You can learn more about the Critical Minerals Hub Bass Connections course here.
Relevant Courses
Aquatic Geochemistry
Geochemistry of the water-solid interface of soils and particles in environmental systems. Topics will cover the chemical composition of soils, geochemical speciation, mineral weathering and stability, sorption and ion exchange, soil redox processes, and chemical kinetics at environmental surfaces.
CEE666, ENV666
Hub Faculty: Hsu-Kim
Carbon: An Element of Life and Change
The course exposes students to the diverse facets of a single element, carbon, which is essential to life on earth, is the backbone to revolutionary technologies, and is at the center of the global climate controversy. Relevant topics include carbon chemistry, carbon materials, and embodied carbon of critical materials and a term project on a topic of the students.
CEE690.03
Hub Faculty: Gilbertson
Chemistry of the Earth
This course covers the chemistry of the Earth across a range of temporal and spatial scales. Beginning with the formation of the Earth, we will walk through planetary differentiation into core, mantle and crust; evaluate evidence for the development of plate tectonics and changes in its operation through time; become familiar with the chemistry of Earth’s surface environments ranging from atmosphere to oceans, rivers, lakes and soils. Students will become well acquainted with mineral equilibria, acid-base and redox reactions, biogeochemical cycles, and human impacts on environmental chemistry.
ECS 240
Hub Faculty: Kipp
Climate Change: A Political Economy Perspective
This class covers the political economy of climate change, using the framework of actors, interests, and institutions (domestic and international institutions), policies of different countries, including the EU and China, green finance, critical mineral supply chain, and socioeconomic implications of climate change.
POLSCI 128
Hub Faculty: Park
Computational Materials Science
This course will cover modern computational techniques for the prediction of materials properties, beginning from the scale of electrons and atoms and connecting to materials challenges in experiments today. Subjects covered will include Schrödinger’s equation and density functional theory, molecular dynamics, and so-called multiscale approaches to connect quantities computed at the nanoscale to macroscopic properties. The class will incorporate specific examples as explicit computer exercises. The course is expected to provide an atomic-scale understanding of materials for both students with a primarily computational interest and those students whose research is primarily experimental.
ME511
Hub Faculty: Blum
Environment and Conflict
Environmental and natural resources as a source of conflict and/or peace-building between and within nations and states. Analysis of the role of the environment in the conflict cycle and international security. Topics include refugees, climate change, water, and critical minerals. Particular focus on post-conflict and rebuilding in war-torn societies. Examination of the role of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and emerging standards for environmental management.
ENV 216S, PUBPOL 279S, POLSCI 367S, ICS229S, RIGHTS 229S
Hub Faculty: Weinthal
Environmental Aquatic Chemistry
Fundamentals of chemical equilibria as applied towards environmental engineering processes. Chemistry topics include acid-base equilibrium, the carbonate system, metal-ligand coordination, mineral surface interactions, redox reactions, and surface/colloid chemistry. Applied environmental systems include water quality and treatment, soil remediation, and outdoor air pollution.
CEE461L, CEE561L, ENV542L
Hub Faculty: Gilbertson, Hsu-Kim
Global Environmental Studies
Course examines how states and non-states actors cooperate to resolved global environmental problems. Central focus is on the creation of international environmental regimes, their implementation, and effectiveness. Case studies include climate change, ozone depletion, water sharing and dams, fisheries, biodiversity, forestries, oil pollution, sustainable development, environmental security, and trade and the environment.
ENV826
Hub Faculty: Weinthal
Integrating Environmental Science and Policy
Includes a four-week module on Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment, where students learn process-based and Economic Input Output techniques to estimate the resources used and the emissions to air, soil and water resulting from the production of different U.S. products such as tofu, chicken, electricity at the grid, etc.
ENV201
Hub Faculty: Patiño-Echeverri
Introduction to Quantitative Modeling for Energy Systems Analysis
Introduces students to a) Spreadsheet modeling, data analysis, and programming for the analysis of large energy relevant datasets, b) Programming in VBA and Python, c) Formulation and solution of linear optimization programs in Excel and Python, d) Monte Carlo simulation. The tools are helpful to quantify the use of critical materials for energy infrastructure.
ENV716
Hub Faculty: Patiño-Echeverri
Isotope Geochemistry
This course covers the origins, development and applications of isotope geochemistry, a field that uses variability in the abundance of naturally-occurring isotopes to study elemental cycling in nature. The course begins with an overview of fundamentals: what are isotopes, and how are they fractionated by chemical reactions? It then moves into specific applications spanning geology, ecology, hydrology and even medicine. It culminates with a segment on techniques for measuring isotopic ratios in natural samples.
ECS 508
Hub Faculty: Kipp
Markets for Electric Power
Introduces students to the U.S. electricity industry and the physics and economics that determine the outcomes of the sector. Students learn how to simulate the operations of a power system and can quantify emissions, reliability, and prices.
ENV717
Hub Faculty: Patiño-Echeverri
Material Design for a Circular Economy
This course aims to engage students in the study of materials from a life cycle perspective and consider how we can transform the current linear material system to one that is circular. In addition to a dedicated, multi-week case study on critical minerals, the course uses examples relevant to critical minerals through the topics covered, such as material design frameworks, materials selection, life cycle assessment.
CEE515
Hub Faculty: Gilbertson
Materials Synthesis & Processing
This course focuses on synthesis and processing techniques in the context of the six signature research areas in the University Program in Materials Science & Engineering. The goal is for students to understand how materials synthesis and processing is linked to resulting material structure, which in turn leads to certain material properties.
ME562
Hub Faculty: Mitzi
Thin-Film Photovoltaics
The Earth receives approximately 120,000 terawatts (TWs) of solar energy annually (versus human consumption of ~15 TW), in a form that is renewable, reliable, and geographically distributed. One avenue for exploiting solar energy is the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity or photovoltaics (PV). This course will focus on a promising class of solar cells based on thin-film absorbers, some of which are already commercialized (e.g., CdTe, CIGS), while others are on the cutting edge of new photovoltaics technology (e.g., perovskites). The course employs a combination of lectures, directed reading, and hands-on approaches to get a better appreciation of the advantages and challenges of this class of PV technologies. The hands-on component of the course will involve fabricating PV devices and employing contemporary characterization and modeling tools to evaluate device performance. Both the specific techniques employed as well as the intellectual framework used in the course are more generally applicable to other solar cell and electronic device technologies.
ME516
Hub Faculty: Mitzi
Water Sciences
The course provides fundamental principles and challenges in water sciences on local, regional, and global scales. Topics include the global hydrological cycle, the impact of climate change and global warming (heating!) on water availability and scarcity, the energy-water nexus with emphasis on renewable energy sources (lithium!), the principles of hydrogeology and surface water and groundwater physical flow, the fundamentals of water chemistry and quality, isotope hydrology, and the technological approaches for water management and remediation (e.g., desalination).
ECS220
Hub Faculty: Vengosh
Water Quality and Health
The course provides basic concepts of the relationships between water quality and health. The course includes an introduction of the global water cycle, availability, and demand, energy-water nexus, basic concepts of hydrogeology, principles of water chemistry and water quality, geochemical tracers for identification of sources and mechanisms of water contamination, exposure science, and health implications.
ECS524
Hub Faculty: Vengosh
Related Degree Programs
Master of Engineering in Climate and Sustainability
The Master of Engineering in Climate & Sustainability Engineering at Duke University is a 3-semester, 18-month program designed to prepare engineers to lead in addressing climate challenges through innovative, real-world solutions. The curriculum blends technical, business, and policy education, with core topics including:
- Applied Climate and Sustainability Engineering
- Circular Economy and Sustainable Materials
- Energy Transition
- Risk and Resilience Engineering
- Systems Engineering for Climate Response
Students can focus on areas like energy transition, infrastructure adaptation, sustainable materials, or business applications. The program emphasizes hands-on learning, including a required internship or project, and integrates industry input to stay current and impactful.
Master of Environmental Management
Offered by the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Master of Environmental Management is a flexible two-year professional master’s degree for students who want to make an impact in meaningful careers at the intersection of policy, science and community.
