A New Major

Computational Science is a new field that has grown out of the use of computers in scientific disciplines. Computers have completely transformed many scientific disciplines and the use of computational techniques and applications in these disciplines has spawned the creation of new areas of scientific inquiry. As such, the need for scientists that are well versed in not only their specific scientific disciplines, but also in methods of mathematical modeling and computing, has been increasing rapidly over the past few years. This demand has predicated the development of computational science majors at many universities. The computational science degree at Mercer was proposed by the Department of Computer Science in 2004 and approved by the faculty in the College of Liberal Arts that same year.

The Computational Science major is housed within the Department of Computer Science, but is truly a multidisciplinary major drawing from computer science, mathematics, and potentially any scientific major within the College of Liberal Arts. The multidisciplinary design of the major is further underscored by the fact that the student will not take any classes specifically designated as CPS, but will instead draw from specific courses from a variety of majors.

Students interested in going to medical school will find that the computational science major can easily incorporate all of the courses required for medical school preparation and will also allow the pre-med student to not only prepare for medical school, but also help them prepare for research in the medical field.