The University of the Aegean was founded in 1984. The, then-called, Department of “Natural Environmental Sciences” was one of the University’s first departments. It admitted its first Ph.D. students in 1986and its first undergraduate students in 1987. In 1989, the Department was renamed into “Department of Environment” and in January 2004 it joined, alongside the Department of Marine Sciences, the University’s newly established School of Environment.

The main objectives of the Department of Environment main mission is educate and carry out research into a wide range of environment-related topics such as Ecology, Economics, Education, Politics, Engineering and Pollution.