Brian Mailloux

Been waiting all semester to write a review about MY GOAT BRIAN MAILLOUX. Older reviews that he has mild social anxiety are accurate, but it's more endearing than an obstacle to your success in this course. You can tell he really wants to see his students excel not only in the classroom but in professional contexts, so he gears the course towards teaching foundational data analysis skills that will help you land a research position or internship (very helpful). The notebooks can be hard at times, but if you go to his office hours he'll give you the answer and talk you through where you went wrong. He also makes little jokes and political references in class which I always enjoyed. If you want to learn Python, TAKE THIS CLASS OVER ALL OTHERS. No tests + the final project is a self-led data analysis project on a topic of your choosing. It's rare a professor is able to strike a balance between being fun and instructive, but Brian does so with grace. A gem of a man and one of the most approachable, understanding professors I have encountered at Columbia <3

Laid back, enjoyable. If you hate the humanities/ are a STEM major this seminar is for you. Brian is so much fun, super understanding and great to be around. This is an easier class, even though there's the average workload for an english class you won't feel burdened and can do things minutes before class begins and be fine. If youre just looking for an easy seminar because they're required or simply care that earth is dying and want to discuss it take this. Cons: Honestly you won't learn too much aside from content found in the million papers we read. Takes forever to grade, only got one paper back during the semester. And if you go to office hours he isn't very critical.

Professor Mailloux really doesn't deserve that silver nugget in my opinion... Mailloux is a little bit of a loony in the sense that you don't really know what is going through his mind. His class is pretty inconsistent, although he does come prepared with a schedule of what we should accomplish. It was just really... boring. I was expecting some great and challenging content about Sustainability, but instead we talked about the most basic and simplistic topics. The feedback he gives back on essays is very poor. You have to go meet with him because he doesn't like giving written comments. I have never left his office knowing what I should change in order to improve my paper. Don't expect to making any progress in writing, no speaking, under his watch. I feel bad being so harsh in my review, but I really felt like this class was a waste of my time.

I have no idea why this prof has a silver nugget. He clearly has some kind of social anxiety issues or organizational problems that make it really difficult for him to teach. As much as I want to sympathize with him, he simply can't finish his thoughts coherently, answer tough questions or challenges during the lectures, or respond in a timely manner to emails. When he gets nervous, he stammers or talks with his eyes closed and doesn't put words together in an understandable order. His Courseworks page is littered with unnecessary reading assignments and video links with little delineation between what is required and what isn't. He is always "around" for office hours, but says often that he won't be in his office but that you can always look around and find him. The most frustrating part about Brian's communication problems is that the course material is not difficult. What is taught in this class could be taught in a week, and the final is 75% common sense. The first question on it this year asked what you should do if you arrive to a town to do a water sample, but the land owner is insistent upon having tea with you first. It felt like fifth grade. If you're genuinely interested in health, do not take this class. If you already know basic information about clean water and its role in health, you will learn absolutely nothing. The first semester is spent discussing different…

I really really really enjoyed Brian's Environmental Measurements class. He is VERY willing to work with students to make sure that they understand the material. He is very available, for example his office hours one day were for about 6 hours straight! That being said, the class is a lot of work but nothing too terrible. There are weekly lab reports with one larger lab report towards the end of class. There is no final exam, just a five minute presentation on the data from our individual experiments. I highly recommend this class.

I love Brian. No joke, he is lowkey the father figure of the Barnard environmental science department. This class was so fun, especially taking it with friends. Brian is the chillest, normalest dude I know, and was so helpful most of the time (the rest of the time he just told us to ask ai to help us code; such a real guy). Each class we'd get a physical packet in class to code in, practing a specific skill. You could also just copy the code straight from the github and go straight to the homework notebooks. All of the things were learned built upon each other and were super helpful when working on our final project, analyzing any 'environmental' data of our choice and making a half size scientific poster. Overall GOAT professor GOAT class.

One of the best classes I had this semester! We mainly read articles and books about early and modern environmental movements. The readings assigned were very interesting and sometimes you can get away with not reading. Workload is not high and definitely recommend!!

I took Bryan's Water, Sanitation, and Health class last spring. I REALLY enjoyed it. He knows so much about the material and is extremely passionate about the subject. He is available to students and really wants to help you learn the material. I would highly recommend this class. We had a midterm, a couple of problem sets, a hands-on homework, final exam, individual presentation, and a group presentation. He doesn't grade harshly, and his exams were very fair and only covered what we talked about in class. No need to buy the books for this class as he will lecture you on everything you need to know.

Brian is a great professor. He is really willing to work with his students and make sure that they really understand what he's teaching. He also really makes an effort to be available outside of class and gives out his cell phone number to students. That being said, this class is INTENSE. It is SO much work. The work is really, really interesting, but the lab reports are absolutely killer. Do not leave them to the last minute. Just don't. This is a great class to take if you're interested in the Hudson River, estuaries, and aquatic ecosystems, but the workload is significant.

Great class I had never done any coding before, and I did well. Every job has asked me about this class during interviews. Important skill.