Department of Environmental Science was developed on the basis of the former Institute of Environmental Science of Northeast Normal University (NENU) which was the first batch of institutions approved to establish by the Ministry of Education to conduct environmental research in university in 1978. The institute has begun to enroll postgraduate students in Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Biology, and Environmental Geoscience from 1983. In 1986, undergraduate discipline of Environmental Science was set up. In 2000, he got qualification for Doctor Degree-conferring in Environmental Science. In 2002 and 2007, the discipline of Environmental Science was rewarded Key Discipline in Jilin Province, respectively. In 2006, the first-grade discipline of Environmental Science got the qualification for Doctor Degree-conferring. In 2004, the discipline of Environmental Science was awarded as “Distinguish/Outstanding Discipline in Colleges and Universities in Jilin Province”. Meanwhile, a post-doctoral research center in Environmental Science was set up. In 2009, the discipline of Environmental Science was honored as a National Distinguish/Outstanding Discipline in Colleges and Universities. Moreover, the Laboratory Center of Environmental Science Basic Education was titled as the Demonstration Center of Laboratory Education in Jilin Province. In 2011, the first-grade discipline of Environmental Science was awarded as Outstanding/ Distinguish Key Discipline in Colleges and Universities in Jilin Province. In 2014, the discipline of Environmental Science was awarded as Construction Site of the First Brand Discipline of Jilin Province. In 2015, the post-doctoral research center in Environmental Science was awarded as the National Excellent Center for Post-doctoral Studies. In 2016, the teaching team of Environmental Science was awarded as the Excellent Teaching Team of Jilin Province.

The discipline of Environmental Science contains theoretical and applied researches. It also has the intersection with Environmental Engineering for over three decades. The discipline has developed several distinguishing research fields, such as organic pollution chemistry and toxicology, water pollution control, environmental regional planning and risk assessment. Some pioneering researches have been carried out in this discipline, such as the environmental behavior of typical organic pollutants in the Songhua River and their ecotoxicology impacts, biological treatment of high concentration organic waste water, advanced oxidation processes combined with biological treatment, theory and methodology of strategic environmental assessment. The results in the researches have provided valuable scientific information for solving local major environmental  issues.

The department has obtained more than 100 scientific and counseling projects support by national, provincial, local governments and doctoral fund. Currently, the total funding fee is more than 30 million RMB. The representative projects including 1 National “Twelfth Five-Year” Plan for Science & Technology Support and 3 Key Projects, 4 State “Tenth Five-year” and “Eleventh Five-year” Plan Science and Technology Support Projects, 1 Subproject of National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program), 1 Pre-Planned “973 Project” Subject, 2 National Public Welfare Industry Projects, 4 General Projects of National Natural Science Foundation, and 2 Youth Foundations.