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Imagine the outdoors — including the hills and streams around Athens — as your classroom. Or a summer field camp with classmates in Appalachia. Or studying the balance between mining and restoration. Or exploring caves or finding fossil evidence of the Earth's past. Or learning about energy and the Earth's future.

Undergraduate Earth and Environmental Geosciences students get to work in the field with renowned faculty as well as doing their own work on senior thesis projects. One recent senior did his thesis on baseline radon concentrations in groundwater in Southeast Ohio, and another investigated the origin of rocks at Stone Mountain and Indian Springs. Several students worked on an NSF project to create a digital museum of Cincinnatian fossils. Another student traveled to Michigan to present her research work on lakes in Kenya. Several undergraduate students received grants to support their research and fieldwork.

Career Trends in Geology

The geology job market is one of only a few to grow stronger over the last decade. Thanks to ongoing expansions in the environmental and petroleum industries, geology alumni are working throughout the United States and abroad.

• Earth and Environmental Geosciences undergraduates land jobs across the country in environmental consulting firms, state and federal environmental and natural resources agencies, national and state parks, schools, or mining and energy companies. Many also seek advanced degrees.
• There are too few professional geologists to go around. Almost all graduate M.S. students land jobs even before graduation or go on to doctoral programs. Students work across the country in environmental consulting firms, state and federal environmental and natural resources agencies, or mining and energy companies. A student who received his B.S. and M.S. from OHIO recently moved on to an entry-level $ 95,000-a-year job with Exxon.
• Alumni who work for businesses and governmental organizations in need of more geologists regularly send job announcements.
• Professors welcome opportunities to work with undergraduates on research. In fact, they encourage all undergraduates to pursue research.
• Many students have switched from other majors, and the department consistently graduates most of these students on time.

Post-grad Opportunities for Earth and Environmental Geosciences Majors

Geology majors at ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ pursue diverse paths after graduation, including continuing their education at ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ through our geology graduate programs. The M.S. Degree in Geological Sciences is the degree-level most often sought by employers in Geological Sciences.

If you're interested in collecting, assembling and interpreting research data, you might want to pursue a Master of Science in Geological Sciences program that includes thesis research and helps prepare you for advanced geological and scientific analysis. Students conduct research in collaboration with a faculty adviser in one of three research clusters:

• Solid earth and planetary dynamics
• Sedimentary geology and paleobiology
• Environmental and surficial processes

We also offer an online Master of Science in Geological Sciences non-thesis program designed for working professionals and teachers. This program provides geology graduates and those from related STEM disciplines with applied training and experiences through a wide range of topics in earth sciences.

What Are Earth and Environmental Geosciences?

Fundamentally, geology is the study of the Earth. This includes rocks and fossils, but also groundwater, streams, oceans, natural hazards, and environmental issues. Many of these are viewed in the context of plate tectonics, which explains why earthquakes and volcanoes are found in particular locations and helps us forecast future changes in the oceans, atmosphere, and ecosystems. On the economic front, modern civilization would not exist without the many earth materials mined and extracted from its surface and underground. The most valuable is by far petroleum, but geologists also seek the rare earth elements used in cellphones, displays, computers, and solar cells. Modern technology would quickly cease to exist if geologists stopped finding new rare earth deposits. So, whether you consider environmental remediation or rare earth mining, geology is a very practical science.

The environmental sciences generally focus on applied issues related to human interactions with the Earth and its ecosystems. These interactions are physical, chemical, and biological. As a result, the environmental sciences draw upon the whole of geology, as well as biology, chemistry, and atmospheric sciences. Environmental geologists deal with the positive and negative aspects of the interactions. On the positive side, environmental geologists seek the most efficient, low-impact means to obtain freshwater for human use. On the negative side, these scientists try to contain and correct groundwater pollution problems. Those are only two of the many tasks given to environmental geologists and the field is continually growing and expanding.

At the program level, coursework differs between geological and environmental science majors. Geology majors take advanced courses in earth materials (e.g., rocks), long-term evolution of earth's physical, chemical, and biological systems, and the planet's interior workings. Environmental majors take a different suite of advanced courses. These include courses in the flow of water underground and surface and subsurface waters chemistries. Importantly, geology and environmental majors can take each other's advanced courses as electives.

Student Support Resources for Geology Majors

Earth and Environmental Geosciences majors at ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ quickly find that their faculty members are supportive experts, ready to provide one-on-one mentorship and professional guidance as needed — in addition to each student’s assigned College of Arts & Sciences success advisor.

Undergraduate Scholarships and Financial Aid

• University Financial Aid and Scholarships
• Travis C. Middleman Scholarship
• Lela A. Ewers Science Scholarship
• Elizabeth Llewelyn Robe Memorial Scholarship
• C. Paul and Beth K. Stocker Scholarship
• Maurice and Betty Warner Scholarship
• Yeats - Smith - Nance Geology Field Camp Scholarship
• Mr. and Mrs. Carl and Glennie Pavlin Geosciences Scholarship