Geoscience Careers Beyond Academia
There are many career options for academic geoscientists, beyond the standard professorial route. Graduate students (and advisors) are often less familiar with these options, because they exist outside of mainstream academia. You can learn more about opportunities in geoscience careers beyond that of professor by reading the career profiles and articles below.
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Geoscience Career Profiles
Note: if you would like to be one of the geoscientists profiled here, please fill out this career profile form.
- Marc Airhart, Science Writer, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin
- David Applegate Senior Science Advisor for Earthquake and Geologic Hazards, US Geological Survey
- Pranoti Asher, Manager of Education and Public Outreach programs, American Geophysical Union
- Lori Bettison-Varga President, Scripps College, CA
- Josh Chamot, Media Officer for Engineering/SBIR/STTR, NSF (and occasionally, freelance science writer)
- Robyn Wright Dunbar, Senior Associate Director for Science and Engineering, Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University. You can also read her Stanford CTL biography.
- Leila Gonzales, Geoscience Workforce Analyst, American Geological Institute
- Laurel Goodell, Undergraduate Lab Manager, Princeton University, Department of Geosciences
- Chris Keane Director of Communications and Technology and Editor of Earth Magazine, AGI
- Cathy Manduca, Director, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College
- Cindy Martinez, Careers and Outreach Program Coordinator for the American Geological Institute, Alexandria, VA.
- George Matsumoto, Senior Education and Research Specialist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
- Carol Ormand, Geoscience Education Content Developer, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College
- Raj Pandya, Director, SOARS (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research), UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)
- Cheryl Peach, Science Academic Coordinator, Birch Aquarium at Scripps Insitution of Oceanography
- Tom Repine, Education Specialist, West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Morgantown, WV
- Robert Ross, Director of Education and Exhibits, Paleontological Research Institution
- Judy Scotchmoor, Interim Assistant Director (Education and Public Programs), Paleontology Museum, University of California at Berkeley
- Meg Stewart, GIS Laboratory Computing Consultant, Vassar College
- Stephanie Stockman, Education and Public Outreach for MESSENGER, EOS Aura, and Landsat 7, NASA
- John Taber, Education and Outreach Program Manager, IRIS Consortium (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology)
- Mike Thonis Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Charlesbank Capital Partners
Career Profile Collections Compiled by Other Organizations
- Earth Science World, the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center, and Geotimes all have profiles of geoscientists.
- The Joint Oceanographic Institutions have profiles of careers in scientific ocean drilling. OceanCareers.com has profiles of careers in the ocean sciences. The American Society of Limnology and Oceanography has career profiles for limnology and oceanography. And Deborah K. Smith, Lori Dolby, and Ed Schiele have compiled profiles of women oceanographers.
- The Association of Women Geoscientists has a selection of career profiles of women geoscientists, both in and outside of academia.
- Uniserve Science has profiles of scientists, including geoscientists.
- Natalie Mahowald, at Cornell, has posted an extensive downloadable document of interesting jobs in the geosciences that are available to people with Masters or PhDs. It's on her website.
Other Resources
- The Path Less Travelled, a commentary in Nature (v. 464, p. 945, 7 April 2010) by Andrea Schweitzer, describes the rewards of her career as a self-employed scientist.
- The American Geological Institute runs a series of webinars, including many about careers in geoscience, such as Geoscientists in the Media and Geoscience careers at NOAA. You can watch and listen to recordings of these webinars on the AGI websites linked above.
- The VersatilePhD.com website offers forums to support its mission: to help humanities and social science PhDs and graduate students identify and prepare for possible non-academic careers. While designed for humanities and social science PhDs, the topics pertain to a wide range of disciplines. You must be a member to view and post to the forum (membership is free).
