Career Profiles
One way to assess whether a particular career track might be right for you is to read about the lives of people who have chosen that track -- what they do, day to day, what the challenges and rewards of their jobs are, and so on. The profiles below offer a window into many different possible career tracks in the geosciences. Most of these profiles were collected for the Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences Workshops.
Jump down to traditional academic careers * education, outreach, and public affairs * career profile collections compiled by other organizations
Traditional careers in academia
The life of a professor (or instructor) can vary greatly, because of the great variety of academic institutions. While none of the profiles below is meant to be "representative" of a particular academic setting, collectively they help to illustrate this variety. The geoscientists listed below have been leaders of the Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences Workshops.
- Lawford Anderson, University of Southern California
- Jean Bahr, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Tim Bralower, Pennsylvania State University
- Pamela Burnley, University of Nevada - Las Vegas
- Ann Bykerk-Kauffman, California State University-Chico
- Liz Canuel, Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), College of William and Mary
- Kurt Friehauf, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
- Paul Hoskin, University of Calgary
- Jon Lewis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
- Ellen Martin, University of Florida
- Kirsten Menking, Vassar College
- Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe, Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Rachel O'Brien, Allegheny College
- Mike Phillips, Illinois Valley Community College
- Wayne Powell, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
- Ashanti Pyrtle, University of Southern Florida
- David Steer, University of Akron
- Ben Surpless, Trinity University
- Kathleen Surpless, Trinity University
- Al Trujillo, Palomar Community College
- Katryn Wiese, City College of San Francisco
Careers in geoscience education, outreach, and public affairs
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 education, outreach, and public affairs by reading the career profiles below.
- Marc Airhart, Science Writer, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin
- Josh Chamot, Media Officer for Engineering/SBIR/STTR, NSF (and occasionally, freelance science writer)
- Robyn Wright Dunbar, Stanford University, Senior Associate Director for Science and Engineering, Center for Teaching and Learning. You can also read her CTL biography.
- Cindy Martinez, Careers and Outreach Program Coordinator for the American Geological Institute, Alexandria, VA.
- Tom Repine, Education Specialist, West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Morgantown, WV
- John Taber, Education and Outreach Program Manager, IRIS Consortium (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology)
- Cathy Manduca, Director, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College
- Laurel Goodell, Undergraduate Lab Manager, Princeton University, Department of Geosciences
- Judy Scotchmoor, Interim Assistant Director (Education and Public Programs), Paleontology Museum, University of California at Berkeley
- 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
- Meg Stewart, GIS Laboratory Computing Consultant, Vassar College
- George Matsumoto, Senior Education and Research Specialist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
- Robert Ross, Director of Education and Exhibits, Paleontological Research Institution
- Stephanie Stockman, Education and Public Outreach for MESSENGER, EOS Aura, and Landsat 7, NASA
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, as does the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.
- 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.
