Established in 1913, but with roots that extend to the founding of the University in 1855, the Department of Geosciences is part of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, one of the original colleges of the University. The college contains, in addition to Geosciences, the Departments of Meteorology, Geography, Materials Science and Engineering, Mineral Engineering, and Mineral Economics. Geosciences enjoys close ties with these departments. Collaboration with materials science and engineering is fostered by the Materials Research Institute, a large intercollege research unit with additional staff and facilities. Geosciences also interacts with meteorology and geography through the college's interdisciplinary Earth System Science Center.

Our Faculty consists of 46 professors who work with about 110 graduate students seeking M.S. and Ph. D. degrees. The graduate student body represents a number of countries around the world, and includes a wide range of expertise and interests. We view our size and diversity as assets to graduate education. We are proud of the broad range of faculty and student expertise and exceptional laboratory and support facilities that allow students a variety of areas of specialization. Dedicated to academic and professional excellence, our faculty emphasizes a solid grounding in both fundamental and interdisciplinary study. We encourage innovation in research, strong communication skills, and professional experiences obtained through participation in national meetings, publishing papers, and writing scientific proposals. To view a list of the faculty's interests and research background, click on the Peterson's Guide.

Particular concentrations of faculty research, which fully span the traditional disciplines of geochemistry, geology, and geophysics, include the areas of economic mineral deposits, with an Ore Deposits Research section; tectonophysics, geodynamics, and structural geology; paleontology and palynology; coal geology and petrology, largely within the college's Energy and Fuels Research Center; sedimentology and basin analysis; experimental geochemistry; hydrogeology and low-temperature aqueous chemistry and biogeochemistry, fostered by the Center for Environmental Chemistry and Geochemistry; seismology; and exploration geophysics. Many of our faculty are associates of the Earth System Science Center (ESSC), a multidisciplinary research center devoted to understanding how the Earth's physical processes relate to past and future global change. The ESSC coordinates extensive research related to the global water cycle, biogeochemical cycles, global climate reconstructions, and the impact of humans on the Earth system.
 

The department is housed on four floors of the modern Deike Building. Faculty and graduate student offices and laboratories are supplemented by classrooms, computer facilities, and seminar rooms. The Earth and Mineral Sciences Library, with its extensive collection of books, journals, and maps, is also located in Deike Building.

A wide variety of departmental activities are available to graduate students apart from courses and research. These include a student Colloquium series, seminars and talks by invited speakers and visiting scientists, departmental field trips and social events, and the Geophysical Society (student chapter of SEG). The departmental social season culminates in the annual faculty-student softball game and "Entropy Party" held every spring.

Resources of the department, the college, and the research units provide a rich variety of analytical, experimental, and field equipment. Analytical equipment includes facilities for rock and mineral analysis - wet chemical, plasma emission spectroscopy (DCP), atomic absorption (AA), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), electron probe microanalyzer (EPM), ion probe analysis, and a nuclear reactor for INAA; lattice and surface characterization-X-ray crystallography and diffraction, electron microscopy (SEM, TEM, and STEM), and spectroscopy (visual range, infrared, and Raman); light-element isotope mass spectrometry (C-H-O-S-N); coal and organic sediment petrography; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and palynological processing and microscopy. Experimental facilities include high-pressure, high-temperature laboratories involving cold-seal vessels, rocking autoclaves, internally heated vessels, and solid-media apparatus; rock deformation laboratories involving brittle fracture and ductile flow; and high-pressure temperature ultrasonic equipment.

Geophysical equipment includes field seismic systems, magnetometers, gravimeters, and a seismic observatory. In addition, we maintain field facilities for study of hydrogeology and geochemistry of natural waters and a coastal marine laboratory at Wallops Island, Virginia. Remote sensing facilities in the geosciences and geography departments and in the University's Office for Remote Sensing of Environmental Resources.

Departmental computational facilities include an extensive UNIX (Hewlett Packard and Sun) network with more than twenty work stations and four servers, a teaching lab with a server and eight terminals, superb graphics facilities with digitizing capability, and extensive data storage including disks, tapes and a magneto-optical disks. Our Earth System Science Center has acquired a CRAY YMP-2E. Throughout the department, there are extensive facilities for Mac and PC-based computing, with a college network for access to other University facilities. Many faculty members maintain personal computers for the use of graduate students in their offices and laboratories.

Admission

Applicants for admission to graduate study in geosciences frequently come from geology or earth sciences backgrounds, but we also seek applicants with undergraduate degrees in chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics. Applicants are encouraged to complete standard introductory courses in geosciences, chemistry , biology, physics and mathematics, as well as intermediate-level work in one or more of those subjects. However, we select students primarily for intellectual promise and sense of professional commitment, thus a deficiency in course requirements is not necessarily a barrier to admission.

Our faculty feels that the most important component of graduate education is research, and we stress original research and writing of a thesis for both the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees. These research activities are supervised by a thesis adviser and a thesis committee; early in their careers students choose their own advisers and plan courses of study and research tailored to their particular strengths and interests.  To view a list of the faculty's interests and research background, click on the Peterson's Guide. The Ph. D. degree has no formal course requirements, but broad professional knowledge and research competence must be demonstrated in the candidacy, comprehensive, and thesis examinations. The M.S. degree requires a minimum of 30 credits, of which at least 18 must be in graduate courses of research.

Students entering with B.S. or B.A. degrees may choose, with faculty approval, to bypass the M.S. degree and work directly for the Ph.D. Normally, completion of the M.S. degree requires about two years and the Ph.D. (without an M.S.) about four years. We encourage students to complete their degrees as quickly as possible.

Those wishing to apply for admission to the graduate program should write requesting current graduate brochures and application forms. Questions about particular interests and courses of study will often be directed to a member of the faculty specializing in the area of primary interest. Completed applications are evaluated by the faculty admissions committee, which includes specialists in indicated subdiscipline interests. We encourage potential applicants to visit in person in order to exchange views with faculty and graduate students in residence; however, a visit is not required for admission.

Nearly all offers of admission are accompanied by financial aid that includes a stipend and remission of tuition and fees. Sources of this support include departmental, Graduate School, and ESSC fellowship, research assistantships funded by faculty research projects, and teaching assistantships. Typical assistantships occupy half (twenty hours per week) of a student's time in research or teaching experiences.

If you're interested in applying to the Geosciences Graduate Program, click here to be taken to our How To Apply pages