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Who will build the 21st century? Addressing critical
demographic gaps in the geosciences
GSA TODAY | DECEMBER 2015 Bradley D. Cramer, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences,
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA, bradley-cramer@
uiowa.edu; Katherine J. Lewandowski, Dept. of Geology/
Geography, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois 61920,
USA, kjlewandowski@eiu.edu; Arthur Goldstein, Bartlett College
of Science & Mathematics, Bridgewater State University,
Bridgewater, Massachusetts 02325, USA, arthur.goldstein@
bridgew.edu; Pranoti Asher, American Geophysical Union,
Washington, D.C. 20009, USA, pasher@agu.org; Jeffrey Ryan,
School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa,
Florida 33620, USA, ryan@usf.edu; David I. Schofield, British
Geological Survey, Greenmeadow Springs, Tongwynlais, Cardiff
CF15 7NE, UK, dis@bgs.ac.uk; Rex Buchanan, Kansas Geological
Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66047, USA, rex@
kgs.ku.edu; Richard Denne, Marathon Oil, Houston, Texas 77056,
USA, radenne@marathonoil.com; William I. Ausich, School of
Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210,
USA, ausich.1@osu.edu; Thijs R.A. Vandenbroucke, Evo-Eco-
Paleo, UMR 8198 du CNRS, Université Lille 1, Villeneuve d’Ascq
59655, France, and Dept. of Geology and Soil Sciences, Ghent
University, Ghent 9000, Belgium, Thijs.Vandenbroucke@UGent.be;
Sherman Lundy, BMC Aggregates L.C., Elk Run Heights, Iowa,
50707, USA, sherml@bmcaggregates.com; Tyler Priest, Dept. of
History and Dept. of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences,
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA, tyler-priest@
uiowa.edu; and Ryan J. Clark, Iowa Geological Survey, University
of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA, ryan-j-clark@uiowa.edu
INTRODUCTION
The geoscience workforce in the United States may be facing a
critical shortage of trained personnel (Gonzalez and Keane, 2011;
NRC, 2013; Mosher et al., 2014; Wilson, 2014a). The National
Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 16% increase in geoscience
jobs by 2022. If, as projected, more than half of the present geosci- INCREASING CAPACITY
ence workforce retires by that time (Wilson, 2014a, 2014b), up to
185,000 new geoscientists will be needed. Graduation rates in U.S.
geoscience programs (Wilson, 2014a) are slowly increasing but
still lack the capacity to produce such numbers by 2022 (Fig. 1A).
The result is a projected shortfall of 135,000 trained geoscientists
within the next decade (Wilson, 2014a, 2014b). To meet these
growing challenges to our ability to research, assess, and utilize
our natural resources in an environmentally responsible manner,
we must increase the number of geoscience students.
RECENT PROGRESS
The National Research Council (NRC) and National Science
Foundation (NSF) addressed the impending shortage of
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GSA Today, v. 25, no. 12, doi: 10.1130/GSATG243GW.1.
geoscientists (NRC, 2013; Mosher et al., 2014) in the context of
federal funding and undergraduate education (Fig. 1A). The NRC
identified a three-tiered framework, Awareness, Engagement, and
Professional Preparation, as steps in the process of training the
next generation of geoscientists and suggested a “System
Approach” to coordination of existing federal funding (NRC,
2013). The NRC called for better connections among Federal
agencies, academic institutions, and professional societies to
clarify educational and training pathways, as well as the need to
collect more and better data on which programs are successful
and why, with a focus on critical incident analysis as a means of
understanding what brings students into the geosciences.
The recent NSF-supported Summit on the Future of
Undergraduate Geoscience Education (Mosher et al., 2014)
focused on Curriculum and Competencies, Pedagogy/Technology,
and Underrepresented Groups. Participants agreed that the next
generation of geoscience students needs to approach the field as
the applied sum of all sciences (Mosher et al., 2014) and effectively
communicate across disciplines as well as with the public. The
K–12 Next Generation Science Standards can help develop these
skills, but most school districts lack teachers with geoscience
training, and most students will never take a K–12 geoscience
course (Wilson, 2014a, 2014c; LaDue and Brown Manning, 2015).
Of particular concern is how poorly the geosciences have recruited
and retained students from underrepresented groups (Fig. 1B;
Wilson, 2014a). Workforce data demonstrate that students
exposed to K–12 geoscience are more likely to pursue geoscience
degrees (Wilson, 2014a). Therefore, expanded opportunities and
support for underrepresented students at all levels, as well as
expanded opportunities for K–12 teacher training in the geosci-
ences (LaDue and Brown Manning, 2015), are critical to
rebuilding the geoscience workforce.
Nearly half of all students receiving a geoscience degree decide
to become a geoscientist at some point after their first year of
undergraduate education (Wilson, 2014c). Considered in light of
the growing numbers of students who enter higher education at
two-year colleges, the transition between two-year and four-year
institutions is critical to expanding the geoscience student pipe-
line. Entry-level courses need to highlight the geosciences as a
potential career path. These upstream improvements in awareness
must include efforts to engage underrepresented students by
recruiting them into introductory courses and providing mentor-
ship and research opportunities in pursuit of geoscience degrees.
Undergraduate geoscience student enrollments are increasing
(Wilson, 2014a); however, undergraduate and graduate profes-
sional training opportunities are relatively stagnant or even