WHERE WILL FUTURE ENGINEERING GEOLOGISTS BE EDUCATED? GRADUATE PROGRAMS ARE WITHERING AWAY

During my Jahns Lectureship of 2012-13 I visited 50 universities and learned that the academic “landscape” in geology had hugely transformed in the 21 years since I left teaching. But not in a good way for engineering geology (EG). EG graduate programs no longer exist at most Tier 1 research universities. This includes the birthplaces of engineering geology, such as: (1) Stanford University where Dick Jahns formed the Dept. of Applied Earth Sciences in 1966; (2) UC Berkeley, where a geological engineering program existed from 1958-63, but is now a course or two in the Civil Engineering Dept.; (3) CalTech, where Jahns built an engineering geology program from 1947-60. Since the early 1990s, many Geology Departments have morphed into “Earth & Environmental Science Departments” to take advantage of the predominance of climate change in research funding. The easiest way to hire faculty to garner climate change funding is by replacing retiring Department faculty from other fields, such as EG. Most existing programs in EG are taught by a single professor, so replacing that professor with a climate change expert kills the EG program (happened to me at Utah State University in 1991). Where have graduate programs in EG survived? First, in research Tier 2 or 3 “State Universities” that generally grant Masters rather than PhD degrees (Kent, Portland, Mississippi). Second, in “Schools of Mines” (Colorado, Nevada, Missouri) where EG is part of the mining heritage in Departments of Geology or Geological Engineering. Third, in Geotechnical Engineering programs in Civil Engineering Departments, where course(s) are taught by engineers, not geologists, and funding comes from NSF programs in Engineering, not so dominated by climate change. The lack of PhD-level research in EG at Tier 1 research universities is going to hurt us in the next generation.

In order to preserve the existing 9 or 10 EG academic programs in the USA, retiring EGs need to be replaced with EGs who can continue the program. That will happen only if the new EG can convince the Dean and Dept. Head they can qualify for NSF research funding. Right now they cannot do that, and so every one-person EG program in the USA is potentially on the chopping block. EG as a field needs to lay claim to a piece of the NSF Geosciences pie, and that should be an easy sell, if someone will make it.