GEOSCIENCE SERVING SOCIETY: INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS FOR FACILITATING SUCCESS AT THE INTERFACE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY

The geosciences play a central role in addressing many of society’s greatest challenges, such as energy, mineral, and water resources, climate change, natural hazards mitigation, environmental protection, nuclear test ban treaty monitoring, and many more. In the late 20^th century and early 21^st century, geoscience societies developed institutional capacity to address these issues in a systematic manner. Growing institutional capacity facilitated a sustained pattern of success at the interface between science and public policy.

In the blink of an eye, geologically speaking, the Geological Society of America opened a Washington, DC office to address geoscience policy in 2007, a mere 119 years after the society was founded in 1888. GSA’s Washington, DC office, complement’s GSA’s Geology and Public Policy Committee, Geology and Society Division, and Congressional Science Fellow, which collectively constitute a formidable array of resources that provide GSA and its members with leadership in formulating public policy through active involvement in decision-making processes at all levels of government.

The Geological Society of America works in coordination with other organizations, including the American Geoscience Institute, American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, Consortium for Ocean Leadership, and the broader scientific community to improve the scientific basis of public policy. Although geoscience societies initially lagged behind scientific societies in other disciplines, including physics, chemistry, and biology, in building institutional capacity to address science policy but they are now in the vanguard of this important endeavor.