PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGIST LICENSURE REQUIREMENTS AND THE ASBOG® NATIONAL GEOLOGY LICENSE EXAMINATIONS

The purpose of professional licensing is to ensure a minimum level of competency for practitioners in a given field in order to protect the public. Having a license or similar credential to practice geology is a requirement in the majority of the United States and many other countries. In contrast to other professions, a disconnect has developed between applied geologists and academia. Professional licensing requirements are a fact of life for most applied geologists. Unfortunately, many faculty members have a limited understanding of the licensing requirements that their students must satisfy once they graduate.

This presentation will: 1) provide an overview of geology licensure qualification requirements in the United States; 2) discuss the national licensing examinations for geologists prepared by the National Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG^®); and 3) explain how data from the ASBOG^® Fundamentals of Geology (FG) examination can be used as a curriculum performance assessment and improvement tool.