HARNESSING DISRUPTION FOR CHANGE: TRANSFORMING THE GEOSCIENCES THROUGH INNOVATION AND COLLABORATION

Disruptive events, such as major storms, earthquakes, wildfires, and volcanic eruptions among others, provide contextual opportunities to engage students, develop curricular materials, and expand research opportunities not only for impacted institutions, but for the geoscience community at large. With climate change recognized as a driver of increased frequency and intensity of various disruptive processes, such as storms, heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods, early-career and emerging geoscientists will be the professionals that will not only be addressing the science of this future but will also be living within this environment. They also are in the unique position to understand the drivers, opportunities, and mitigation options better than most of society.

As part of our NSF-funded Geoscience Program Adaptation to Natural Disruptive Events (GRANDE) project (#2223004), we deployed an anonymous fast-response survey to gauge the geoscience community’s perspectives about the current state and future of the geosciences as it relates to impacts from natural disruptive events, anticipated changes to higher education and careers, and the relevance of the geosciences to societal issues. In this presentation, we explore the perspectives of early-career and mid-to-late career geoscientists about how the geosciences will change over the next decade, including the integration of emerging technologies and the expansion of collaborative opportunities to address societal issues related to hazards, resource limitations, and climate change impacts.