The Geosciences Major at Williams

Faculty in the Geosciences department are committed to providing excellent training for future geoscientists as well as teaching earth science as part of a balanced liberal arts education for non-majors. Introductory and advanced courses in geology, oceanography, and earth systems introduce students to the wide fields of geosciences, both for general education and as a foundation for majoring in the department.

The department consists of several faculty members and staff and about 20 junior and senior majors. Faculty are devoted to teaching and working with undergraduates, but are also active, publishing researchers. Undergraduates have ample opportunities to work on original research and often co-author publications or present their work at national professional meetings, even before graduation.

In 2001, the Journal of Geoscience Education* ranked us first in Geosciences research among U.S. liberal arts colleges based on published articles, pages, and articles per faculty member from 1987 to 1996.

*Robinson, M.D., Hartley, J.E., and Dunn, S.R., 2001, Geoscience research at liberal arts colleges: school rankings: Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 49 (May issue), p. 267-273.

Graduating as a Geosciences major prepares students for jobs in environmental consulting, in teaching, and iin commercial fields such as energy and resource extraction.

Many students continue to graduate schools accross the country. Recent graduates have gone to M.I.T., Woods Hole, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, University of Washington, and U.C. Santa Cruz, among others. Since 1996, six of our majors have won NSF graduate fellowships, more than in any undergraduate program in the entire country. We stay in close contact with many of our alumni, and often see them at meetings and elsewhere.

We take pride in statistics compiled by Franklin and Marshall College in the 8th edition of "Baccalaureate Origins of Doctoral Recipients" which shows that Williams ranked 8th among colleges nationally in the number of undergraduate geology majors who eventually received their Ph.D. degree in geology during the years 1920-1995.

Our majors have also gone on to careers in medicine, law and investment banking...but with a solid foundation in critical and analytical thinking and a deep appreciation for our home planet

photo by Ethan Gutmann '99 (MS U.Colorado Boulder '02; Ph.D pending '06)

Required Courses
Majors take at least nine courses in Geosciences: the six listed below and three electives chosen from a wide array of other offerings. The required courses give students a chance to work with each of the faculty members in Geosciences, as well as providing a sound foundation of general understanding and specific knowledge in the earth sciences. Additionally, majors planning on attending graduate school should take at least a year each of college math, chemistry, and physics or biology, and should think about taking a summer field camp. Interested students should talk to one of the faculty members or contact the chair.

Components of the Geosciences major :
Any 100-level course
Geosciences 201 Geomorphology
Geosciences 202 Mineralogy and Geochemistry
Geosciences 215 Climate Changes
Geosciences 301 Structural Geology
Geosciences 302 Sedimentation
Geosciences 401 Stratigraphy
and any two electives

History
Geology has been taught at Williams since 1817, when it was introduced to the curriculm by Amos Eaton, the pioneering geologist, botanist and educator. Eaton, who was also an alumnus of Williams (class of 1799), is famous for developing teaching methods that focused on "the application of science to the common purposes of life." Whereas most teachers of the time lectured and demonstrated to students, in Eaton's classes students learned by doing. His students went on field trips, ran experiments, and gave lectures. Although Eaton taught only briefly at Williams, his legacy has infused and enriched the college ever since.

In the 1800s geology was taught together with the other sciences as part of Natural History, but it became a separate entity in the early 1900s. The major in Geology and Mineralogy was created in 1920. In 1996, the name of the department and the major was changed to Geosciences, to reflect our expanding interest in oceans and climate change as well as in the solid Earth. Our long tradition, together with the college's location and commitment to active research, makes Williams an ideal place to study geological processes and earth history.