Tragedy in Michigan

I wanted to take a brief moment to call your attention to a situation brewing at Michigan State University - the powers-that-be are on the verge of closing down their Geological Sciences program.

Geoscientists impact our lives in more ways than most of us realize. Did you drink a glass of clean water this morning? Geologists and hydrologists help to keep our water supply clean and safe. Did you fill your car with gas this week? A petroleum geologist helped locate the oil deposits and coordinate their extraction. Do you use a cell phone or laptop? The cobalt in the batteries (and nearly all of the other raw materials) was mined from deposits located by geologists. Did your local roads not wash away during the last major rainstorm? A geologist likely had a role in that too. Not to mention all of the paleontologists, planetary geologists, sedimentologists, mining engineers, and the like who have significant training in geology departments around the world.

Surveys find that we are facing a severe shortage of trained geoscientists in the coming decades, as the older generations retire. Our need for geoscientists is not going away, and closing geology departments is not a way to rectify this.

What can you do? Check out these two posts by Chris Noto (guesting at ReBecca's Hunt's Dinochick Blogs) for more information. Don't let the MSU geology department go extinct!

Undergrads: Apply for the RTP!

All of you undergraduates out there are probably enjoying your winter break. Not to alarm you, but it's probably time to start thinking about your summer! Don't have any plans yet? Well, consider signing up for the Research Training Program (RTP) at the National Museum of Natural History.

In short, the RTP is a 10 week internship program at the Smithsonian, where you partner with an established curator on a research project. As part of this, you get a stipend, free housing, small travel allowance, and a behind-the-scenes summer in one of the nation's coolest museums.

I had the opportunity to participate back in 2000 - and it was a fantastic summer! The skills I learned there were easily transferred into my subsequent research (and D.C. is a great city to get to know!). Heck, you might even end up working there permanently if you're lucky, as happened to Gene Hunt. He was a member of the RTP class of 1995, and is now curator of ostracods! So, apply if you're eligible - you won't regret it!