Approximately fifty scholarships are being awarded to academically talented and financially needy upperclassmen majoring in Geology and Natural Sciences and to students in the first two years of the graduate program in Geology. Juniors and graduate students are receiving two-year awards and one-year awards are being made to seniors. The scholarships are helping to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in the geosciences and are increasing the numbers of qualified physical science teachers.
The geology curriculum requires an eight week summer field based course. The students are undertaking field studies at the White Mountain Research Station in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Other field based opportunities being made available are the studies in the area of oceanography at the Bodega Marine Laboratory and of volcanology in Hawaii. Students are being encouraged to undertake research in such subdisciplines as analytical geochemistry, petrology, thermochemistry, geomagnetism and visualization.
