Axe ’Em, Jacks!
Professional Geologist Licensure
When you’re looking for a job or trying to build a business, you want potential employers and clients to have confidence that you meet required standards of training, experience and professional conduct. Geological work can often have a large impact on human health, safety and property, so establish your professional credentials by becoming a Licensed Professional Geologist.
The Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists establishes and enforces the minimum standards in the geoscience disciplines that must be maintained. By Texas state law, any individual taking “responsible charge” of geoscientific work before the public, including state and local governmental entities, must be licensed. A P.G. license is required to supervise the work of other geoscientists in Texas, so if you plan to climb the corporate ladder in geology, earning a BS in geology is your first step!
Geologists can work anywhere
One of the best things about studying the Earth is that there’s nowhere that you can’t work:
- Predict volcano hazards in Indonesia
- Map the seafloor from the middle of the Pacific Ocean
- Clean up a toxic spill in California
- Log drill cores on a rig in the North Sea
- Search for fossils in the deserts of Africa
- Interpret seismic data in a Houston high-rise
- Determine the stability of new subway tunnels under downtown London
- Improve soil conservation for farmers in India
- Consult on levee design along the Mississippi River
- Find rare earth metals in the Andes to power electronics
Someday soon, your skills could even be needed to lay the foundations for a colony on the Moon or Mars! Anywhere there is rock or soil to be found, there is a puzzle waiting for a geologist to solve.
SFA geologists on the rise
Graduates of the SFA Department of Earth and Aviation Sciences have a rocky road ahead of them—and that’s exactly what they want! Whether they’re overseeing multiple drill rigs, modeling one of the biggest shale fields in North America or running a lab for a world mining leader, they are deeply immersed in their careers.