PA23C:
What It Means to be a Geoscientist: Defining a Common Identity for the Public and Profession


Session ID#: 8497

Session Description:
Increasing attention has been paid to the interface between geoscience and the public by the various societies, agencies, and academic programs.  As a topically diverse discipline, the geosciences have struggled to present a single, simple, public face, which is required to generate critical mass in affecting policy, public opinion, and other decision vectors.  Through initiatives like AGI's I'm a Geoscientist and the development of ethics statements by a number of societies such as Geological Society of America, Geological Society of London, and AGU, the geoscience community is beginning to formulate a consistent core identity and role.  We will explore the aspects of what is means to be a geoscientist in an effort to define the boundaries of the discipline so it can project itself with common purpose, cause, and identity through exploring issues such as ethics, occupational diversity, human diversity, and fundamental experiences common for geoscientists.
Primary Convener:  Christopher M Keane, American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States
Conveners:  P Patrick Leahy, Maeve A Boland and Christopher M Keane, American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States
Chairs:  Christopher M Keane, American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States and Maeve A Boland, American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Christopher M Keane, American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States
Index Terms:

0855 Diversity [EDUCATION]
6314 Demand estimation [POLICY SCIENCES]
6620 Science policy [PUBLIC ISSUES]
6630 Workforce [PUBLIC ISSUES]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Communicating Geosciences with Policy-makers: a Grand Challenge for Academia (66477)
Wendy J Harrison1, Michael R Walls1 and Maeve A Boland2, (1)Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States, (2)American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States
Geoscientists and the Radical Middle (Invited) (61432)
Scott W. Tinker, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States
Lighting the path to the frontier we’re pushing: some insights from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (Invited) (64957)
Richard B Alley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, United States
Intriguing Connections Between Economic Geology, the Environment, Human Health, and Disasters: Observations from my Career(s) in Transdisciplinary Science (85963)
Geoffrey S Plumlee, USGS Chief Scientist, Reston, United States
Geodesy Brings the Geoscience Community Together as Geophysicists (75712)
Sarah Kittross1, Linda R Rowan2, Carson Cameron MacPherson-Krutsky3, Aisha R. Morris2 and Beth A Bartel4, (1)Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, United States, (2)UNAVCO, Inc. Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)University of Montana, Missoula, MT, United States, (4)UNAVCO, Inc., Boulder, CO, United States
As Ethics is a Core Attribute of Science, So Geoethics Must Be at the Core of Geoscience (85720)
Vincent S Cronin, Baylor University, Geosciences, Waco, TX, United States, Carl-Georg Bank, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Peter T Bobrowsky, Geological Survey of Canada, Sidney, BC, Canada, John W Geissman, University of New Mexico Main Campus, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Albuquerque, United States, Susan W. Kieffer, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States, David W. Mogk, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States, Cindy M Palinkas, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Appalachian Laboratory, Frostburg, MD, United States, Catherine Pappas Maenz, Dawson College, Geology Dept., Montreal, Canada, Silvia Peppoloni, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Rome, Italy and Anne Marie Ryan, Dalhousie University, Earth Sciences, Halifax, NS, Canada
Defining the Geoscience Community through a Quantitative Perspective (80942)
Carolyn E Wilson and Christopher M Keane, American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States
Connecting Geoscience and Decision Makers Through a Common Interface (62797)
Leila M Gonzales1, Charlotte Wood2 and Maeve A Boland2, (1)American Geological Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States, (2)American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, VA, United States

See more of: Public Affairs