Executive Summary

Geoscientists play a central role in addressing global and societal challenges. With the critical state of our global climate and need for reliable energy and mineral resources, water, and societal resilience to earth processes, we must ensure that the future geoscience workforce is prepared to meet these challenges, including 1) making the transition to sustainable and environmentally responsible energy and food sources; and 2) forecasting and mitigating the dramatic economic and environmental impacts from the increase in the number of detrimental weather, climate, and oceanic events and from geohazards. Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science graduate programs must educate students to understand Earth System Science, the complex interactions and feedback between parts of the Earth system, and the influence of human activities in perturbing this system. These geoscience graduate students need to develop the skills and competencies to investigate and find solutions to these challenges. Additionally, new expertise is required by the big data revolution, the explosive growth in AI, and the movement toward modeling the Earth system.

To educate and prepare the future geoscience workforce for their critical role, the National Science Foundation sponsored this Graduate Geoscience Education initiative to address three critical questions:

1. What universal skills and competencies should be part of graduate geoscience education for doctoral and master’s students in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences to be successful in the workforce?
2. What are the best means of developing these skills and competencies in graduate geoscience programs nationally?
3. What implementation strategies can department heads/chairs and graduate program directors use to integrate these skills and competencies into graduate programs?

Since 2018 over 300 geoscientists in the academic and employer communities have collectively developed a vision for the future of geoscience graduate education, inclusive of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. This report articulates that vision and identifies strategies for transformative change in graduate geoscience education. This vision builds on the previous NSF-sponsored undergraduate initiative documented in the Vision and Change in the Geosciences: The Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education (Mosher and Keane, 2021). We summarize the key strategic findings of the graduate effort below and highlight recommendations documented in this report that capture the extensive work of the community. These recommendations are comprehensive and each department, program or institution should consider how to appropriately implement them in the context of each institution’s educational mission and research strengths. External stakeholders, including employers, alumni, professional societies and funding agencies, should consider their role helping departments accomplish these goals. Collaboration between faculty, departments and external stakeholders will greatly improve graduate geoscience education. Geoscience educators have an unparalleled opportunity to capitalize on the expanding role the geosciences play in addressing global societal challenges and ensure the long-term health and future of geoscience graduate programs.