Stanford University School of Earth Sciences

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The School of Earth Sciences (often referred to as the SES, or at Stanford as just "The School") is one of three schools at Stanford awarding both graduate and undergraduate degrees. Because Stanford's first faculty member was a professor of geology, the School of Earth Sciences is considered the oldest academic foundation of Stanford University. It is composed of four departments and three interdisciplinary programs. Research and teaching within The School spans a wide range of disciplines. The School is often regarded as one of the most comprehensive and prestigious earth sciences consortia in the world. The Dean, as of 2002, is Pamela Matson.

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[edit] History of The School

Earth Sciences at Stanford can trace its roots to the university's beginnings, when Stanford's first president, David Starr Jordan, hired John Casper Branner, a geologist, as the university's first professor. The search for and extraction of natural resources was the focus of Branner's geology department during that period of Western development.

Looking ahead to the twenty-first century, basic research will continue to elucidate the physical, chemical, and biological processes that make Earth materials, shape the landscape, and control the emplacement and recovery of mineral, hydrocarbon, and geothermal resources. Improved description of fundamental mechanisms will permit the separation of anthropogenic climate variations from naturally occurring ones, the ability to predict how organic and inorganic pollutants migrate in the soil, an understanding of how faults form and earthquakes begin, and the optimum use of energy resources. The goal of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford is to build the base of Earth science, both for its own sake and for its application to the problems and opportunities faced in the next century.

[edit] Academics

There are four academic departments within The School; Environmental Earth System Science, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Geophysics, and Energy Resources Engineering. There are three interdisciplinary programs housed within The School; Earth Systems Program, Graduate Program in Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment & Resources.

The interdisciplinary programs, in conjunction with the four departments, reach out to all other schools on the Stanford campus, the USGS, and both state and federal policy makers.

The School as a whole was ranked as the second best Earth Sciences program by US News in 2006 (Caltech is ranked no. 1). Both the geology and energy resources engineering programs are ranked no. 1, and the geophysics program is ranked no. 3.

Research programs in The School continue to make groundbreaking discoveries about the planet, its environment, and human interactions. As a result, there are a number of industry funded research groups (i.e. Stanford Exploration Project, Stanford Wave Physics Laboratory, Stanford Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics Project) that implement student led research for industry implementation.

Research Groups in The School:

Atmospheric Chemistry, Basin and Petroleum Systems Modeling Group, Benson Lab, Biogeochemistry, China Research Group, Climate, Tectonics and Landscape Evolution, Crustal Deformation and Fault Mechanics, Crustal Geophysics, Earthquake Seismology, Environmental Geophysics, Environmental Molecular Science Institute, Experimental Mineral Physics, Geoarchaeology, Geostatistics, Geothermal Program, High-Pressure & Ultrahigh-Pressure Study Group, Hydrogeology, Noble Gas Laboratory, Ocean Biogeochemistry, Paleobiology, Radar Interferometry, Sedimentary Research Group, Silicic Magmatism & Volcanology, Smart Fields, Soil and Environmental Chemistry, Solid-State NMR and Silicate Materials, Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Stanford Center for Computational Earth & Environmental Science, Stanford Center for Reservoir Forecasting, Stanford Exploration Project, Stanford Project on Deep-sea Depositional Systems, Stanford Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics Project, Stanford Wave Physics Lab, Stress and Crustal Mechanics, Structural Geology and Geomechanics, Structural Geology and Tectonics, SUPRI-A (Heavy and Thermal Oil Recovery), SUPRI-B (Reservoir Simulation), SUPRI-C (Gas Injection), SUPRI-D (Well Testing), SUPRI-HW (Horizontal Wells), Surface and Aqueous Geochemistry, Tectonic Geomorphology

[edit] San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD)

The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is one of three components of the Earthscope Project, funded by the National Science Foundation in conjunction with the USGS and NASA. The SAFOD site is located just north of the town of Parkfield, California. The SAFOD main hole was drilled to a depth of ~3.4 km in 2004 and 2005, crossing the San Andreas near a region of the fault where repeating Magnitude 2 earthquakes are generated.

A goal of this project is to install instruments to record data near the source of these earthquakes. In addition to the installation of these instruments, rock and fluid samples were continuously collected during the drilling process, and will also be used to analyze changes in geochemistry and mechanical properties around the fault zone. The project will lead to a better understanding of the processes that control the behavior of the San Andreas fault, and it is hoped that the development of instrumentation and analytic methods will help evaluate the possibility of earthquake prediction.

The project is co-PIed by Bill Ellsworth and Steve Hickman of the USGS, and Stanford geophysics faculty member and alum Mark Zoback. Zoback's research in The School focuses on stress and crustal mechanics. His students are heavily engaged in on-going research in the geophysics Earthquake Group (particularly via SAFOD), and Global Climate and Energy Project.

[edit] Students

The School offers both undergrad and graduate degrees. The majority of the students are graduate students, with a large contingent of coterminal masters degree recipients from the Earth Systems interdisciplinary program. The School attracts students from all 6 of the inhabited continents, and continues to be one of the most ethnically diverse Earth Sciences programs in the US.

Students seeking seeking the PhD spend anywhere from 5 to 8 years in their program. All PhD students are fully funded throughout their academic careers at Stanford. The vast majority of the students in GES and Geophysics are admitted as PhD track candidates. By the end of the second academic year (or 6th quarter) PhD students are expected to fulfill the University Orals Doctorate Qualifying requirement. Unlike most disciplines at Stanford, the qualifying examination in The School is extremely rigorous (often lasting in excess of 4 hours, compared to 1-3 hours in other schools). On the other hand, defense of the PhD usually lasts no longer tan 2 hours, including the one hour public seminar.

The majority of the students completing PhDs from The School rarely find it difficult to acquire jobs (most entering industry/natural resources, and about a third enter prestigious post-doctoral positions- often at the USGS in Menlo Park, CA).

Because the The School is modest in number of graduate students compared to the other 6 graduate/professional degree granting schools at Stanford, the School of Earth Sciences has a Graduate Student Advisory Committee. The Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) is composed of students in the School of Earth Sciences who are committed to making the school a better environment by providing a forum for student concerns, promoting integration of the disciplines within the school, and developing programs that will benefit the greater Earth Sciences community. Likewise, most students in the The School report being very happy at quarterly town hall meetings.

[edit] Traditions

The School is host to numerous traditions making it one of the most socially dynamic graduate student populations at Stanford University. The most prominent tradition in The School is the Friday Beer hosted by three first year graduate students every Friday at 5pm in the GeoCorner garden of the main quad. Often lasting until 8pm or 9pm at night, students, faculty, staff, their loved ones and pets congregate in the garden to enjoy beer (for a minimal fee), wine, appetizers, non-alcoholic beverages, bocce ball, frisbee, music and sunshine. The Department of Energy Resources Engineering hosts their own Friday Beer in the Green Earth Sciences Industrial Garden. This free event, which is sparsely attended and exclusively for ERE students, is not to be confused with the GeoCorner event. Conversely, the GeoCorner event is heavily attended by students from Geological and Environmental Sciences, Geophysics, as well as students from Applied Physics, Chemical Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Other traditions include: New Student Overnight: Hosted by GSAC in a California State Park Bar Crawl: often a few weeks after the new student overnight in nearby downtown Palo Alto Semi Annual 99 Bottles: Bike ride from Stanford to the Santa Cruz bar "99 Bottles" GES Holiday Party: Students in GES give gifts to faculty and staff, one student dresses as Santa. All followed by a large, Schoolwide party in the GES seminar room. Mall Crawl: Same concept as a bar crawl, only held at the Stanford Shopping Center where numerous wines, cocktails, and beers are served. Geophysics Admit Weekend: Graduate students accepted to the program are hosted by current students. A large party is usually held during this weekend. GeoSnow: A free, GSAC-run Lake Tahoe ski weekend for students and alumni