African American earth scientists ponder strategies to attract more students of color to a field with growing opportunities

Reston, Va. -- Their work is essential to the production and preservation of things we take for granted every day -- resources like water, natural gas, and petroleum. Yet, if you asked the average person what geoscientists do, most would be stumped.

And if you asked the average geoscientist why so few among them are African American, the reaction wouldn't be much different.

Last month, a group of roughly fifty African American geologists, geophysicists, students, and corporate recruiters convened here on the campus of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to discuss the future of their profession and strategies for expanding their numbers. The theme of the seventeenth annual conference of the National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG) was "Diversity in Geoscience."

"Within five years, approximately 25 percent of our current staff will be eligible for retirement," said Cynthia L. Quarterman, director of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service, a major federal employer of geoscientists.

"MMS has a five-point strategic plan for diversity," Quarterman adds.

Noting that five different world records for offshore resource production were set on the outer continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico in the past year, she said that resource production is expected to double there in coming years.

But unless the production of students of color in these fields expands similarly at the nation's colleges and universities, hopes of filling these career slots with U.S.-born geoscientists will fall far below expectations.

"One major problem is the lack of people who are trained to do this work," Quarterman said.

In 1980, according to Quarterman, the nation's colleges and universities produced 425 petroleum engineers and 253 geoscientists. By 1997, they produced only 162 petroleum engineers and 158 geoscientists.