The Department of Geological Sciences is the main academic unit of the Jackson School. Founded in 1888, the Department is one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious geoscience programs in the world. U.S. News & World Report ranks the Department’s graduate program in the top ten nationally for earth sciences, the only program in Texas with this distinction. The Department also has top ten specialty rankings in geology and geophysics/seismology.

With approximately 50 faculty members, the Department is among the largest and most academically diverse in the world. Enrollment is typically about 600 students, which are generally split half and half between undergraduates and graduates. We have approximately 4,250 alumni.

The Department has strong ties to industry due to its large size, prestigious alumni, and geographic proximity to Houston, home to about two-thirds of the country’s professional geologists. Students further benefit from opportunities for employment, research assistantships, and academic credit working with Jackson School scientists at the Bureau of Economic Geology and the Institute for Geophysics.