Founded in 1888, UT Austin’s Department of Geological Sciences—the main academic unit of the Jackson School of Geosciences—is one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious geoscience programs in the world. Consistently ranked as one of the top ten graduate programs for earth sciences (U.S. News & World Report), the Department also receives top ten specialty rankings for geology and geophysics/seismology.

With over 50 faculty members, the Department is among the largest and most academically diverse in the world. The Department is home to one of the largest combined graduate and undergraduate enrollments of any major geosciences program and has over 5,000 alumni.