At SUU we provide innovative and
relevant education Choosing a major is a
first step. I'm Scott Wyatt, president of
Southern Utah University. This series of
spotlights will allow you to meet and
hear from professors who have found
their passion and teach it every day. Who
do we have with us, Ellen? This is
Spotlight on Geology with Dr. Johnny
MacLean. Thank you so much for being with
us today. Thanks for having me! So tell me what you love about your field.
Well, geology is the study of how the earth changes and so I love getting outside
and learning about and observing the
earth processes. It's a way for me to
combine the recreation activities that I
love with professional experiences and
what better way to get paid than to hang
out outside and make observations.
So what type of student is drawn to this,
what type of student would love this field?
Well obviously, the kind of student who
loves the outdoors would love geology, that's kind of a
no-brainer but I would also say a
student who's curious, who likes to
figure out problems, and geology, you
often hear, is a kind of like
detective work. We have little bits of
information about Earth's past. We don't
have the whole story but we have to take
those little bits of information and
piece them together to interpret the
the most likely scenario, make
predictions, test our predictions, so it's
it really is kind of like a Sherlock
Holmes investigation. Great, well the
opposite of that, obviously, is who would
hate it. Right right, I guess if you hate
the outdoors, there's still opportunities
it's becoming a lab based science as
well but folks who might steer away from
geology would be those who are looking
for
problems that have definite solutions
and there's no kind of interpretation
necessary, they want straightforward
answers because in geology oftentimes
there is no straightforward answer, we
have to deal and be a world of
uncertainty quite a bit. Is there something
different about the way SUU implements
the Geology Program? The Geology Program at SUU really has two strengths over I
would argue over most programs in the
country
The first is our field area, our location.
The textbooks, all of geology textbooks,
use examples from southern Utah and so
we see those in our textbooks in our
classes but we also really have a big
field component to our program. We weave
in field trips as much as possible which
is very possible here
The other advantage that this program
has is our small size. The small
student to faculty ratio allows us to
really build relationships with our
students. You'll hear graduate
schools and employers constantly say the
best way to have an undergraduate
education is a field-based education.
What types of jobs are available for
someone who earns their degree in
geology? Right, something people might not
know about geology is the diversity of
fields that they can work in. One of the
well-known career paths would be the oil
and gas industry. Mining industry is
obviously another option, similar kind of
story. Right here in southern Utah we
have several mines. We also have
government needs and so not only do we need geologists on the industry side but we
need their correlative positions on the
government side
and then the environmental consulting
industry is a huge industry whether
that's having to do with
groundwater needs,
contamination problems, alternative
energy needs. They're all geology
related and it's something a lot of
folks don't realize but we need earth
scientist, and we need geologists and the
demand for these kinds of jobs is really
high. Well thank you so much. This has been Spotlight on Geology with
Dr. Johnny MacLean
