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AGI Connections - Summer 2025

Explore AGI Federation Activities in the Latest Issue of AGI Connections

The newsletter highlights AGI news and upcoming events from across the geoscience federation. Help us share important geoscience events by contacting Geoff Camphire, AGI Communications.

In This Issue

Critical Needs Document Makes Policy Impact

Geoscience organizations are uniquely positioned to inform, strengthen, and shape policy at all levels - and they are finding a powerful new resource in AGI’s Critical Needs documents: Critical Needs: Geosciences Meeting the Needs of the Nation. This new resource shows how the geoscience community’s knowledge, experience, and expertise advance solutions to our nation’s most urgent challenges. The six-part document series not only identifies what’s needed but also provides actionable insights into how the geosciences address those challenges, according to geoscience community members.

“The 2024 Critical Needs resource is a powerful tool for strengthening the dialogue between geoscientists and policymakers at a moment when scientific advocacy and literacy are more important than ever,” said M. Brandon Jones, Ph.D., President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), an AGI Member Society. “The geosciences inform real-world solutions to urgent national challenges ― from water and energy security to climate resilience and disaster response. Scientists should be empowered to turn their expertise into impactful policy dialogue, ensuring that science is not only heard but actively shapes the decisions that define our future.”

AGU recently organized two successful Days of Action events in Washington, D.C., to encourage geoscientists to meet with policymakers in support of science. AGI partnered with AGU to promote Critical Needs as a resource for participating scientists. Through Days of Action, AGU provides training and resources to help scientists effectively advocate for strong support for sustained investment in Earth and space sciences and highlight the dangers of cutting research funding and weakening the U.S. federal workforce. The Geological Society of America is planning a similar event, Geosciences Congressional Visits Day, in September 2025.

The Critical Needs series frames geoscience in context of societal issues for use by policymakers:

Each document also includes exemplars of geoscience impact, case studies, related National Academy of Sciences and federal agency reports, examples of relevant policy, and non-profit organizations providing non-partisan expertise. Taken together, these resources show how geoscience education, research, and workforce development align with government objectives for economic growth, national security, and technological advancement.

Visit the Critical Needs website for full web content and printable PDFs. To learn more about the document series, contact AGI Geoscience Profession and Higher Education Director Christopher Keane.

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Webinars Engage Geoscience Education Audience

The AGI Education & Outreach Department has been busy creating an ever-expanding lineup of free webinars to support educators, geoscience professionals, and curious learners from around the world. The webinars focus on a range of topics of interest to K-12 educators and others, relying on the expertise of AGI staff and many additional geoscience specialists. AGI partner organizations benefit from the webinars in that they provide a forum for sharing content and tapping into the broad audiences cultivated by AGI.

An important part of these efforts is the Earth Science Week Webinar Series, which has become a staple since its launch in 2020. As Earth Science Week activities take place around the globe annually, the webinar series has emerged as a feature of the celebration hosted by AGI. Each year’s talks are inspired by the event theme ― this year it’s “Energy Resources for Our Future.” Topics often connect with education resources, such as geologic maps provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), that are connected to Geologic Map Day, one of several Focus Days observed during Earth Science Week.

Partners have shared that they appreciate the Earth Science Webinar Series as a forum for sharing with a broad audience. Aidan Charron, Associate Director of Global Earth Day, hosted a webinar on behalf of EarthDay.org about the importance of earth science and its relation to protecting human and environmental health, with a focus on plastics. “Participants and viewers of these webinars are the current and next generation of earth science leaders who are going to be instrumental in combating the triple planetary crisis we are all up against,” said Charron. “The webinars go a long way toward introducing subjects that educators and geoscience professionals may not normally come across.”

We are excited to announce that participation in our Earth Science Week webinars has soared since the 2020 implementation. A growing share of that audience has been international, with the largest numbers of participants (after the Unted States) viewing from India, Colombia, and Nigeria. And the webinars continue to gain views long after the live events, with more than 13,000 total views across the webinars, demonstrating that they are an enduring learning resource.

AGI is also building new traditions. Last year for the first time, AGI hosted an Earth Day webinar, encouraging participants to raise awareness of geoscience as they consider the Earth Day theme and goals. That webinar, positioned as the kickoff to Earth Science Week, featured six talks on microplastics. This year’s Earth Day webinar offered an educational tour of the headquarters of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), an AGI Member Society and longtime Earth Science Week partner and sponsor. Participants learned about the building materials of AGU’s net zero energy facility, a perfect tie-in for this year’s Earth Science Week theme as well as the Earth Day 2025 theme of “Our Power, Our Planet.”

Another standout is the Early Career Professionals in Mapping webinar series, supported by the USGS’s National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program. Since September 2023, 11 interactive webinars have introduced K-12 teachers and students to real-world geologic mapping practices and career pathways through engaging talks and podcast-like interviews. With an average of 523 viewers per session ― and two topping 1,000 — this series is making an impact.

“The collaboration with AGI provided a perfect avenue to hopefully spark students’ interest and curiosity,” added Heather Emmons, a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Communications Specialist whose soil scientist colleagues also partnered to produce webinars. “The webinars provided a targeted opportunity for three early-career NRCS soil scientists to share their career paths that ultimately resulted in rewarding work in soil science. By sharing their personal and professional growth, knowledge, and experiences, and engaging in meaningful live chat discussions, they provided a great learning experience for students, educators, geoscience professionals, and the public.”

Learn more online about webinars and additional programs of AGI Education and Outreach. To discuss how AGI can support your organization’s education efforts, contact AGI Education and Outreach Director Ed Robeck.

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Geologic Guidebooks Blaze Trails for Geoscientists

Whether you’re conducting scholarly research, planning a field trip, or scoping out an industrial project, AGI’s Geologic Guidebooks of North America Database is your go-to resource for references to geologic field-trip guidebooks of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Geologic guidebooks tell compelling stories about our continent’s natural history, but they have not always been easy to obtain. Launched in 2017 through a collaboration between AGI and the Geoscience Information Society (GSIS), this free, searchable database now includes more than 12,900 references to geologic field-trip guidebooks ― some dating back to the 1940s ― and is updated monthly.

“These guidebooks are important for academia, industry, and the general public,” says Lura Joseph, who has indexed thousands of titles for the specialty database of AGI’s GeoRef bibliographic database for more than a decade. “They contain scholarly information that may not be available anywhere else and provide scientific information on geologic features that may not even exist anymore.”

The database fills a critical gap in the geoscience information landscape. While many regions lack comprehensive geological survey data, university-led field trips and independent excursions have produced guidebooks packed with detailed, localized knowledge ― sometimes the only information available for certain sites.

The ongoing effort began with GSIS volunteers, who compiled a list of guidebooks based initially on the Union List of Geological Field Trip Guidebooks of North America. AGI converted this resource into an online database, expanding its reach and integrating it with GeoRef, AGI’s globally respected bibliographic database. Thanks to GSIS volunteers and AGI staff, both historical and newly published guidebooks are regularly added, making the database a dynamic, ever-growing tool for discovery.

The database is easy to use, says Joseph. Once a guidebook of interest is identified, a person can find a copy held by a library by using WorldCat, a free online search service. Some guidebooks are online, and their URLs are included in the GeoRef record.

Joseph emphasizes the value of preserving these resources: “As geologic sites are lost to development or become otherwise inaccessible, these guidebooks become a record of the Earth as it once was. We knew we had to make them more accessible ― and now anyone, anywhere, can search them online.”

Go online to learn more about AGI’s Geologic Guidebooks of North America Database and additional programs of AGI Scholarly Information. For more information, contact AGI Director of Scholarly Information Tia Colvin.

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Scholarship Elevates Emerging Geoscience Scholar

An AGI scholarship recipient recently reflected on the positive impact of the award, both for her own academic career and for the geosciences generally. Master’s student KeMia Smith expressed her gratitude at becoming the 2024 recipient of a scholarship that has been restructured for the coming year as the AGI Next Horizons First-Generation Student Geoscience Scholarship.

“The scholarship has aided me in my current research looking at oxygen and carbon isotopes in Galapagos Islands land snails as climate sentinels,” says Smith, who recently earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and began working toward her master’s degree there last fall. “The AGI scholarship helps cover my summer funding, which is not guaranteed for graduate students.”

This one-time, merit-based scholarship is designed to support first-generation college students who are within two semesters of completing their bachelor’s degree in geoscience and are taking their first steps toward graduate education. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The scholarship recognizes the recipient’s demonstrated potential for success in geoscience graduate studies and commitment to pursuing a career in geoscience.

“This opportunity has been great because it allows me to focus and really make progress on my research this summer ― something not every graduate student gets to do,” Smith adds. “I’m always eager to expand my understanding of geology and Earth processes, especially through hands-on fieldwork. I am really appreciative of the funding and how it has impacted my graduate school experience so far.”

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support a qualified student in achieving their goal of becoming a professional geoscientist. Learn more online about this AGI Scholarship or contact AGI Geoscience Profession and Higher Education Director Christopher Keane for more information.

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AGI Boosts Partnerships at International Event

Geoscience leaders from around the world gathered in August 2024 in Busan, South Korea, for the 37th International Geological Congress, the first such gathering to be held in eight years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AGI was present to engage, inform, and help strengthen the global geoscience community through talks, meetings, and exhibit-hall presence. Not only that, AGI extended an invitation to its member societies and additional partner organizations to share exhibit space at this important event. AGI was pleased to support those organizations that accepted the invitation: Association for Women Geoscientists, GeoScienceWorld, History of Earth Science Society, International Raw Materials Observatory, and SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology).

The opportunity and the experience were highly advantageous, says Angie Anderson, GeoScienceWorld’s Director of Society Services and Partnerships, who participated in the exhibit partnership at IGC 2024. “As a founding member of GeoScienceWorld, AGI is a valued partner and helped advance our mission, contributing to our success over the past twenty years,” says Anderson. “Researchers the world over use our tools and resources together to tackle immense global challenges and to deliver new insights about our planet and beyond. We deeply value the work they do for our global community and for advancing geoscience research.”

Opportunities to exhibit alongside AGI at events like IGC represent just one of the many benefits of affiliation with our federation of geoscience societies. Visit our AGI Membership Benefits page to learn about other affiliation benefits. For more information, contact AGI Communications Lead Geoff Camphire.

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New From AGI

  • Tap into Critical Needs: Geosciences Meeting the Needs of the Nation, a six-part document series created by AGI and its federation of geoscience member societies that outlines ways geoscience can support solutions for our nation’s most urgent challenges, supporting policy solutions for economic growth, infrastructure resilience, technological innovation, national security, public safety, and global leadership.
  • Read Economic Analysis of the Costs and Benefits of Geological Mapping in the United States of America from 1994 to 2019, a groundbreaking report announced by AGI in collaboration with the Association of American State Geologists. The report provides an in-depth economic assessment of geological mapping, illuminating the significant return on investment and critical benefits for industry, government, and society.
  • Check out the recorded talks of the “Earth Science Everywhere” Webinar Series, originally aired during Earth Science Week 2024, which explored topics including Earth observation data, effects of plastics on health, geologic mapping of impact craters, dynamic processes in polar regions, and regenerative agriculture.
  • Monthly geoscience employment data, including updates from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey, can be accessed from AGI’s Profession Data dashboard.
  • U.S.-based members of AGI Member Societies can access free training in geoscience communication through the acclaimed Practical Geocommunication course, thanks to generous support from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.
  • You can still order a 2024 Earth Science Week Toolkit, containing a wealth of resources supporting the Earth Science Week 2024 theme “Earth Science Everywhere.” Also, while supplies last, you still can get the 2023 Earth Science Week Toolkit, which focuses on “Geoscience Innovating for Earth and People,” as well as additional resources on topics of interest to educators.
  • AGI’s ongoing GRANDE (Geoscience Program Adaptation to Natural Disruptive Events) study (NSF Grant No. 2223004) posts preliminary results of this multi-year effort to identify established best practices for geoscience academic departments relative to disruptive natural events.
  • Webinars hosted by AGI, available for viewing live and on demand, focus on issues essential to the geoscience profession. Recent webinars include “Transforming Undergraduate Geoscience Teaching: Recommendations for Heads and Chairs from a National Academies Report,” “The Science of Net Zero Buildings,” and “Glacier Geomorphological Mapping for Climate Change.”

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Geoscience Event Calendar

Explore the online resource designed to help you promote and track events sponsored by geoscience organizations of the AGI Federation: AGI’s Geoscience Event Calendar.

The calendar, available to view for free by anyone, helps conference organizers:

  • Avoid scheduling conflicts and promote collaboration.
  • Improve allocation of resources ― such as venues, speakers, and volunteers ― by determining when other societies have scheduled events.
  • Increase member engagement, as societies can cross-promote each other’s events.
  • Provide consistent communication about events with a single source of accurate event information, ensuring that all societies can share and be aware of event details.
  • Foster long-term planning of events well in advance, making it easier to secure preferred dates and venues.

Posting events on the calendar is an exclusive benefit of membership in the AGI Federation. Simply contact AGI Communications’ Geoff Camphire at gac@americangeosciences.org for your society’s authorization code to submit an event on the Geoscience Event Calendar.

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