This report describes the initial employment during the spring of 2007 of geoscientists who earned their Ph.D.s during the preceding academic year. The term geoscience is used throughout the report and refers to a broad range of fields in Earth, atmospheric, ocean, and space sciences (see Appendix for list of fine fields). The report is based on a survey of geosciences Ph.D.s whose degrees were awarded between April 2005 and December 2006 and who remained in the U.S. after earning their doctorates. The Appendix provides a detailed description of how the survey was conducted.
AGI and AGU have collected data on recent Ph.D.s in the geosciences from the classes of 1996 through the present. In 1996 and 1997, the survey was conducted as part of a multidisciplinary effort coordinated by the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) and supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Since 1998, AGI and AGU have continued this effort and evolved the survey to provide a more complete picture of geoscience graduates. Data collection and analyses are performed by the Statistical Research Center (SRC) of the American Institute of Physics.