The AGU Heads and Chairs program and the American Geosciences Institute are pleased to be offering a free online webinar and discussion about the racial diversity of geoscience students. The racial diversity of geoscience undergraduates is increasing, more than for graduate students.  However, this progress is currently uneven and concentrated in relatively few departments. Please join Rachel Beane (Bowdoin College), Eric Baer (Highline College), and Vernon Morris (Arizona State University) to learn about recent student diversity trends and participate in a conversation about making our discipline more accessible, inclusive, and equitable.

Additional Resources

• Download presentation slides
• Beane, R.J., Baer, E.M.D., Lockwood, R. et al. Uneven increases in racial diversity of US geoscience undergraduates. Commun Earth Environ 2, 126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00196-6

The global economy is unprepared for the unprecedented growing demand for critical minerals. These materials are crucial for the proliferation of technologies and industries that have become vital for social and economic well-being the world over but they are vulnerable to supply disruption and have been of limited economic interest until recently. Given their importance, in December 2019 the geoscience organizations of Geoscience Australia (GA), the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) created the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI) to advance understanding and foster development of critical mineral resources in their respective countries.

This forum is the first release of geoscience products by the CMMI and provides an opportunity to highlight how the CMMI relates to each survey’s critical minerals activities. The forum will primarily focus on filling the knowledge gap on the abundance of critical minerals in ores within a mineral systems framework. To this end, the CMMI compiled modern multielement geochemical data generated by each agency on ore samples, from historical and active mines as well as prospects around the world. To identify relationships between critical minerals, deposit types, deposit environments, and mineral systems, a unified deposit classification scheme was established. This new database will be released to the public at the forum through a new web-based portal. The database enables users to identify individual deposits or deposit types that are potential sources of critical minerals. It also underpins ongoing CMMI efforts to advance critical mineral potential mapping aimed at recognising new opportunities for critical minerals discovery.

View the next presentation in this event.

Please contact Karol Czarnota at karol.czarnota@ga.gov.au with any questions about this event.

Organized by the Geological Survey of Canada, Geoscience Australia, and the United States Geological Survey, and hosted by the American Geosciences Institute

Moderated by Marina Costelloe, Geoscience Australia, Australia

Speakers:

• Thomas Crafford, United States Geological Survey, USA
• Geneviève Marquis, Geological Survey of Canada, Canada
• Andrew Heap, Geoscience Australia, Australia
• Albert Hofstra, United States Geological Survey, USA
• David Huston, Geoscience Australia, Australia
• Christopher Lawley, Geological Survey of Canada, Canada

Event Materials

Visit the CMMI web portal at http://criticalminerals.org/

Presentation slides

Marina Costelloe
Thomas Crafford
Geneviève Marquis
Andrew Heap
Albert Hofstra
David Huston
Christopher Lawley

Download the event flyer

The AGU Heads and Chairs program and the American Geosciences Institute are pleased to be offering a free online webinar and discussion about career preparation for students. Our speakers for this month's webinar are:

• Dana Thomas, Ph.D., Coordinator for College Transition, Student Success, and Learning Experiences, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT Austin
• Corey Garza, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Marine Science at California State University, Monterey Bay
• Barbara Bruno, Ph.D., Faculty Specialist at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i, Manoa

Dana Thomas will be discussing the GeoFORCE program and high school transitions to college. Corey Garza will be discussing bridge programs and professional development for students to help guide them in their next steps in their geoscience career, and Barb Bruno will be discussing how students have been using individual development plans to map their careers. Please come prepared to share your own experiences, suggestions, and challenges as this session provides an opportunity for the community to share experiences and discuss strategies.

Additional Resources

• Download Barb Bruno's presentation
• Download Corey Garza's presentation
• Download Dana Thomas' presentation

The AGU Heads and Chairs program and the American Geosciences Institute are pleased to be offering a free online webinar and discussion about assessing program reforms. We are pleased to have Jennifer Roberts, Department Chair at the University of Kansas and Dallas Rhodes, Professor Emeritus, Georgia Southern University as our presenters for this month's webinar. Our presenters will be discussing their experiences in assessing program changes they have implemented, the challenges, and successful approaches that meaningfully support program reform.

Continue the exploration of key topics from the Vision and Change report with a discussion lead by James Kubicki and Hugo Gutierrez-Jurado of the University of Texas at El Paso about their experiences in implementing curricular reform. Please come prepared to share your own experiences, suggestions, and challenges as this session provides an opportunity for the community to share experiences and discuss strategies.

Additional Resources

• Download the presentation slides

Join Kate Miller (University of Wyoming) and Jeff Ryan (University of South Florida) to learn more about how the soon-to-be released Vision and Change in the Geosciences report identifies as essential geoscience concepts, essential geoscience skills and competencies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Additional Resources

• Download Kate Miller's presentation
• Download Jeff Ryan's presentation

Organized by the Geological Survey of Canada, Geoscience Australia, and the United States Geological Survey

Sponsored by the World Community of Geological Surveys and hosted by the American Geosciences Institute

New critical mineral deposits are required to secure the supply of natural resources that are used in today’s advanced technologies. The discovery and sustainable development of these new deposits represents a global chal­lenge. Governments and international geological survey organizations are responding by improved multinational cooperation, data sharing, and through investments in geoscientific research. This Critical Minerals Forum brings together representatives from multiple geological surveys organizations to provide an update on the latest geoscience results and to discuss future critical mineral research.

Presentations will focus on advanced mineral system models that are appli­cable to critical minerals and new methods for modelling mineral potential in buried, remote, and/or other challenging mineral exploration settings. Both of these research themes are included within the new Critical Mineral Mapping Initiative that is being conducted between the Geological Survey of Canada, Geoscience Australia, and the United States Geological Survey. Global efforts to expand this collaboration, including the development of an online geo­chemical portal for critical mineral deposits, will be discussed as part of this special session and is open to further contributions, research, and analysis.

Format

The Critical Minerals Forum will be hosted as a set of three regional sessions (Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia and Oceania). Each regional forum will feature lectures from science policy experts and geoscientists during a live plenary and moderated discussion session with attendees. All pre-recorded science and policy presentations will be made available on­line the Monday prior to the corresponding live plenary and discussion sessions. The pre-recorded science and policy presentations will also be aired live prior to the corresponding plenary and discussion session.

All plenary and discussion sessions will be conducted in English with live captioning in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Modern Chinese, and Hindi.

Please contact Christopher Lawley at christopher.lawley@canada.ca with any questions about this webinar series.

Event Materials

Download the event flyer

Sessions

Americas - 12 February 2021
The role of geological survey organizations to advance critical mineral research

   View presentations and discussion session

View additional questions & answers from this discussion session

Moderator, Presenters and Panelists

• Geoff Plumlee (moderator), United States Geological Survey, USA
• Warren Day and Anne McCafferty (plenary speakers), United States Geological Survey, USA
• Geneviève Marquis, Geological Survey of Canada, Canada
• Jean-Yves Labbé, Québec Ministère de l’Énergie et des Ressources Naturelles, Canada
• Natalia Amezcua, Servicio Geológico Mexicano, Mexico
• Felipe Espinoza, Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Chile
• Felipe Mattos Tavares, Serviço Geológico do Brasil, Brazil

Europe and Africa - 19 February 2021
The past, present, and future directions of critical mineral research

   View presentations and discussion session

View additional questions & answers from this discussion session

Moderator, Presenters and Panelists

• Geneviève Marquis (moderator), Geological Survey of Canada, Canada
• Daniel de Oliveira and Javier González Sanz (plenary speakers), Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia and Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Portugal and Spain
• Saku Vuori, Geologian Tutkimuskeskus, Finland
• Kathryn Goodenough, British Geological Survey, United Kingdom
• Blandine Gourcerol, Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, France
• Håvard Gautneb and Janja Knežević Solberg, Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse, Norway
• Lesego Peter and Puso Akanyang, Botswana Geoscience Institute, Botswana
• Taufeeq Dhansay, Council for Geoscience, South Africa

Asia and Oceania Session - 26 February 2021
Geoscience to support critical mineral discovery

   View presentations and discussion session

View additional questions & answers from this discussion session

Moderator, Presenters and Panelists

• Andrew Heap (moderator), Geoscience Australia, Australia
• Karol Czarnota (plenary speaker), Geoscience Australia, Australia
• Young Joo Lee, Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia, Thailand
• Seong-Jun Cho, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, South Korea
• Regine Morgenstern and Rose Turnbull, GNS, New Zealand
• Helen Degeling, Geological Survey of Queensland, Australia
• Dattatreya Jeere, Sandip Roy, and Muduru Dora, Geological Survey of India, India

Five current Congressional Science and Engineering Fellows share insights from their first two months on working as staff members for Congressional offices and Committees and ways earth scientists at all career stages can get involved in federal science policy. The panel of fellows will share their thoughts for ~30 minutes and then open the floor for audience questions.

This month's Heads and Chairs webinar will examine the issue of diversity in the geosciences.  First we will look at the data about diversity, including current trends and drivers, and challenges in effectively measuring progress.   Then there will be a look at what the geoscience societies are doing to address the challenges to making the discipline inclusive and representative and a look at some of the current steps.  Finally, as an example, AGU will discuss their new diversity initiative LANDInG.   These presentations will be followed by time for a discussion about both what is presented and the experiences department leadership are having with addressing diversity in their programs.