Welcome from the Chair

Welcome to our website. We are the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Our department has a wide range of research and teaching expertise with our 20 tenure track faculty, 40 undergraduate majors and 50 graduate students which can be found in these web pages. We offer B.S., M.S. and PhD degrees.

Our research spans from the top of the atmosphere to the core of the earth, from the snow and ice on top of the mountains to the bottom of the ocean. Our primary areas of research are: Evolution of Orogenic Systems, Environmental Geosciences and Global Climate Change. This research is sponsored by various agencies, the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautical and Space Administration,
United States Geological Survey, Environmental Protection Agency and a number of other non-profit agencies and foundations.

These research programs conducted by our faculty have two primary components – modeling and observations. The modeling occurs in a computer laboratory setting whereas the observations may involve a variety of field projects. These field projects are located all over the world – Antarctica, Australia, Kamchatka, Gulf of California, South America, Romania and of course right here in South Carolina. Many of our graduate and (sometimes) undergraduate students participate in these field projects as a part of their research

We are dedicated to teaching a wide range of courses, from introductory courses to seminar courses. The introductory courses GEOL 101 (Introduction to the Earth) and GEOL 103 (Earth and the Environment) are taken by many non-science majors for satisfying their science requirement with a laboratory credit. These courses are taken by an average of 1000+ students every year. The other courses deal with the breadth and depth of our faculty's expertise and span the entire spectrum of earth sciences.

For further information on our undergraduate program, please contact our undergraduate office.
If you are interested in the graduate program, please contact our graduate office.

Some of our department faulty have joint appointment with Marine Sciences Program in which our faculty handles teaching and conducts research with the Baruch Institute.

Thank you for visiting us today. Please let us know if we can answer any questions.

Venkat Lakshmi, PhD, P.E.,
Professor and Chair
vlakshmi@geol.sc.edu