In 2001, the Department of Earth and Space Sciences was created by merging two UW departments: the Department of Geological Sciences and the Geophysics Program.
Early History
The Department of Geological Sciences traced its origins to 1894, when the state legislature authorized the Department of Geology and Mineralogy within the College of Liberal Arts. In 1895, as the university moved to its uptown campus, Henry Landes was hired to teach physical and economic geology, assaying, and mining engineering. In 1898, Dorsey Lyon was hired to teach mining courses, and in 1901, he moved to the newly established School of Mines (today’s Materials Science and Engineering [https://mse.washington.edu/about/statsfacts/history]). The two units shared many courses, students majoring in geology earning a B.A. and students in mining engineering a B.S. In 1902, the Department of Geology and Mineralogy moved to the new Science Hall (now Parrington), where it remained until moving to Johnson Hall in 1930. In 1969 the department was renamed the Department of Geological Sciences.
The Geophysics Program traced its roots to the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year, which stimulated worldwide collaboration among disciplines and began the momentum at UW to formalize the interdisciplinary geophysical ties already in existence on campus. From 1959 to 1963, geophysics was governed by a committee of faculty from several disciplines, which in late 1963 officially became the Geophysics Group, a graduate interdisciplinary program through the Graduate School. Ultimately, in 1969 the modern Geophysics Program was formalized within the College of Arts and Sciences, and the first full-time chair, Stewart Smith, was appointed in 1970. In 1972, the Atmospheric Sciences – Geophysics building was completed, housing those two units as well as the newly established (1967-1969) Quaternary Research Center.
The Last 20 Years
In 2001, Michael Brown, the last chair of the Geophysics Program, became the first chair of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences (ESS). Many new faculty in glaciology and astrobiology joined the new department during that time. The department’s home in Johnson Hall was also significantly renovated during this period, with new lab facilities to meet the needs of our growing department and many geology-themed additions to the building, such as the tilework illustrating the geologic timeline and plate tectonic configurations.
From 2005-2015 Robert Winglee served as the second chair of ESS, overseeing the hiring of many new faculty in fields ranging from invertebrate paleontology to geophysics. In 2012, the department launched a new Masters in ESS: Applied Geosciences (MESSAGe), with assistant professor Juliet Crider as director. From 2015-2018, Bruce Nelson served as the third chair of ESS, during which time the department expanded its graduate program and outreach programming.
Ken Creager served as chair in 2019, ushering in a new phase of faculty hiring in the department, beginning with a new position in metamorphic petrology and beginning searches in planetary science and seismology. Eric Steig replaced Creager in February 2020, just before the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, and oversaw the continuation of this hiring phase with the addition of faculty in seismology and planetary sciences. The department also launched new faculty searches in geobiology/sedimentology, igneous petrology and geomorphology to address the rapid loss of core expertise, in critical teaching and research areas, to address the impact of multiple senior faculty retires over a short period.
Beginning particularly with Nelson’s leadership and continuing today, ESS began a concerted effort to address barriers to inclusion and retention in geosciences, recognizing that recruitment of women and marginalized minority groups was a serious issue in STEM fields, particularly the geosciences. The importance of this issue to the late Robert Winglee — whose Space Grant program brought space physics opportunities to hundreds of students across the state, notably including indigenous Americans — is also noted.
You can learn more about the detailed history of our department (as well as the former Geophysics Program and Department of Geological Sciences) below.