There is no such thing as an undergraduate degree in meteoritics. Many good
schools, however, should provide independent study opportunities for
students with astronomy, geology, geophysics type majors to explore the
area.
The situation is different with graduate studies, however. Here, you would
look for an academic researcher as an advisor, and you'd work on an advanced
degree under that person (and whatever department he happened to be
associated with). You don't get a PhD in any particular subject, you choose
your research and specialization based on your own interests and the
expertise of your advisor and other staff at a particular institution.
IMO there is more than enough room for some more meteoritics researchers, so
there's no reason to discourage high school students from pursuing this
area. Realistically, very few will actually do so. They should focus their
undergraduate studies in the physical sciences.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <meteorh...@aol.com>
To: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:38 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Degrees in Meteoritics
Hello List,
I have just had a high school aged viewer of our show "Meteorite Men"
contact me asking for all the Universities that offer some type of
Meteoritics
degrees, as it seems after watching some of our episodes, this is now the
direction this young man wants to pursue as a vocation.
I was curious if there is a comprehensive list of the institutions that
offer either undergraduate or post graduate courses in what might be
grouped
as "Meteoritics"? As Geoff and I begin to do more work speaking to
Junior
High and High School aged kids, it would seem that this might be a common
question for us to be asked, and I would want to be prepared to offer the
best answer possible.
On a side note, is there much demand for new meteorite scientists out
there? If all the slots are filled, or someone isn't likely to be able
to get
a job once they would get a degree, I might want to caution kids not to
get
too serious about this field for a career without seriously evaluating
the
options first. But since I am not one to try to quash anyone's dreams, I
would like to be as helpful as possible.
And as a reminder, tonight is our Dry Lake Bed hunt episode of Meteorite
Men on Science Channel with our amazing guest stars Sonny Clary and his
dog
Brix. I hope the fun we had on this expedition comes through in the
final
cut. The only time I ever experienced anything close to what happens
tonight was 13 years or so ago when I took several trips to Imilac and I
found a
lot of small pieces in a small area. It was a blast to shoot this
episode
and I look forward to being able to share it with the world. I will be
putting some of the meteorites I found on the show up on Ebay with buy it
now, so if you want one of the finds, check that out a little later today.
Steve Arnold
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