As the national forum of debate and development of cutting-edge Earth science, The Geological Society has a special responsibility to communicate geoscience and its importance to the Government, the media, and the general public. As part of this commitment to support geoscientists, the profession and society, the Geological Society has been involved with Voice of the Future for several years. Voice of the Future, organised by the Royal Society of Biology, allows early career scientists from a range of science and engineering organisations to question parliamentarians on the science and policy ..read more

The Schools Geology Challenge is an annual competition for A-Level students where they are given the chance to showcase their geological knowledge. There are two stages to the competition: the qualifier, and the final. In the first stage, participants present a geoscience topic of their choice to an online audience. We were thrilled to receive entries across variety of topics, from the geology of Mars to the formation of Tsunamis, and we were impressed by the range of media used to illustrate the concepts discussed. The creativity of the students involved was immense and the evident passion s ..read more

April is Poetic Earth Month. We are celebrating this year with a generous contribution by Helen Nattrass (pictured right) and Victoria Field. Helen discusses the writing and poetry workshops which encourage people to not only gain inspiration from the world around them, but to open up and importantly, have fun... Victoria Field and I co-operate to organise therapeutic and reflective writing workshops in Canterbury and East Kent. I am a retired geologist and engineer. Victoria is a poet and author who works in the field of therapeutic and reflective writing.  A typical session involves ..read more

The Geological Society is committed to supporting Earth scientists, growing interest in the natural world, and connecting science, the profession and society. As the national forum for the debate and development of cutting-edge Earth science, the Geological Society has a special responsibility to communicate this science and its importance to society, the Government, the media, and the general public. As part of this commitment, the Society has been involved with Voice of the Future for several years. The Voice of the Future event is an opportunity for young people who are interested in scienc ..read more

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence by computer systems, including learning, reasoning, and self-correction. It’s use in everyday life is becoming more prevalent, from digital assistants like Siri and Alexa, to personalized recommendations and targeted advertising. AI is being increasingly used in geoscience to improve data analysis, modelling techniques, and decision-making. Some specific examples of the use of AI across the geosciences are: Remote sensing and image analysis: AI algorithms can be used to analyse large amounts of satellite data to identify pat ..read more

With geoscience-related degrees seeing a decline in applicants, George Jameson (Diversity and Inclusion Project Lead) discusses the value of further education in Earth science graduate outcomes. For some time, we have wondered about how beneficial or useful obtaining a degree in the Earth sciences can be for those graduating in the United Kingdom. This question has become more pressing in recent years. Prospective students want to know how useful a degree is and what potential career paths await them as they enter the workforce should they choose to study it. It was time that we looked into th ..read more

With the recent launch of Geoenergy, Max Brouwers (Getech) highlights the importance of geoscience in this new era of sustainable energy. The energy transition is well underway and the speed of change is accelerating. With the shift from fossil-based energy systems to renewable sources, the associated trilemma of challenges – access to affordable, secure, and clean energy – becomes clearer too. Recent rises in fuel and electricity prices highlight the affordability challenge. Energy costs are poised to hit an all-time high of more than 13% of global gross domestic product (Bloomberg 2022 ..read more

This September, I went to the ENGIE project conclusion conference, ‘Learning from the ground: why geosciences matter for future generations’. The ENGIE project (Encouraging Girls to Study Geosciences and Engineering) aimed to turn the interest of girls to study geosciences and geo-engineering, and thus to improve the gender balance in these disciplines. Overall, the ENGIE conference was an important space for conversations to take place about progress on gender equality in the geosciences, but the issue of underrepresentation has not been eradicated yet. I aim to use my role on the Geological ..read more

Katie Jones is Policy and Communications Officer at The Geological Society, working to communicate the research, knowledge and skills that geoscience and geoscientists can offer to society. Katie has a master’s degree in Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy from King’s College London and a particular interest in connecting science and society through policymaking.  On the 13th October 2022, the International Science Council (ISC) held its meeting of the European members, co-hosted by the Royal Society and British Academy. The ISC was created to act as a global voice for science ..read more

Originally created by members of our South Wales Regional Group, our Schools Geology Challenge  is an annual competition for A-Level students that offers the chance to showcase their geological knowledge, meet professional geoscientists and student peers, and travel to Burlington House to compete for a trophy as well as funding for their school. The Schools Geology Challenge 2022 was our first in person competition for students since 2019. Despite successfully taking the 2021 final completely online and increasing global reach, we were all very excited to be able to hold the event again ..read more