Geology
Welcome to the Department of Geology at Bryn Mawr College. In these pages you will find information about our courses and research, our students and faculty, our undergraduate and graduate programs, our history, our facilities, and our special events.
We occupy portions of three floors at the heart of the Park Science Center. This is an appropriate location for our department, because geology combines physics and biology, chemistry and math in the interdisciplinary study of the Earth and the environment. We encourage you to come visit, explore the halls, talk with students and faculty, take classes, and learn more about your planet. You won't be disappointed.
Our Origins
When Florence Bascom was granted a Ph.D. in 1893, the event made headlines in the Baltimore Sun. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and was then the only woman in the United States to hold a doctorate in geology. Two years later she launched the geology department at Bryn Mawr. Florence Bascom offered training in the classroom combined with field studies.
A century later, Bryn Mawr's department is still training professional women geologists, and emphasis is still placed on the importance of field work in learning to understand and manage our physical environment. There have, of course, been many changes; some, such as plate tectonics, have had profound impact on our study of the earth. Because Haverford College has no geology department, some of the geology majors at Bryn Mawr today are Haverford students. Florence Bascom's one-woman department has expanded to four faculty members and several affiliates who teach courses and conduct research in areas that include invertebrate paleontology, sedimentology, mineralogy and petrology, structural geology, tectonics and geophysics.
