The director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Charles Groat, sent his letter of resignation to the President yesterday. Dr. Groat will take a faculty position at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystem Engineering and the LBJ School of Public Affairs, directing graduate research and international policy programs. He will also serve as the Jackson Chair in Mineral and Energy Resources in the Jackson School of Geosciences. This will be a homecoming for Dr. Groat at the University of Texas at Austin, where he once served as associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and as Associate Director and Acting Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Previous to being appointed as the USGS director six and a half years ago, Dr. Groat was the Associate Vice President for Research and Sponsored Projects at the University of Texas at El Paso. During his time at El Paso, Dr. Groat served as Director of the Center for Environmental Resource Management, Director of the university’s Environmental Science and Engineering Ph.D. Program, and as Professor of Geological Sciences. Before working for the University of Texas, Dr. Groat served as the Executive Director at the Center for Coastal, Energy, and Environmental Resources at Louisiana State University and Executive Director for the American Geological Institute.
The Department of the Interior will name an acting USGS Director upon Dr. Groat’s departure on June 17, 2005 and a permanent replacement must be nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
More information: Press Release from Department of the Interior