Strategic Assessment: The School of Earth Sciences is home to several consistently top-ranked disciplinary programs, including petroleum engineering, geophysics, hydrogeology, and structural geology and tectonics. Our obvious growing strengths in marine sciences, geochemistry/biogeochemistry, and environmental sciences suggest they will join the top ranks as well. Our faculty, widely recognized for their research excellence, include five members of the National Academy of Sciences, six members of the National Academy of Engineering, two MacArthur Fellows, and numerous other fellows and award recipients of professional societies. Not surprisingly, we have an excellent record of recruitment and retention, and our faculty have considerable success in garnering external funds.

Along with our strengths are several factors that present challenges to continued success in meeting our mission. Our faculty and students perceive significant faculty gaps in areas that are critical to our mission (e.g., atmospheric science, physical oceanography, climate science). While such faculty expertise is recognized as important and essential to our mission, many faculty tend to view the most important future hires as those that fit comfortably into current department structures, and there is continued concern about dilution of disciplinary strengths and problems associated with becoming too broad. In addition, the large number of upcoming faculty retirements (up to 14 in the next 10 years, out of a current total of 51) suggests that careful recruitment and faculty development strategies will be necessary if the school’s strengths are to be maintained and its vision realized. The school will pursue several strategies to ensure that we are both filling critical gaps with future hires and supporting the current and new research initiatives among faculty already in the school.

Strategy 1: Develop and implement a process for recruitment that strengthens fundamental Earth sciences while encouraging new directions related to our vision. In order for all voices to be heard—departmental as well as inter- and cross-disciplinary groups—we will realign our recruitment process to encourage broader and more strategic thinking about potential hiring.
• hold billets at the school level
• build recruitments on school strengths and help sustain top-rated programs, while using our stated vision as a guide for new areas
• involve departments, interdisciplinary teams, and educational programs in recruitment priority setting
• communicate and implement the new recruitment process
• explore joint positions with other schools and across School of Earth Sciences departments, and look for ways to leverage opportunities with centers and institutes
• examine and clarify the tenure process to ensure that successful tenure review is possible in cases where individual expertise is outside of traditional departmental scope

Strategy 2: Build the Center for Computational Geosciences. Our 2001–03 needs assessment identified the tremendous advantage to be realized by bringing together our unique knowledge bases in computation (yielding from both science and engineering programs) into one center. In the strategic planning process, such a center was again identified as a strong mechanism for integrating different approaches and perspectives for innovation. We will bring together dean’s office and faculty leadership and resources to launch and support this center.
• develop written strategic and business plans that articulate the center’s vision, mission, and goals
• define what infrastructure is required to support the center (e.g., staffing, space, computer hardware and software)
• develop a marketing plan, and use our Web site to help recruit students both within and beyond Stanford
• construct a funding/financing model, determine funding needs (start-up costs, ongoing costs, etc.), and identify funding sources to meet those needs
• develop potential partners both within and beyond Stanford
• identify and track risks and challenges

Strategy 3: Encourage school research that takes advantage of strengths in multiple areas of engineering and science (e.g., natural hazards, EarthScope-related research, Groundwater Evaluation and Management {GEM} and other water resources foci, energy activities). While there is considerable interest among our faculty to build collaborative projects that link faculty and students across campus, there is often not enough time or funding, or other barriers that impede progress. We will strive to encourage and facilitate such activities.
• provide seed funding for collaborative research, seminars, and other bridging activities
• provide funds for postdoctoral and interdisciplinary graduate programs that cross groups/departments
• encourage faculty and staff leadership and provide appropriate recognition
• use visitor funds strategically to encourage new research initiatives
• leverage university funding whenever possible to foster cross-disciplinary activities (e.g., Dean of Research funds, Institute for the Environment funds)
• engage industry in new and innovative partnerships

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