McCord Endowed Chair in Geology and Geophysics

About the role

The Department of Geology and Geophysics at LSU seeks an internationally renowned scholar to fill the Charles T. McCord Chair in Geology as a Full Professor or senior Associate Professor. The position is fully endowed with dedicated annual research funding and focuses on critical minerals, energy transition, and related subsurface systems.

Key responsibilities

• Represent the field within the department and externally, expanding research collaborations and maintaining a world‑class, externally funded research program.
• Teach undergraduate and graduate courses in geology and geophysics and mentor students at all levels.
• Contribute to departmental, college, and university service appropriate to an endowed chair.

Required profile

• PhD in Geoscience or a closely related field with a distinguished record of high‑impact research and consistent external funding.
• National or international recognition for research in critical minerals, mineral resources, or related subsurface systems.
• Demonstrated success in graduate mentoring, interdisciplinary team leadership, and securing external research support.

Required skills

• Expertise in mineral resources, genesis, distribution, and characterization.
• Experience with subsurface energy, hydrothermal, and fluid‑mineral interaction studies in Earth and planetary settings.
• Ability to develop collaborative scientific research programs and secure sustained external funding.

What we offer

• Fully endowed chair with dedicated annual research funding.
• Access to state‑of‑the‑art analytical facilities including electron microprobe, SEM‑EDS/EBSD, XRD, LA‑ICP‑MS, Raman, XPS, TEM/STEM, micro‑CT, clean‑lab geochemistry, synchrotron, and high‑performance computing.
• Collaboration opportunities across critical minerals, energy, engineering, chemistry, physics, environmental science, and the LSU Energy Institute.