Over the years the department has been blessed with annual support from the V.H. McNutt trust fund. Support from this fund has been designated for undergraduate assistance and equipment only. As a result, the department is very well equipped and the department has been able to offer excellent scholarships to well qualified incoming students. As a further result, the department has a remarkable core of truly excellent students, with over 45 percent commonly being placed on the honor roll. In addition, our graduate students commonly receive awards of both state and national significance.
Student organizations conduct a rock and mineral auction at least once per year, sometimes twice.
The auction attracts rock, fossil and mineral collectors and dealers from all over Missouri. As a result of this auction, the student organizations are quite well heeled, and they regularly conduct field and canoe trips throughout the Ozarks and occasionally well beyond the Ozarks. Economic geology, ore microscopy, process mineralogy, fluid inclusions. Acquisition, processing, and interpretation of conventional and high-resolution seismic data. Geochemistry, trace elements, pollution and environmental studies, aqueous geochemistry.