About

William R. Brice, Ph.D. – Professor Emeritus of Geology and Planetary Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with degrees from the University of Florida, University of Tasmania (Australia), and Cornell University (Ithaca, New York). For many years he was a member of the summer faculty at Cornell University and he has served as a visiting scholar at universities in Tasmania and Brazil. In the Fall of 2005, he was a faculty member on the Semester-at-Sea 100-day voyage around the world.

He is the recipient of several academic and professional awards and has published or presented over 100 articles and papers on a wide range of topics including mineral geochemistry, geoscience education, biographical studies, history of geology, and the history of the oil industry. He is the author of “Cornell Geology Through the Years”, and “Gilbert Dennison Harris – A Life with Fossils”. His book, “Myth, Legend, Reality; Edwin Laurentine Drake and the Early Oil Industry” (2009) received two awards for oil history excellence; The John A Mather Award (Friends of Drake Well) and The Yellow Dog Award (Parkersburg Oil & Gas Museum). He was the founding president of the Petroleum History Institute and former editor of PHI’s “Oil-Industry History.” He has appeared on PA-Books, a program of the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN). In September 2013 he was an invited speaker at the 2nd BraNobel Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.  In 2018 the History and Philosophy of Geology Division/Geological Society of America awarded Dr. Brice the Mary C. Rabbitt Award for the History of Geology in recognition of his contribution to that field.  From 2016-2020 he served as Editor for the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO), a Commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences. 

Lecturer – History of Petroleum/US and World

  • Geology – Physical and Historical/Fossils
  • Astronomy
  • Oceanography
  • History of Geology
  • Biography, Early Geologists/Astronomers
  • Presentations given in Brazil, Australia, England, Azerbaijan, Sweden
  • MV Explorer – Semester at Sea

Author – Petroleum History

  • History of Geology/Astronomy
  • Biography – US and Brazil
  • Geochemistry
  • Earth Science Education
  • Editor Earth Science Journals

Professor – University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Geology & Planetary Science

  • Cornell University, Summer Faculty, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
  • Semester at Sea
  • Tasmanian College of Advanced Education/Australia