Getting miners home safe at night

“I’ve always had a wide range of interests,” he says. “It’s a blessing and a curse.”

At 43, King is not your typical graduate student. He’s worked in oil fields and mines, taught high school science, flipped houses, run a rental business, and even planned a year-long move to Spain. Now, he’s a student in the first-ever cohort of a master’s program at the University of Utah focused on mining safety. The interdisciplinary program is a collaboration between the U’s Department of Mining Engineering at the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.

King’s path to mining safety was a circuitous one. After earning a geology degree from Weber State, he jumped into the industry, taking a job as a mine operations geologist with US Oil Sands. The company was trying to extract crude oil from Utah’s sandstone — an environmentally friendlier process than the Alberta tar sands operations — but like many before them, they struggled to make it profitable.

“They failed,” Geoffrey says matter-of-factly. “The price of oil wasn’t high enough, and the costs were too steep.”

Next came a six-month contract at the Kennecott Copper Mine, analyzing rock cores to predict slope stability — a crucial task in preventing catastrophic landslides. After that, a pivot: teaching high school earth sciences.

Then came Spain. Or at least, the idea of it. King and his wife had planned to move their family overseas for a year. She, ever the pragmatist, suggested he use the time to figure out what he wanted to do “when he grew up.” So, he did what everyone seems to do these days; he turned to ChatGPT.

“I asked it to give me five career ideas based on my background,” he recalls. “First one? Occupational and environmental safety and health.”

The more King looked into it, the more it made sense. He’d always been drawn to safety, having started his industrial career in the oil fields, where he’d seen firsthand the consequences of cutting corners. “I chopped off a big chunk of my finger,” he says. “And I’ve seen guys in the field with hooks for hands. Safety’s no joke.”

Spain, however, would have to wait. Advisors told him that if he wanted a career in occupational safety, the U.S. was the place to train — home to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the highest industry standards. So, he made a call to the U.

“I got lucky,” he admits. “Normally, I would’ve missed the application deadline by months. But this program had just launched. I interviewed, got accepted, and they offered to pay for the whole thing. At that point, I had to really consider it.”

Now, King is deep into coursework that surprised him with its emphasis on health science. “I thought I’d be learning mostly about safety — hard hats, harnesses, protocols,” he says. “Turns out, I’m taking classes with medical residents and postdocs, studying how toxic exposures affect the body.”

His studies will take him to South America this summer, where he’ll do an internship in Colombia. “I’ve got some Spanish,” he says, “but I want a lot more.” More importantly, he wants to bridge the gap between academia and the workers who need this knowledge the most.

“There’s this massive machine of occupational safety research happening in universities,” he says, “but I see a disconnect between that and the guy working next to an asphalt paver on the freeway. That’s who I want to help.”

Geoffrey King with his children.

King’s passion for connecting people to knowledge isn’t new. He credits his own education to his mother, who, despite severe financial struggles and mental health challenges, made sure he had exposure to science. “We were poor,” he says, “but she always brought us to the Utah Museum of Natural History [NHMU] on free Mondays. That’s what set me on this path.”

This excursion into graduate school at the U is not his first rodeo — or perhaps more appropriately, not his first hard rock lesson. In addition to his youthful visits to the NHMU in what is now the Crocker Science Center, he "went to preschool right here on 2nd South. Kindergarten just down the road. Our neighbor had alligators in their backyard,” he adds with a laugh. “I’ve known where Presidents Circle is for a long time.”

As for what’s next, King — who when he’s not “digging” into his pastimes of coaching basketball, hiking and traveling — keeps his options and one more circuitous route open. “I might go into consulting, or mining safety, or construction. Maybe I’ll start my own business.” He pauses, then grins. “That drives my wife nuts.”

Whatever he chooses, Geoffrey King knows one thing: he wants to make a real impact. “In this field, you can be the person making sure workers get home safe at night. That’s powerful.”

College of Science

Getting miners home safe at night

Characterized by relentless curiosity and beholden to the nature of life itself, Geoffrey King has always been a bit of a wanderer, opting for the scenic byway over the direct route.