In this chapter:
(1) “Board” means the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists.
(2) “Certified geoscientist” means a geoscientist who has been certified in a discipline of geoscience by a professional organization, society, or association that maintains a certification program.
(3) “Geoscience” means the science of the earth and its origin and history, the investigation of the earth’s environment and its constituent soils, rocks, minerals, fossil fuels, solids, and fluids, and the study of the natural and introduced agents, forces, and processes that cause changes in and on the earth.
(3-a) “Geoscience firm” means a firm, corporation, or other business entity as defined by the board and registered by the board to engage in the public practice of geoscience.
(4) “Geoscientist” means a person qualified to engage in the public practice of geoscience because of the person’s knowledge, acquired through education and practical experience, of geoscience, mathematics, and the supporting physical, chemical, mineralogical, morphological, and life sciences.
(4-a) “Geoscientist in training” means a person registered by the board on the basis of education and who meets other requirements established by the board but who is not fully qualified to become a licensed geoscientist under this chapter.
(5) “Licensed geoscientist” or “professional geoscientist” means a person who holds a license issued by the board under this chapter.
(6) “Practice for the public”:
(A) means providing professional geoscientific services:
(i) for a governmental entity in this state;
(ii) to comply with a rule established by this state or a political subdivision of this state; or
(iii) for the public or a firm or corporation in this state if the practitioner assumes the ultimate liability for the work product; and
(B) does not include services provided for the express use of a firm or corporation by an employee or consultant if the firm or corporation assumes the ultimate liability for the work product.
(7) “Public practice of geoscience” means the practice for the public of geoscientific services or work, including consulting, investigating, evaluating, analyzing, planning, mapping, and inspecting geoscientific work and the responsible supervision of those tasks.
(8) “Responsible charge” means the independent control and direction of geoscientific work or the supervision of geoscientific work by the use of initiative, skill, and independent judgment.