 He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1998.His thesis on subaqueous soils earned two awards USDA - Secretary’s Honor Award for Scientific Research, and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) - The Emil Truog Award for outstanding contribution to Soil Science.George Demas worked as a soil surveyor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in the states of Maryland and New Jersey from 1982 to 1994.