Early career In the summer of 1913, Chaney was hired as a cook by the
U.S. Geological Survey and spent the summer months in the
Matanuska Valley of
Alaska. He was part of a team that was doing a topographic survey of the region. It was here where Chaney saw his first fossilized tree. In 1914, he decided to take a job as head of the Science Department at the
Frances W. Parker School in Chicago. He remained there until 1917, when he left to teach geology at the
University of Iowa. He advanced from instructor to assistant professor before returning to the University of Chicago to resume his education. In 1919, Chaney earned his doctorate degree in geology. In 1920, Chaney was appointed Research Associate of the
Carnegie Institution. He continued teaching at Iowa until 1922.
University of California Following an invitation from
John Campbell Merriam, Chaney took a position at the
University of California, Berkeley while still continuing to do research for the Carnegie Institution. In 1925, he joined
Roy Chapman Andrews' third Central Asiatic Expedition in
Mongolia. Chaney joined as the expedition's paleobotanist under the recommendation of
William Diller Matthew. He continued alone into
Manchuria to collect additional specimens. In 1931, Chaney was appointed professor of paleobotany and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of California, as well as curator of paleobotany at the
Museum of Paleontology. He spent 1933 at the cave site of
Zhoukoudian in the search for specimens of the "
Peking Man" under the direction of
Davidson Black. In 1937, Chaney worked for the
China Geological Survey collecting
Shanwang National Geological Park flora from the
Miocene. In 1939, he served as president of the
Paleontological Society of America Following the breakout of
World War II, Chaney contributed to the establishment of the Campus Catastrophe Relief Organization, a precursor to the
Civil Defence Corps. He also volunteered as an aid in the
Selective Service System by serving as Chairman of the University Area Draft Board. He had an important role in determining who was required at the university, and who could be drafted. In 1944, Chaney was appointed as assistant director of the
Radiation Laboratory, which was undergoing research for the
Manhattan Project. Chaney returned to China in 1948 for the last time to study
Metasequoia. Chaney sought out the region so that he could see if these trees were in fact
living fossils. He confirmed that the middle
Tertiary "Sequoia" fossils he'd been studying were actually the extant
Metasequoia. He returned with seeds from the species, which were distributed worldwide to botanical gardens. Chaney retired from the University of California in 1957, but remained with the institution. He was working with the
Geological Survey of Japan and as a visiting professor with the
National Taiwan University after his retirement, interested Tertiary floras of Japan and
Taiwan. ==Awards and honors==