Sunday, October 12, 2014

California, GRAC Annual Meeting, Vancouver and GSA...Here We Go!

So, this is going to be a busy couple of weeks for me. Tuesday morning I begin my first big trip touring as President of AEG, though I'm fitting in quite a bit of stuff related to my day job at AMEC as well.

On Tuesday I fly out to Oakland, CA. I'll be stopping in at the AMEC office in Oakland for a bit and then I'll take BART over to San Francisco. I have a meeting at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco about 2018 AEG-IAEG Annual Meeting/Conference. I'm told it's a great space for the meeting and I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Tuesday evening I'm presenting to the SF AEG Section. I'll cover a bit of AEG business, then move on to a technical talk - they chose "Someone is Paying Me to do This! The Geologic, Geohazard, and Geotechnical Field Investigation for the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge." I'm really looking forward to meeting with the SF Section.

On Wednesday morning I drive out to Sacramento for the Groundwater Resources Association of California (GRAC) Annual Conference. I'm presenting a poster titled "The Development of Guidelines and Procedures for Land Subsidence Investigations: An Arizona Perspective". On Thursday evening after the conference I'm meeting up with the AEG Sacramento Section for happy hour drinks at the River City Brewing Company. That should be a great time.

Friday morning I fly up to Vancouver, BC for the Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Conference. My schedule is way too packed to try and put it up in this post, but I'll be doing a lot of meeting for affiliated societies of GSA and the American Geosciences Institute (GSI). I'm also participating in the mentor program and presenting a talk on "Utilizing InSAR for Geotechnical Asset Management of Landslides in Colorado". Somewhere in between the meetings, my presentation, being a mentor, and visiting the AMEC office Burnaby, I will be manning the AEG booth, so come on by and chat if you can.

Anyway, if you're going to be at any of the events mentioned above, come introduce yourself to me and we can chat. As busy as I'll be during that time, I'll definitively have a need to quench a thirst. I also hope to blog and tweet throughout.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Presidential Presentations

One of the more enjoyable things I get to as President of AEG is travel around to some of our regional Sections, present to and interact with local meetings. I've repeatedly been told by Past Presidents that this is the most 'fun' part of the job and it's one I'm looking forward to a lot. 

My Section visits begin next week with a visit to the San Francisco Section on Tuesday, Oct. 14th (details available at this link), where I'll be talking about my involvement with the geo-investigation for the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge (in addition to general AEG business). On Thursday evening, Oct. 16th, I'll be joining the Sacramento Section for drinks at a brewery in downtown Sacramento (details in image).


Generally, as President I will be giving a technical talk plus some general discussion of AEG business. I have 4 technical talks plus 1 general applied geology talk that it appropriate for students and the general public (titles are below).


  1. Someone is Paying Me to do This! The Geologic, Geohazard, and Geotechnical Field Investigation for the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge
  2. Seismic Refraction as a Tool for Geotechnical, Geologic, and Geohazard Investigations
  3. Characterization, Rehabilitation, and Monitoring of a Subsidence-Impacted Dam: A Case Study at Powerline FRS, Arizona
  4. Application of Satellite-Based Interferometry (InSAR) to Geologic and Geotechnical Investigations
  5. Between a Rock and Geologic Disaster. Working as an Applied Geologist

Below the cut I have added the text for the full abstracts.