Event type:
Evening meeting, Lecture
Organised by:
West Midlands Regional Group
Venue:
Haworth Building, Large Lecture Theatre (Room 101). University of Birmingham
Event status:
EVENT CLOSED
Abstract:
Engineering geology has a long and rich heritage and the United Kingdom has been in the vanguard of the development of the subject as a distinct discipline with the first book on the subject being published in London in 1880.
Since then engineering geology has been applied to projects around the globe and engineering geologists have become core members of planning, investigation, design and construction teams in the civil engineering and mining industries. However, in the past few decades we have seen numerical analyses increasingly being accepted as the answer to all geotechnical design questions; although as engineering geologists we are used to dealing with natural materials and processes and recognise that their inherent variability cannot always be reduced to a simple numerical value.
How do we ensure that any proposed construction works in civil engineering or mining take full account of this variability and the uncertainties that result? To enable engineering geologists to understand and describe these uncertainties are there fundamental skills that define an engineering geologist and, if so, how can these skills be taught or acquired? Also, in a world dominated by readily accessible data that can be downloaded and analysed for so many planned development sites how important are the field techniques of observation and mapping that an older generation of engineering geologists, including the author, considered their defining skill?
Concentrating on the role of engineering geology in relation to civil engineering these are amongst the questions explored in this paper leading to observations as to how the profession might develop in the future in order to meet the needs of society.
Meeting Details:
- Tea, Coffee and Sandwiches available from 18:00 in Shell Lounge, next door to Howarth Building (in Civil & Mechanical Engineering).
- Talk to commence at 19:00 prompt
About the Speaker:
After 14½ years in industry, Jim joined Plymouth University as a lecturer in engineering geology in September 1993. He was promoted to Head of the Department of Geology 1995-2001; Head of the School of Earth, Ocean & Environmental Sciences 2006-9; Head of the School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences 2009-2013; and was appointed Dean of Research & Innovation in May 2013. Jim was awarded his professorship in 2005. Despite spending 14 of his 20 years in academia as a manager he has continually taught specialist final year undergraduate modules in engineering/applied geology and terrain evaluation for engineering practice.
To be followed by Photo Competition Awards 2014