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We Don't Get No Respect / Perceptions Of Engineering And Environmental Geophysics
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 3rd EEGS Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, Mar 1990, cp-212-00023
Abstract
The lament in the title is familiar to every geophysicist in this audience. For at least the last<br>twenty-five years that I have been in the business, geophysicists in every industry except oil have been<br>complaining that our clients neither understand what we do nor appreciate what we have to offer. For the<br>most part we have blamed everyone but ourselves:<br>Geologists call us “geomagicians”; they don’t comprehend our technology.<br>Engineers want answers with too many significant figures; they don’t understand the uncertainties<br>in our measurements. Environmental geoscientists won’t listen; they need to learn how we can help them.<br>Mining engineers don’t trust us. Clients never want to pay what it takes for good results; they don’t appreciate the complexities of<br>our business. Regulators have unrealistic qualitycontrol expectations; they don’t realize that every project is<br>inherently research. Politicians want to register us. Charlatans give us a bad name. SAGEEP was one of the first serious attempts to admit that we have a responsibility to<br>communicate with and sell ourselves to industries such as mining, groundwater, civil/geotechnlcal<br>engineering, and environmental management. The attendance at these symposia and the national<br>recognition they’ve received are testimony to the insight, hard work and success of a small group of<br>geophysicists who conceived and organized SAGEEP. Now it is time to recognize that all of us have a<br>responsibility to build on their beginning.