The Motley View: On Geonudity and Some Benefits of Your
GeoEngineering Graduate Education
GeoEngineering Graduate Education
The Motley View: On Geonudity and Some Benefits of Your GeoEngineering
Graduate Education
by Dr. Edmund Medley, PE, CEG (MS 1991, PhD, 1994)
About the time that this issue of the Motley View will be published, the 2008 class of UC Berkeley
GeoEngineers will be finishing the Spring Term, soon to graduate. They will work through the night to
complete the CE270L report for Prof. Seed, attend the Distinguished Lectures, party at the Banquet,
listen to the speeches, and then get a Rock.
Having been there, done that, I warmly congratulate this year’s GeoEngineering Graduates on
completing their grueling adventures. But having got this far, what have you learned? What are the
benefits you won from the considerable cost of spending between 1 and 5 years or so in the
GeoEnginering Graduate program? What prompted you to put up with the pain anyway?
Let me tell my story before you tell me yours…
In 1989 I came to San Francisco from Hawaii for a short visit as the site project engineer for the largest
earthwork project underway in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had planned on being here for a few weeks,
long enough to train the technicians and staff engineers in earthwork observation. But my plans were
soon upset when initial excavations revealed a horrible rock composed of sheared shale with embedded
strong blocks of rock – a Franciscan Complex melange. I had never even heard of melange, let alone
worked with anything so complex. Life was also complicated by the local City’s Technical Reviewers, a
gang of guys mostly armed with PhDs in Geotechnical Engineering from Berkeley, led by a world-famous
Geotechnical Engineer. The project was a very difficult one and rather than return to Hawaii, I stayed on
for about a year to battle with the gang over issues that often revolved around the horrible melange. I
gradually started to feel ignorant. For the first time in a dozen years my excellent Bachelor’s education in
Geological Engineering seemed insufficient. So I applied to Berkeley, was accepted to the MS
Geotechnical Engineering program, and started studies in August 1990.
The first semester was challenging indeed. I was 42 – I had been told by a Berkeley Professor that I was
too old to be a graduate student – and my class mates seemed much younger and much cleverer than I.
I was awed by the knowledgeable, kind older professors, less impressed with the nasty green paper
problem sets I had to struggle with. Most upsetting was that some of the stuff I thought I knew about
Geotechnical Engineering, and learned on the job in the dozen years since, seemed to be wrong. I was
gradually being stripped of my geotechnical confidence; by the end of my MS program I would be naked,
a geonude, and not in a fit condition to return to geotechnical consulting.
The only solution for my ignorance seemed to be to learn more, to cram in more education; which is why I
continued on to study for my doctorate. Then along came Dick Goodman asking me to join Eric Lindquist
in a program focused on fundamental and applied research into the characterization and engineering
properties of that same horrible melange that had prompted me to enter school in the first place. Cosmic,
right?? (And if you are interested in how we did, you can read Dr. Lindquist’s and my dissertations at:
http://bimrocks.geoengineer.org/dissertations.html).
It all turned out OK in the end -after the pain and struggles of mid-life schooling I won a couple more
diplomas and some more letters after my name. But what other benefits did we win from our
GeoEngineering degrees?
Well, that question brings me to the Motley View on the benefits of a geoengineering graduate education:
Realizing it is OK to be ignorant - as long as you know you are. By the time I finally finished my PhD, I
felt even more ignorant than when I had started my studies four years earlier. But, the benefit was that I
knew I was ignorant and I also knew how to repair the gaps in my understanding. Not all geoengineers
learn this: I sometimes tell people that the most dangerous people I know are recent graduates from
excellent GeoEngineering programs. They are dangerous because after surviving the tough graduate
programs at world famous schools (often highly ranked by popular surveys), they unlearned much of their
undergraduate soils education, and replaced that basic knowledge with the Truth. “We are now
educated geotechnical engineers!” they say. Well: they are not. It takes many more years of practical
experience before the wise graduate realizes how much more there is to learn.
Understanding that the “Geo” in “Geotechnical Engineering” comes from “Geology”. Graduates from
the Berkeley GeoEngineering should count themselves fortunate that they are exposed to the little
geology that they are taught. It is nowhere near enough, of course, but at least they truthfully can say “I
have picked up enough geology to get by.” And of course, because they know they are ignorant, they
also know that that smidgen is still not enough.
Learning that teamwork beats solitary completion. As a Teaching Assistant for a number of
undergraduate courses, I was frequently shocked at the competitiveness and uncooperative selfishness
of many 4.0 GPA Berkeley Civil Engineering undergraduate students. I have hired more than 30 people,
and interviewed more than a 100, and I regard arrogance and competiveness as the least attractive
qualities of budding engineers. However, I also have met many graduate geoengineers who seem to
have benefited by teamwork with their class mates. Cooperation will be of great benefit in your careers,
and hopefully you learned that spirit during your graduate geoengineering studies.
Improving your field observation/visualization/analytical skills. Engineering Geology field trips, visits
to Hamilton Air Force base, and Lectures from outside consultants provide some taste of the reality of
consulting GeoEngineering. In my case, although I hated the green paper Problem Sets, I did learn to
analyze problems in a clearer fashion than I had before I started my studies. I also found that the
necessity for visualizing helped me get through the long 4 year slog. I visualized, and actually practiced,
walking down the corridor of the Graduate Division offices in Sproul Hall with a box containing my
dissertation manuscript. (The actual event -shared with my wife-was ultimately an anticlimax, but the
experience was nevertheless memorable because we went to buy a Berkeley Bear tie afterwards, and
then went to Tilden Park where I went to sleep, exhausted, beside a duck pond.)
Recognizing you are part of a special network. For you who are now graduating, you should cherish
your small network of classmates. You have all shared a difficult and challenging experience; one that will
make you connected for the rest of your professional careers. Indeed, it is because of the value of our
shared experiences as Berkeley GeoEngineering graduates that prompts the Steering Committee to
publish the Berkeley GeoEngineering Alumni Association Newsletter. (And if you don’t know yet how
valuable a network of contacts can be, read the Motley View on the vitality of good contacts:
http://www.geoengineer.org/berkeley/newsletter/2/montley.html).
Please let us know how you benefitted from your GeoEngineering graduate education. We want to read
your stories!!
Regards
Ed Medley
Notes: Why is this column called the Motley View?
See: http://www.geoengineer.org/berkeley/newsletter/1/TheMotleyView.pdf
Dr. Ed Medley is a Senior Consultant in the Oakland, California office of Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. The
opinions he expresses above are not those of Geosyntec Consultants and its staff.
Ed Medley has more than 30 years experience as a geological engineer. He specializes in the investigation of
geo-failures and the geotechnical and geological characterization of bimrocks (block-in-matrix rocks) such as
fault rocks, weathered rocks and melanges (http://bimrocks.geoengineer.org).
Contact him at emedley@geosyntec.com.
Graduate Education
by Dr. Edmund Medley, PE, CEG (MS 1991, PhD, 1994)
About the time that this issue of the Motley View will be published, the 2008 class of UC Berkeley
GeoEngineers will be finishing the Spring Term, soon to graduate. They will work through the night to
complete the CE270L report for Prof. Seed, attend the Distinguished Lectures, party at the Banquet,
listen to the speeches, and then get a Rock.
Having been there, done that, I warmly congratulate this year’s GeoEngineering Graduates on
completing their grueling adventures. But having got this far, what have you learned? What are the
benefits you won from the considerable cost of spending between 1 and 5 years or so in the
GeoEnginering Graduate program? What prompted you to put up with the pain anyway?
Let me tell my story before you tell me yours…
In 1989 I came to San Francisco from Hawaii for a short visit as the site project engineer for the largest
earthwork project underway in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had planned on being here for a few weeks,
long enough to train the technicians and staff engineers in earthwork observation. But my plans were
soon upset when initial excavations revealed a horrible rock composed of sheared shale with embedded
strong blocks of rock – a Franciscan Complex melange. I had never even heard of melange, let alone
worked with anything so complex. Life was also complicated by the local City’s Technical Reviewers, a
gang of guys mostly armed with PhDs in Geotechnical Engineering from Berkeley, led by a world-famous
Geotechnical Engineer. The project was a very difficult one and rather than return to Hawaii, I stayed on
for about a year to battle with the gang over issues that often revolved around the horrible melange. I
gradually started to feel ignorant. For the first time in a dozen years my excellent Bachelor’s education in
Geological Engineering seemed insufficient. So I applied to Berkeley, was accepted to the MS
Geotechnical Engineering program, and started studies in August 1990.
The first semester was challenging indeed. I was 42 – I had been told by a Berkeley Professor that I was
too old to be a graduate student – and my class mates seemed much younger and much cleverer than I.
I was awed by the knowledgeable, kind older professors, less impressed with the nasty green paper
problem sets I had to struggle with. Most upsetting was that some of the stuff I thought I knew about
Geotechnical Engineering, and learned on the job in the dozen years since, seemed to be wrong. I was
gradually being stripped of my geotechnical confidence; by the end of my MS program I would be naked,
a geonude, and not in a fit condition to return to geotechnical consulting.
The only solution for my ignorance seemed to be to learn more, to cram in more education; which is why I
continued on to study for my doctorate. Then along came Dick Goodman asking me to join Eric Lindquist
in a program focused on fundamental and applied research into the characterization and engineering
properties of that same horrible melange that had prompted me to enter school in the first place. Cosmic,
right?? (And if you are interested in how we did, you can read Dr. Lindquist’s and my dissertations at:
http://bimrocks.geoengineer.org/dissertations.html).
It all turned out OK in the end -after the pain and struggles of mid-life schooling I won a couple more
diplomas and some more letters after my name. But what other benefits did we win from our
GeoEngineering degrees?
Well, that question brings me to the Motley View on the benefits of a geoengineering graduate education:
Realizing it is OK to be ignorant - as long as you know you are. By the time I finally finished my PhD, I
felt even more ignorant than when I had started my studies four years earlier. But, the benefit was that I
knew I was ignorant and I also knew how to repair the gaps in my understanding. Not all geoengineers
learn this: I sometimes tell people that the most dangerous people I know are recent graduates from
excellent GeoEngineering programs. They are dangerous because after surviving the tough graduate
programs at world famous schools (often highly ranked by popular surveys), they unlearned much of their
undergraduate soils education, and replaced that basic knowledge with the Truth. “We are now
educated geotechnical engineers!” they say. Well: they are not. It takes many more years of practical
experience before the wise graduate realizes how much more there is to learn.
Understanding that the “Geo” in “Geotechnical Engineering” comes from “Geology”. Graduates from
the Berkeley GeoEngineering should count themselves fortunate that they are exposed to the little
geology that they are taught. It is nowhere near enough, of course, but at least they truthfully can say “I
have picked up enough geology to get by.” And of course, because they know they are ignorant, they
also know that that smidgen is still not enough.
Learning that teamwork beats solitary completion. As a Teaching Assistant for a number of
undergraduate courses, I was frequently shocked at the competitiveness and uncooperative selfishness
of many 4.0 GPA Berkeley Civil Engineering undergraduate students. I have hired more than 30 people,
and interviewed more than a 100, and I regard arrogance and competiveness as the least attractive
qualities of budding engineers. However, I also have met many graduate geoengineers who seem to
have benefited by teamwork with their class mates. Cooperation will be of great benefit in your careers,
and hopefully you learned that spirit during your graduate geoengineering studies.
Improving your field observation/visualization/analytical skills. Engineering Geology field trips, visits
to Hamilton Air Force base, and Lectures from outside consultants provide some taste of the reality of
consulting GeoEngineering. In my case, although I hated the green paper Problem Sets, I did learn to
analyze problems in a clearer fashion than I had before I started my studies. I also found that the
necessity for visualizing helped me get through the long 4 year slog. I visualized, and actually practiced,
walking down the corridor of the Graduate Division offices in Sproul Hall with a box containing my
dissertation manuscript. (The actual event -shared with my wife-was ultimately an anticlimax, but the
experience was nevertheless memorable because we went to buy a Berkeley Bear tie afterwards, and
then went to Tilden Park where I went to sleep, exhausted, beside a duck pond.)
Recognizing you are part of a special network. For you who are now graduating, you should cherish
your small network of classmates. You have all shared a difficult and challenging experience; one that will
make you connected for the rest of your professional careers. Indeed, it is because of the value of our
shared experiences as Berkeley GeoEngineering graduates that prompts the Steering Committee to
publish the Berkeley GeoEngineering Alumni Association Newsletter. (And if you don’t know yet how
valuable a network of contacts can be, read the Motley View on the vitality of good contacts:
http://www.geoengineer.org/berkeley/newsletter/2/montley.html).
Please let us know how you benefitted from your GeoEngineering graduate education. We want to read
your stories!!
Regards
Ed Medley
Notes: Why is this column called the Motley View?
See: http://www.geoengineer.org/berkeley/newsletter/1/TheMotleyView.pdf
Dr. Ed Medley is a Senior Consultant in the Oakland, California office of Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. The
opinions he expresses above are not those of Geosyntec Consultants and its staff.
Ed Medley has more than 30 years experience as a geological engineer. He specializes in the investigation of
geo-failures and the geotechnical and geological characterization of bimrocks (block-in-matrix rocks) such as
fault rocks, weathered rocks and melanges (http://bimrocks.geoengineer.org).
Contact him at emedley@geosyntec.com.
| “I’m OK, I know what I am doing. I picked up enough geology to get by…” (Lava flow, Kipahulu, Hawaii 1987; photo by A. Klein) |