Aug
8
Demand for Hydrogeologists and Some Reflections
August 8, 2008 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Friend and colleague Todd Jarvis sent me the link to an article about demand for hydrogeologists. A number of friends and colleagues are quoted: Roy Haggerty, John Wilson, Dan Stephens.
The term “recession-proof” is interesting. I remember when the bottom fell out of the ground water contamination/remediation industry in the 1990s. Lots of hydrogeologists and engineers found themselves going from six-figure salaries to the unemployment line. Professional societies focusing on ground water and/or environmental contamination saw their memberships tank. Some societies have not recovered.
The emphasis on multidisciplinary education and environmental perspectives is a very good trend that I wholeheartedly applaud. But Dan Stephens’ comments are noteworthy.
The broadening of academic research has filtered down to the training of M.S. students. Some graduate programs, such as New Mexico Tech’s and the double-M.S. program at the University of Wisconsin, now require interdisciplinary courses in topics such as surface water, ecology, and economics. Some hydrologic consulting companies, however, complain that versatility isn’t what they need. “We’re having difficulty finding traditional hydrogeologists,” says Daniel Stephens, founder and head of a 110-employee environmental consulting company with offices in New Mexico, Texas, and California. “The people we’re seeing are fewer in number, and their qualifications are thinner.” Instead of giving students a smorgasbord of skills, Stephens says, universities should equip them to start work on real projects.
I think working on “real projects” should include multidisciplinary projects.
For many, it boils down to this: do you want a hydrogeologist who also knows some sociology, environmental science, economics, law, etc., or do you want someone who may be short on the “other” disciplines, but knows aquifer tests, modeling, contaminant transport, etc. like the back of her hand? It’s the old “jack-of-all-trades and master of none vs. narrow specialist” never-ending argument (“it depends”).
Here is what John Wilson, a former colleague of Dan’s at New Mexico Tech, says:
But Wilson, whose department at New Mexico Tech embraced the multidisciplinary approach a decade ago, says his students are well-prepared to learn anything they need to know. “At some point, the employer is responsible for training students in the details of the jobs,” he says. Oil companies, he notes, are happy to recruit promising hydrogeologists and train them in petroleum exploration.
John’s got a good point.
Some of my “stream-of-consciousness” observations on hydrogeology after over 35 years in the water business, in no particular order:
- When I was in graduate school in the early 1970s, the emphasis was on water supply.
- In the 1970s the hydrogeological emphasis started shifting away from supply to contamination, remediation, etc.
- The “crash” in the 1990s schooled us in the real meaning of “recession-proof”.
- Environmental considerations have become more important (a good thing).
- Water supply is back on the front burner these days (yeah!).
- Bill Guyton, well-known ground water consultant, telling me and my fellow students in John Harshbarger’s ground water resource evaluation class (1972) at the University of Arizona than the quality he valued most in a new hire was “integrity”. We were all blown away; we had guessed wrong: geology, physics, computers, etc. I’ll never forget that comment. It still holds today.
- The degree of consolidation in the ground water industry has been substantial. A lot of the firms that were well-known (e.g., Dames and Moore, Woodward-Clyde, ) when I got out of school have long since been relegated to the dust bin of corporate history.
- The importance of hydrogeology is well-understood today. I remember trying to explain to a U.S. government scientist in the late 1970s why hydrogeology is important in geothermal exploration and development (I was successful, if getting a DOE grant is any indication). I also remember explaining to many what a hydrogeologist did (“So are you an engineer?”).
- Too many people have been taught that computer modeling = hydrogeology.
- The multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary education (including communication skills) of hydrogeologists is a very good idea, as is the inclusion of hydrogeologists on a variety of MD/ID teams.
- Undergraduate geological engineers, in general, make the best graduate students in hydrogeology; they know the geology and the math/engineering.
- For subsurface fate and tranpsort, those with chemical engineering training are great because they know the flow through porous media and chemistry (but they need the geology).
- Don’t forget to teach the fundamentals.
- Reservoir engineers, especially those in the hydrocarbon industry, really know their flow through porous media and subsurface flow modeling.
- I would do it all over again (I could have been an unemployed oceanographer).
- There is an increasingly strong ethic in the hydrogeological (and in general, the entire water resources) community to better the lives of the less fortunate through water and sanitation. I see this among the young and old. I think this a wonderful trend.
The last bullet is the one I am most enthused about.
I’ll conclude with two of my favorite quotes involving hydrogeology.
“It’s amazing that someone can build an entire discipline out of studying the movement of water through rock.” — A famous astrophysicist, said disparagingly to a young hydrogeologist, who had just won a prestigious scientific award from a professional society.
“My God, that’s so primitive!” -- one oil-company reservoir engineer to another, listening to one of the world’s foremost hydrogeologists describe his latest fracture-flow model (overheard in 1985 at a scientific meeting)
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