News

PCPGs Annual Meeting 

PCPGs Annual Meeting held on April 13, 2022 was a big success. Almost 100 attendees enjoyed a full day, in-person educational program of  environmental talks along with a geotechnical mitigation project and a very thought-provoking Ethics in Geoscience talk by professionals from various consultants, DEP and the U.S. EPA. All the talks were very engaging with great audience questions. More specifics on the individual talks will be highlighted in PCPGs upcoming newsletter. Five of PCPGs associate members, AWT Environmental Services Inc., Elk Environmental Services, Eurofins, Parratt Wolf, Inc., and Suburban Testing Labs also showcased their products and services throughout the day.

Directly after a delicious lunch, PCPG President, Tiffany Doerr, P.G. gave an update on PCPGs achievements in the last two years and highlighted plans for 2022 which include continuing programs for education, podcasts and student outreach. President Doerr’s 2022 PCPG Annual Meeting presentation is available as a free pdf download on PCPGs Recordings page. 

Over a dozen people won geologist themed door prizes such as rock ornaments and coasters, a rock hammer, a pair of binoculars and a copy of Russ Losco’s new book, The Traveler's Guide to the Geology of Costa Rica. A generous crowd stayed after the educational presentations to network at the Continental Drifter’s reception. It was nice to see so many old friends and meet new professionals in-person after last year’s virtual event. Pictures from the meeting can be found on PCPGs Facebook page.

Annual Meeting Student Session

PCPG held a student-only session on interview skills as part of the 2022 Annual Meeting events. During the 45-minute presentation to approximately 15 students, PCPG panelists David Crotsley, P.G., Jenny Kachel, P.G., Michele Cooney, P.G., and Vincent Carbone, P.G. rehearsed good and bad interview skills, answered student questions on interview techniques and discussed other soft skills necessary for job placement.

PGPG 2022 Student Poster Session 

Ten posters, illustrative of research performed and presented by undergraduates, were accepted into the student poster session and competition from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Kutztown and Shippensburg Universities. 

A team of six PCPG professional geologists, Emily Glick, P.G., Andrew Klingbeil, P.G., Gary Kribbs, P.G., Martin Helmke, PhD, P.G., Mark Ioos, P.G., and Rick Wardrop, P.G., judged the posters on various criteria including the research objectives, appearance (organization, illustrations, grammar), the logic of the research and the authors ability to explain the poster to the judges.

Congratulations to the first-place winner, Molly O’Halloran, from Bucknell University and to Noah Workman from Kutztown University, who won second-place. The high level of work was very evident in all the research projects and PCPG recognizes every student in the competition for their excellent submissions.  Pictures from the poster session  can be viewed on PCPGs Facebook page.

The students were also interviewed about their project and what they gained, if anything, from their research that they would not have gotten through classroom experience alone. The interviews are being edited and collated for an upcoming podcast.  Look for an announcement in PCPGs blast or set your podcast platform to send an alert when a new PCPG podcast drops.