GCG’s Senior Consultant Dr Jackie Skipper receives the prestigious William Smith Medal

GCG’s Senior Consultant Dr Jackie Skipper today gratefully accepted the prestigious William Smith Medal at the Geological Society of London’s highlight of the year, President’s Day, at Burlington House, Piccadilly London.

The medal, one of the four highest accolades that the Geological Society awards, is awarded for “Excellence in applied and economic geoscience” and is named after William Smith (1769 to 1839) – arguably the Father of Applied Geology.

Jackie’s acceptance speech began by acknowledging Smith, a personal hero of hers, before expressing gratitude to the Society and the organisers of the day. She went on to say: “I’m very grateful to my nominators, the Engineering Group of the Geological Society and also for all their support over the years.”

“As regards my supporters they are many and numerous, I’ll be coming to thank you personally if I haven’t already.”

“Firstly, I’m grateful to my parents, who uprooted me from London in my teens and planted me in Cornwall, where landscape, geology and sedimentary processes are unavoidable, and which had an early effect on me, especially my appreciation of how ground risks can hurt!”

“Secondly, my thanks go to my friends who supported me through my PhD. As many in the audience will remember, the process is essentially a trial of your self-esteem, and I needed all the support through that time.”

“I need to mention Mike Black, formerly of Crossrail, who suggested, when I finished my PhD that I hadn’t actually made myself unemployable, and maybe I should start teaching engineers about the geology of London?”

“Finally, I want to thank all the friends and colleagues, especially at the Geotechnical Consulting Group, who supported my apparently radical idea – that training all kinds of people in Civil Engineering projects about the geology beneath them helps cross-project communication, identification of ground risks and achieving best value design.”