May 2008 Issue
Leader in Geoscience Community Becomes APEGGA President
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BUSY HANDS |
BY GEORGE LEE
The PEGG
One of Canada’s most effective and respected voices in geoscience professionalism is APEGGA’s 89th President. Dr. Gordon Williams, P.Geol., who helped found the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists over a decade ago, officially took office as APEGGA’s elected leader at the Annual General Meeting, April 19 in Edmonton.
His presidency comes during International Year of Planet Earth, a worldwide celebration with a strong geoscience flavour. It also coincides with a renewed APEGGA push to increase the licensure rate of Alberta geologists and geophysicists.
Dr. Williams, the 10th geoscientist to hold the presidency in the Association’s history, said he is “honoured and humbled” by his election. His year on the Executive Committee as President-Elect was a successful one, he said, due to an effective Council and strong leadership, elected and otherwise.
The Executive Director’s office, directors and other staff “make things happen and they make it seem effortless,” Dr. Williams said. “I look forward to another successful year.”
Outgoing President John McLeod, P.Eng., congratulated Dr. Williams while passing him a symbolic gavel. “The Association is in good hands,” said Mr. McLeod.
Dr. Williams is currently a consultant in Calgary. His career has led him through the halls of academia and into the field, as a teacher, a researcher and an industry geologist. Well versed though he is in technical and educational areas, his national profile comes out of his work for the geoscience professions themselves. In fact in 2006 the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists awarded him its first-ever Canadian Professional Geoscientist Award.
Dr. Williams was a key member of a national group that saw the formation of the CCPG. He’s served two terms leading the CCPG — from 1997 to 1999 as founding chair, and then again in 2003-2004.
APEGGA recognized his contribution to the professions in 1997 with the L.C. Charlesworth Professional Service Award, one of the Association’s Summit Awards. His effect and service have, in fact, crossed into the three professions generally, through his service to APEGGA and Engineers Canada.
An APEGGA member since 1969, he has served on Council for two terms and has twice been second vice-president. He served 10 years on the Board of Examiners, six on the Practice Review Board and four on the Discipline Committee.
He’s served on an APEGGA task force on future roles for the Association, on an Engineers Canada task force on geoscientists, and on a liaison committee of three groups — APEGGA, the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists. He’s a former president of the CSPG and of the Edmonton Geological Society.
Dr. Williams received his PhD from the University of Alberta in 1960 — the first such degree granted in geology by the university. The next year, he began teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in geology at the U of A and served as chair of the Department of Geology. Then in 1990, he was appointed dean of science and technology at Mount Royal College.
Dr. Williams has taught and conducted research at the University of Queensland in Australia. He helped found the National Conference on Earth Science, which he chaired for 18 years, and has always staunchly supported continuing education.
He’s worked as a district geologist for Suncor and also operated his own consulting practice, which he resumed in the mid-1990s.
Elected members joining Dr. Williams and Past-President John McLeod, P.Eng., on the new Executive Committee are President-Elect Jim Beckett, P.Eng., and Vice-President Jim Smith, P.Eng.