3/9/23 AEG Event: Career Talk & Dinner Talk (Geoethics is at the Heart of Engineering Geoscience)

DINNER MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

Geoethics is at the Heart of Engineering Geoscience

Thursday, March 9, 2023

At the Clarion Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey

Vince Cronin, 2022-2023 Honorary Jahns Distinguished Lecturer

ABSTRACT
     Geoscientists are guided by a framework of professional ethics that underlies our decision making and behavior.  Our behavior, in turn, has broad impact on the environment and public health and welfare.  Therefore, geoscientists need to be informed participants when ethical standards are discussed in the workplace or when others are developing ethical standards that will apply to us.
     This talk will address the competing ethical responsibilities that Geoscientists face today. Our Guest Speaker, Dr. Vince Cronin, has been involved with the International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG) since its inception, and is associate editor of their peer-reviewed periodical, Journal of Geoethics and Social Geosciences.
     These quotes from Professor Cronin illustrate a few of the classic ethical issues that Geoscientists still grapple with today:

• “The public needs the unvarnished truth, not the truth shaded to fit a client’s interest.”

• “Geologists need to share information—-before hazards become disasters.”

•  “If Geologists do not act in the public’s interest, then the contributions of geologists will 
  no longer be sought or valued by society.”

     As scientists, we know that we must confront the difficult issues presented by geoethics, because it is so important that our contributions continue to be trusted and valued by society.

BIOGRAPHY
     Vincent Cronin is the 2022-2023 Jahns Distinguished Lecturer, crisscrossing the country, representing AEG and GSA’s Environmental and Engineering Geology Division, visiting as many AEG Chapters and College Geology Departments as possible in one year.
     Vince is a recently retired Professor emeritus from Baylor University in Waco Texas, who started his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, after studying for his Master’s at Dartmouth in New Hampshire and completing his PhD at Texas A&M. Vince has taught all the core geology classes over the years, while managing to maintain his interests in structural geology, tectonics, engineering geology, and compound landslides. He has also worked as a consulting Engineering Geologist on projects involving active faulting, flooding, coastal and stream erosion, and resource evaluation in the Western United States.
     As a researcher, Vince, alongside his graduate and undergraduate students, has used earthquake data, and LiDAR-based geomorphic analysis, plus GPS geodesy and field work, to locate the ground-surface trace of seismogenic faults. He is the author of several text books and teaching manuals and the winner of teaching and publication awards.   
     Vince has contributed to the development of the relatively new field of Geoethics and has a track record of publications in this area.  He currently serves as the North American coordinator on the executive board of the International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG) and is associate editor of their peer-reviewed periodical, Journal of Geoethics and Social Geosciences.