Special Section – 2021 Annual Meeting Recap

by Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists (AEG)

The HomeFront

AEG2021 – ANNUAL MEETING PREVIEWSpecial Section Special Section RECAP AEG 64th Annual Meeting Rock-n the River

Jeff Neathery, AEG 2021 Annual Committee ChairA EG’s 64th Annual Meeting was held at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel in downtown San Antonio, Texas, from September 20–26, 2021. For the 223 attendees, the meeting was a great success. Some described it as a more “intimate meeting.” The big cloud hovering over the meeting was Covid. We took great care in protecting our attendees, but many chose to stay home, some canceling just a few weeks before the meeting. As a result, most of the Field

Courses and all four Guest Trips were cancelled. Some of the other activities were scaled back. Despite the challenges of the last two years, we remain optimistic and thankful that we were able to host the Annual Meeting in person and hope that we can continue to do so in the future to provide much needed networking, interaction, and collaborative education. The meeting kicked off on Monday with the field course:

Texas Hill Country Terroir Experience. We were able to run two additional courses, Karst Cave and Canyon Lake Gorge (pictured). The attendees raved that they were some of the best courses that they have ever attended.

Opening Session–Bill Godwin, Rick Wooten at right

The Icebreaker on Tuesday evening welcomed attendees and was followed by the Young at Heart Student/Professional gathering at Casa Rio Restaurant on the Riverwalk.

The General Session opened Wednesday morning and featured Carlos Aguilar’s talk on High-Speed, Low-Impact. The AEG Outstanding Environmental & Engineering Project Award was presented to the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River Walk. Steven Schauer accepted the award on behalf of the San Antonio River Authority. The General Session ended with two presentations from the 2020–21 AEG/GSA Richard H. Jahns Distinguished Lecturer in Applied Geology, Cheryl Hapke and the incoming 2021–22 Jahns Lecturer Richard Wooten (shown at right).

The technical program ran Wednesday through Friday and featured 105 oral presentations and 9 posters. Our technical sessions included symposia on Coastal Hazards, Tunneling, GeoUAS (Drones), Land Subsidence, Dams and Levees, Geologic and Seismic Hazards, Geophysics, Landslides, and Environmental Topics. Other sessions included Case Studies and Investigations and From Words to Action: Doing More than Talk About Diversity in the Geosciences.

One of the meeting’s highlights was our Special Event, A Night on the River. It started with a guided boat tour of the San Antonio River and ended with dinner at the Brisco Western Museum.

Other highlights included a Student/Professional Networking Reception, the Women in AEG Luncheon – The Many faces of Geology, various meetings of the AEG working groups and committees, and meetings by the AEG Executive Council and Board of Directors.

I would like to thank our exhibitors and numerous generous sponsors. In addition, I would like to thank the members of the Annual Meeting Committee, Field Course Committee Billie Long, Marilyn Long and Randy Mattzela, Finance Chair William Flanigan, Poster Session Chair Skye Ibarra, Symposia Chair Marty Goff, Technical Program Committee Billie Long, Marilyn Long and Tim Duduit. I would also like to thank Sheri Maskow and Becky McWilliam at AEG Headquarters for all their support. A special Thank You goes to AEG’s Meeting Manager Heather Clark who kept the ship on the right course and kept us afloat during trying times.