February 2006ISSUE
Marc Boulet
STUDENT COLUMNS
2006 Geo Conference
Attracts 200 Delegates
BY MARC BOULET
University of Calgary
Student Contributor (Geosciences)
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Winnipeg will have big shoes to fill next year, with the 42nd annual Western Inter-University Geosciences Conference now over. Held at the TELUS Convention Centre in Calgary last month, the event drew over 200 post-secondary delegates from across Western Canada, with representation from the universities of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Regina and Manitoba, as well as the hosting University of Calgary.
An Exchange of Ideas
This year’s conference was an excellent forum for the exchange of ideas,
technical knowledge and career information. In addition to scheduled field trips
and a short course provided by Veritas DGC, we were treated to two full days
of poster presentations, and industry and student talks.
The presentations covered a wide range of topics, from eruption dynamics to loess deposits in Siberia to the challenges of drilling offshore wells at Hibernia. The hard-working judges poured over every talk and poster presentation to assess the winners, and I’m happy to announce that some of the prize recipients were U of C students.
Congratulations to Erik Katvala and Marie-Eve Caron, APEGGA student member, for their first- and second-place finishes, respectively, in graduate student talks, and to Heather Wilson, Geol.I.T., who took first in the undergraduate talk.
The Friday luncheon keynote speech by Philip Benham, P.Geol., staff geologist at Shell Canada, was especially eye-opening. He framed the issues of sustainable development in Madagascar in a thoughtful and informative way.
A well-attended industry and technical society career fair attracted delegates interested in leveraging their geoscience education and making industry contacts.
Fun Times
No conference would be complete without the opportunity to meet and mingle, and
this year’s WIUGC was no exception. Thursday night’s event, the Rock
Breaker, sponsored by Tucker Wireline Services, featured a live performance by
local favourites The Villains. Friday night offered delegates the opportunity
to sample Calgary’s vibrant nightlife.
The wind-up banquet on Saturday featured a dinner and dance. It was highlighted by the fascinating and entertaining keynote talk (sponsored by Sigma Explorations) by Dr. Phillip Currie, on the incredible wealth of dinosaur resources in Alberta.
The evening was capped off by the presentation of a gift from 2006 WIUGC Chair Paul Levesque, APEGGA student member, to the University of Manitoba committee hosting the 2007 edition of the conference.
Volunteer & Sponsor Support
As a member of the organizing committee, I was able to see the incredible work
that went on behind the scenes to
make an event of this magnitude happen. The vibrancy of Calgary’s geoscience
community was well evidenced by the tremendous support that this year’s
WIUGC received.
The 2006 committee would like to thank all the sponsors and volunteers for
their logistical and financial resources — especially the industry personnel,
students and judges who donated their time and enriched the conference beyond
measure with their eagerness and enthusiasm.
See you next year in Winnipeg!
List of Sponsors
Shell Canada Ltd.
Petro-Canada
Imperial Oil Ltd.
Apache Canada Ltd.
Tucker Wireline Services
Nexen Inc.
Veritas DGC Inc.
EnCana Corporation
Sigma Explorations Inc.
GeoGlobal Resources Inc.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
EOG Resources
Grafikor Printpak
AFS Ainsworth Financial Services Ltd.
HEF Petrophysical Consulting Inc.
CSPG
CSEG
APEGGA
University of Calgary