Paul Bauman, P.Eng. P.Geoph. and CSEG volunteer, writer and speaker, is a recent recipient of APEGA’s Community Service Award. The service award is presented annually at the APEGA Summit Awards Gala to individuals who have “attained the highest distinction relating to engineering or geoscience through directorship of an outstanding project, original research or invention, or an exemplary career in teaching”. Here is a summary of APEGA’s full article, which can be downloaded from www.apega.ca/news/2016-apega-summit-awards-winners/.
Paul Bauman leads by serving, as he combines compassion, geophysics, and ingenuity to help find clean water for those in need. Since 1992, he has both directed and taught hydrogeology and groundwater exploration in challenging parts of the world such as Yemen, Malawi, Kenya, and Uganda. He was seconded by UNICEF to assist with the renewal of water supplies following the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2004. In 2012, Paul began working on geophysical water exploration programs for Hydrogeologists Without Borders. In 2014, he began volunteering with IsraAID, teaching people in Kenyan refugee camps and Ugandan displaced person centres how to find water. The SEG’s Geoscientists Without Borders® program provided him with funding to find water in the Kakuma refugee camp of Kenya; this led doctors and other professionals at the Calgary refugee health clinic and elsewhere to sign on as volunteers in the area. UNHCR recently drilled 3 successful water wells at Kakuma based on Geoscientists Without Borders® exploration and water well siting program.
In addition to his humanitarian service, Paul uses tools such as electrical resistivity tomography, ground penetrating radar and low altitude photography to survey some of the world’s most important archeological sites. Some of his investigations have included the Qumran Cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, the ancient harbour city of Acre, gas chambers and mass burials at the Sobibór extermination camp in Poland, and the lost city of Atlantis. His work has been featured in NOVA and National Geographic documentaries. In June 2016, Paul and Alastair McClymont assisted Lithuanian, American, and Israeli archaeologists in locating important World War II Holocaust related sites near Vilnius including mass extermination pits and the escape tunnel used by the “Burning Brigade”. Their work was described in the New York Times Science section, in the National Post, on CBC “As it Happens”, and in other media around the world. The Ponar geophysical discoveries will be featured in a 2017 NOVA documentary.
Paul’s most recent contribution to the CSEG RECORDER was the April 2016 article, “Geophysical Applications to Construction Engineering Projects”, co-authored by Alastair McClymont, Paul Bauman, Eric Johnson, and Laurie Pankratow. As noted there, Paul has a B.Sc.E. in Geological Engineering from Princeton University and an M.Sc. in Earth Sciences from the University of Waterloo. He has more than 30 years of experience in the environmental, engineering, water resource, mining, oil and gas and archaeology sectors. He is Technical Director of the Near Surface Geophysics group at WorleyParsons in Calgary.
Ruth Peach, RECORDER Committee
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