My professional life has been greatly enhanced by outstanding speakers. Visiting speakers provide a unique educational experience. First of all, attendance at their talks is probably optional and most of the audience wouldn't be there unless they were knowledgeable about the subject and genuinely interested. Secondly, a visiting speaker has only one chance to profoundly influence the assembled audience and an outstanding speaker will take full advantage of that opportunity. So if you attend a lot of talks, now and then a speaker comes along that may significantly alter your modus operandi and may even change the direction of your career. To construct this section, I've thought back over the last 40 years of my career to identify individual speakers who have significantly influenced my ways of thinking, my ways of speaking or both. These individuals constitute my personal "Visiting Speaker Hall of Fame." My sincerest thanks to them all. As for the far larger group who taught me what not to do, click here.
John E. Sanders
John Sanders was a visiting speaker imported from Yale when I was a graduate student at the University of Washington. My geologic thinking and research interests at that time were centered on working out the geology of quadrangles. That was the way the U. S. Geological Survey operated, and it seemed all right to me (i.e., within reach). John did much the same thing, but he isolated the Triassic Newark Group as a single stratigraphic entity and his "quadrangle" took in everything from Connecticut to south of Philadelphia. Within this context, he competently discussed the stratigraphy, structure and tectonic history. I was greatly impressed! I had just struggled to finish a Master's thesis involving the stratigraphy and structure of a part of one 15-minute quadrangle and this fellow had presented a talk involving a somewhat similar study but spread out over four states! Now that was inspirational, and the fact that I can remember his lecture almost 40 years later attests to the impact of good visiting speakers on beginning students.
John C. Crowell
I first heard John Crowell speak at a Northwest Geological Society meeting (ca., 1962). In addition, John has visited our department several times since and I've heard him at a number of other places. Whether he discussed such complicated matters as the San Andreas and related faults , paraconglomerates and sedimentary structures or the Paleozoic Gondwana Glaciations, he was always clear, well organized, well paced and interesting. His illustrations were spare, somewhat cartoonish, uncluttered and got the point across well. In addition, John always seemed so knowledgeable and competent and completely in control of the subject and the audience. It's hard to even imagine a projector bulb burning out during one of John's presentations. If I saw a John Crowell lecture listed, I'd probably go no matter what the subject was because I know I'd hear a good informative talk. It's a distant, long-term goal, but I'd like people to feel the same way about my efforts.
Robert S. Dietz
If I had to chose just one, Bob Dietz would be my all-time favorite speaker. Altogether, I heard Dietz speak about six times, both on the subjects of sea-floor spreading and astroblemes. To me, Dietz was an absolutely first-rate speaker. He was always clear, logical, well paced and well illustrated, but, in addition, his presentations always seemed to have an interesting and highly provocative (if not inflammatory) structure. Dietz might put things together in such a way that the audience was led step by step into an intellectual trap with no way out. As such, although everything he said was always logical, easy to understand and straight forward, the question periods tended to be heated and sometimes degenerated into shouting matches. I've never been to a Dietz talk where things didn't get all stirred up. Although he never showed it to even the slightest degree, I'd have to guess that Dietz enjoyed being at the center of a firestorm. Personally, I enjoyed Dietz's lectures for their scientific content, but I also showed up for the audience reaction. To me, one of the prime purposes of a talk is to stir up discussion. In this regard, I've never heard anyone better than Bob Dietz.
Tanya Atwater
Tanya Atwater was a graduate student at Scripps (ca., 1969) and I heard she had a lot to say about the newly emerging subject of Plate Tectonics, so I invited her over to speak to my Graduate Seminar in Regional Tectonics. Her hour-long "chalk talk" forever changed the way I viewed geology. I've heard her three times since that memorable evening meeting. Tanya was a competent and interesting speaker, to be sure, but that wasn't what so impressed me. At the time, Tanya knew very little about conventional onland geology. She was offering an interpretation of the geology on the basis of magnetic anomaly patterns gleaned from the Pacific Ocean floor. It was an approach that NOBODY had considered and she was speaking to packed rooms of highly skeptical geologists. Everyone was all ears, however. The question periods were always drawn out. Tanya might not have known what the details of the geology were and had to admit such on a number of occasions, but she knew what her magnetic patterns were saying and she explained and defended those interpretations well. That's the thing that most impressed me: her intellect plus her courage to stand up and present and defend her ideas (as a graduate student, no less) to large, seasoned and skeptical audiences. She was marvelous, and provided a great lasting inspiration. (for a cartoonist's view, click here. )
James C. Ingle, Jr.
I first heard Jim Ingle speak at an educational conference for petroleum geologists in the early 70s in Bakersfield, California. Most presentations were thoroughly forgettable. My eyes were somewhat glazed over and I was tired of sitting. Jim Ingle walked out onto the stage looking stiff and business-like and proceeded to deliver a lecture having to do with the principles of physical oceanography and their application in the search for petroleum resources. I was expecting a yawner, but he immediately grabbed my attention. Everything he said was clear, logical, well illustrated, easy to understand and led directly to the next points. His subject material seemed to expand exponentially as he progressed, but it all made good sense and everything fit. In places, it was funny. By the end of the lecture, I felt as if my head had been greatly enlarged to accommodate all the new information. What a terrific talk! An inspiration! Now, whenever I gather a large knowledgeable audience, I like to try to follow that Ingle pattern. Ideally, I'd like to see the listeners walking away reeling at the educational experience they underwent.
Gregory A. Davis
Greg
Davis spoke in our department, perhaps back in the mid to late 70s. I recall
being very busy at the time and considered not attending. But, Greg had
a good reputation and I finally somewhat reluctantly relented and went. He
started the talk by telling of a weekend trip out to the Mojave Desert to
view something called the "Playground Thrust." Great, I recall thinking,
I took this precious time to listen to somebody's weekend musings. But it
wasn't very long into the lecture before his Playground Thrust observations
had reminded him of some other localities which he then proceeded to tie
in. That, in turn, reminded him of his previous work in the Klamath Mountains
and Sierra Nevada and he tied these efforts in with other studies. The
first thing you know, we were in the Pacific Northwest and locking a few
other key points in to a rapidly building scheme. By the end of the talk,
it seemed almost as if the Playground Thrust was the key to understanding
the Phanerozoic tectonic history of the Cordilleran Orogen. What a great
presentation! And I loved the way he sneaked up on his audience.