Dale Rucker

Background

About Dale Rucker

When I began my engineering career, approximately 20 years ago, I never dreamed that I would be a hydrogeologist or geophysicist. I started out in Mechanical Engineering, obtaining a BS from a small technical college, and my worst subjects were fluid mechanics and electromagnetics. Since graduating I have gained an appreciation of both, using them to solve complex problems for the nuclear waste industry, metal mining, and environmental projects. I use geophysics as a tool to illuminate fluid movement within the subsurface, which has helped clients to optimize recovery of metals in heaps, reduce risk by characterizing contaminant plumes, understand structural weaknesses in geological systems, and search for exploitable resources. I have been a groundwater modeler, geotechnical engineer, soil scientist, and by default, a mining/metallurgical engineer. I am now the technical director of hydroGEOPHYSICS with the title of Chief Technical Officer. While some time is spent on actual projects, I like to research, build, experiment, and develop new technologies to expand our service offerings for all aspects of the earth science community. Some recent examples include the use of steel cased wells as sensors in geophysical imaging, optimized processing of geophysical measurements, and rapid geophysical acquisition equipment. I have been awarded a Small Business Innovative Research grant from the Department of Defense and an Advanced Remediation Technologies grant from the Department of Energy. My general philosophy of science has been that you truly don’t understand a system unless you are forced to describe it to someone. I use writing as a primary means for scientific communications, and have a number of peer reviewed journal articles that describe my work and interests. Most of my articles can be found on my website. I was also the editor for the Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics and associate editor the Journal of Applied Geophysics.