Page 10 - 1052-5173-27-11

2017–2018 Richard H. Jahns Distinguished Lecturer
John Wakabayashi
has been named the 2017–2018
Richard H. Jahns Distinguished
Lecturer. The lectureship, established been his main focus since 2009. At Fresno State, he teaches non-
in 1988, is sponsored by the
Association of Environmental and
Engineering Geologists and the GSA
Environmental and Engineering
Geology Division. Its purpose is to
provide funding for distinguished
engineering geologists to present lec- researchers, including a number of students from outside of
tures at colleges and universities in order to increase awareness of
students about careers in engineering geology. The lectureship is
named in honor of Richard H. Jahns (1915–1983), an engineering
geologist who had a diverse and distinguished career in academia,
consulting, and government.
Wakabayashi is a San Francisco Bay Area native who moved to
Fresno, California, USA, in 2005 to begin his academic career as
a geology professor at California State University, Fresno. He
received his B.A. in geology in 1980 from the University of
California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. in geology in 1989 from the
University of California at Davis. He is a professional geologist
(California) and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.
After graduating from Davis, Wakabayashi worked as an engi-
neering and environmental geologist for 16 years, the last 13 as an
independent consultant in Hayward, California, before becoming
an academic. He worked on a variety of projects, including seis-
mic hazard evaluation/paleoseismology, slope stability, engineer-
ing and forensic petrography, naturally occurring asbestos, and
two Superfund projects on which his primary specialty was evalu-
ation of ambient concentrations of metals of environmental con-
cern in soils and rock. He was a member of the Working Group on
California Earthquake Probabilities.
Wakabayashi also conducted independent research, some of
which derived from his project work, but most of which dealt with
more esoteric research issues such as subduction initiation pro-
cesses, metamorphic P-t paths and metamorphic contrasts as tec-
tonic indicators, emplacement of ophiolites, subduction interface
processes and development of subduction complexes, evolution of
orogenic belts, development of strike-slip fault systems, and long
time and length–scale geomorphology. He incorporated academic
research of his own and others into all of his project work, trying
to bridge the academic-applied geology gap from the standpoint
of a practitioner. After becoming an academic, he continued his
efforts to bridge this gap, realizing that the majority of geology
professors have never been employed in the engineering and envi-
ronmental geology profession that most geology graduates will
work in. He incorporates both his professional and research expe-
rience into his teaching so as to better prepare students for profes-
sional careers, as well as providing a foundation for students who
wish to undertake graduate study.
Wakabayashi’s research has resulted in 82 published papers and
more than 100 abstracts tied to presentations at major geoscience
10 GSA Today | November 2017
meetings. The breadth of his research has broadened rather than
narrowed over time, but the geology of that beguiling train wreck
of rocks known as the Franciscan Complex of coastal California
remains his chief interest, and the many aspects of mélanges have
major introductory geology, geology major undergraduate courses
in petrology, geomorphology, and structural geology, graduate
courses on active tectonics/seismic hazard analysis and orogenic
belt tectonics, and his bread-and-butter undergraduate course in
advanced geologic field mapping. He has supervised or is super-
vising a large number of graduate and undergraduate student
Fresno State.
Outside of geology and beer (an amateur brewer since 1994),
Wakabayashi is probably best known for his experience trout fish-
ing in the backcountry (must be hiked to) of California, having
launched casts into over 750 different lakes, about 700 of these in
the Sierra Nevada. His strength and fitness routine that prepares
him for his fieldwork and recreational hiking (and burns off some
of the beer), as well as holding his body together for his return to
playing basketball, has also gained some notoriety. This routine
includes excessively long plank sessions and multiple repetitions
of muscle-ups.
Interested institutions can contact Wakabayashi at jwakabayashi
@csufresno.edu to give one or more of the following lectures.
(Complete descriptions are posted to www.aegweb.org/page/
JahnsLecturer2017.)
Insight into Geologic Mapping of Mélanges from Structural
Geologic Research: Implications for Engineering Geologic
Analysis and Illustration of the Value of Field Geologic
Training
A Field-Based Alternative to Subduction Channel Models:
Insight from Mélange Studies
(This is the more purely academic focused look at mélanges.)
Attempting to Bridge the Growing Gap between Academic
and Applied Geology: A Personal Odyssey
(Here, Wakabayashi will tell a few stories from his days as an
engineering and environmental geologist as well as some other
stories from the academic world.)
Evolution of Step-Overs and Bends along Strike-Slip Faults:
Implications for Seismic Hazards Assessment
Geomorphic Evolution and Cenozoic Tectonics of the Sierra
Nevada, California, and Alternative Interpretations of
Paleoaltimetry Data
(This work began with seismic hazard studies Wakabayashi did as
a consultant in the northern Sierra Nevada in the early 1990s.)