INNOVATION November-December 2012

Dr Michael Isaacson PEng p rof i l e Seeking New Approaches for Meaningful Engagement

Andrea Sunderland

broad, general engineering degree at Cambridge and this has served me very well over my career. I continued at Cambridge towards my PhD and then went to Honolulu to carry out research in my specialty area. My area of interest relates to coastal and ocean engineering, with a particular focus on ocean waves and wave effects on structures. In 1976, I joined UBC, where I have remained throughout my career. My time at UBC has involved a mix of teaching, research, university administration, engineering consulting and professional activities. I served as Head of Civil Engineering for five years and Dean of Applied Science for 11 years. I have also acted as a specialist consultant on several hundred coastal and ocean engineering projects. I have been a member of APEGBC Council since 2009 and I am currently a member of the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. What engineering and geoscience issues are you most passionate about? As Dean of Applied Science at UBC, I was fortunate to encounter and interact with the full spectrum of engineering and science disciplines, including the more traditional branches of engineering as well as newer areas such as software engineering, biomedical engineering and mechatronics. This has given me an appreciation of the sheer breadth of our two professions and the diversity of engineering and geoscience cultures. As a consequence, I see a key issue is how best to serve our

With an academic’s keen insight, Dr Michael Isaacson PEng seeks to bring creative solutions and innovative approaches to the Council table. “I like to focus on how to make things happen, and to do so in the most efficient and effective way,” he says. A faculty member at the University of British Columbia (UBC) for over 35 years, Isaacson is the author of over 250 papers and has co- authored two books, including Mechanics of Wave Forces on Offshore Structures, a text that has been widely used in the offshore industry. He is also well known for his involvement in advancing the engineering profession—particularly during his tenure as UBC’s Dean of Applied Science, when he worked energetically to raise money for new educational facilities, recruit faculty and develop new programs—still finding time, amidst all this, for his teaching and research activities and work as a specialist consultant on engineering projects. On Saturday, October 27, 2012, Dr Michael Isaacson was formally inducted as President of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC at APEGBC’s 93 rd Annual General Meeting in Victoria, BC. Innovation recently spoke with Dr Isaacson about his thoughts on his role as president. Tell me a bit about your background. My father was a mining engineer and I spent my childhood in a remote mining community in India. I followed in his footsteps with an early interest in engineering. My university education included a

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