DR JACKIE SKIPPER - Senior Consultant and Senior Geologist
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Dr Jacqueline Skipper BSc PhD DIC CGeol FGS
Jackie is a Senior Consultant and Senior Geologist at the Geotechnical Consulting Group, London. Her PhD was in the stratigraphy of the Lambeth Group and her specialist areas include the Geology of London and SE England, complex ground conditions (including Quaternary features) worldwide, and the geology of desert sediments and environments.
She is, and has been, very active as a consulting geologist on the ground investigation and construction for many major tunnel projects around London such as the Thames Water Tideway Project, Lee Tunnel, the Northern Line Extension, Lower Thames Crossing, High Speed 2 and Crossrail 2, and she is also on both Geotechnical Review and Formation Expert Panels for High Speed 2. Other recent projects include investigations of very large Quaternary Hollow features, tunnel lining deformation and sand ingress for London Underground, landslip projects throughout the UK, and major construction projects throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East. In 2010 she received the Geological Society Engineering Group Award and in 2017 the 18th Glossop Medal. 🏅🏅🏅
Jackie is widely known for her enthusiasm, energy and communication skills in engineering and geology and is a strong advocate of Project Specific Geological Training as a tool in project ground risk identification and reduction. She teaches a wide range of courses on aspects of engineering geology and stratigraphy, and is passionate about the communication of science to the next generations of engineers and geologists.
Jackie is based here in Penzance. She has lectured in a number of countries around the world and has contributed to radio and television programmes as a geological authority.
1. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I’m proud of my work training geologists and engineers about how the ground works. Most problems in civil engineering (buildings, roads, tunnels, travel infrastructure) happen because the ground hasn’t been fully understood. My experience on projects all over the world is that education about the ground - at every level of a project - informs better communication and decisions.
2. What motivates you to do what you do?
When I’d finished my doctorate project I felt like I’d educated myself out of ever getting a job again. A good friend made me visualise what gives me joy about doing geology. Immediately I was a 17 year old again standing on Porthtowan beach, watching the water currents and the wind depositing dunes and ripples, puzzling about why that group of rocks is falling down so often… Today the joy comes from working out in three dimensions how rocks and sediments were deposited millions of years ago but in similar ways to today. Communicating that understanding to others and seeing their understanding light up their eyes is very much part of the enjoyable process!
3. What do you owe your mother?
I was reading the obituary of the astonishing geneticist Marion Julia Lamb yesterday and identified so much with what she said about her parents: ‘they gave her freedom’. My mother did that. As a tiny child she allowed me to wander in streams, rivers and rock pools, bringing treasure of frogs, snails, rocks and flowers back to her. She always thanked me and was enthusiastic about them! She always carried at least two changes of clothing in case I got soaked (I did, regularly). When we moved to Cornwall she allowed me to have the time to walk for miles getting used to the landscape, plants, and random mineshafts. For a great worrier about life in general she was a great force for positivity and trusted her children not to drown, get into trouble or fall over too many cliffs – a way to learn about true risk. In reality she was truly brave woman and a real problem solver, facing herds of horses in the garden and adders in the greenhouse with equanimity and motorcyclist’s gloves. And all her life she never turned away the gift of a rock from the beach or a bunch of wild flowers. Even in her 80s she still admired my collected stones and allowed me to explain what they were and to put them in pride of place in her garden.
4. Which women inspire you and why?
Greta Thunberg, climate activist, fills me with awe for her determination to keep pushing people about climate change. Some people say that being on the autism spectrum is somehow why she is ‘obsessed’ with the subject but of course this is a type of media gaslighting. We all have things we are better or worse at, but she is unique and fights with all her energy and intellect to change things and make people understand and take actions to tackle this enormous and complex issue.
Former colleague from the Natural History Museum, Professor Monica Grady CBE, has always been an inspirational woman to me. She is currently Professor of Planetary and Space Science at the Open University and studies the make up of meteorites and what they tell us about how life on Earth began (amongst other questions). She is famous for her wonderfully enthusiastic response on camera when Philae, (the lander module of the 2014 space probe Rosetta), made the first successful landing on a comet. We need more women scientists who are not afraid of being enthusiastic!
5. What are you reading?
I’m currently reading Maria Sybella Merian – Artist, Scientist, Adventurer by Sarah Pomeroy and Jeyaraney Kathirithamby. I accidentally came across this amazing woman’s magnificent paintings of tulip and insects when buying wallpaper for my last flat. I discovered that she’d lived between 1647 -1717 and was not only an outstanding painter but one of the first German naturalists, observing from the age of 13 (!) how the metamorphosis of eggs and caterpillars to butterflies took place (formerly it was thought that insects were made from mud). In 1699 she and her daughter travelled to Surinam (an unheard-of journey by women at that time) and published her findings on the plants, insects and animals of that part of South America
6. What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?
I left Cornwall (temporarily – you never leave Cornwall!) in the late 70’s to train in the NHS as an Operating Department Practitioner. At the time this was a new career, mostly male-dominated. As a woman you were expected to prove yourself physically and the girls amongst us definitely pushed ourself too far trying to lift and manoeuvre heavy patients and safely position them for operations. Many of us suffered from back and other injuries from our twenties onwards. I am a great advocate for Health and Safety for all now for this reason!
7. How can the world be made a better place for women?
I think some of the work currently being done in schools to educate young boys to respect girls and women when they say NO! is of critical importance. The western world has definitely changed since I was a child and the concept of a woman as simply someone whose life’s work is to have children and support others is no longer the only option. But I’d like to see more support and fewer barriers for women wanting to step out of these old paradigms, educate themselves and have enjoyable lives - without the guilt that many have for putting themselves first!
8. Describe your perfect day?
My perfect day consists of a swimming adventure (with lovely friends) to a new beach or river in Cornwall with lots to see in the water, and laughs and a lovely picnic afterwards.
9. We've noticed there really aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you like to see remembered?
Well, obviously Barbara Hepworth, the queen of sculpture – only, what kind of statue would she have been happy with?
10. Give us a tip?
If I have a task which I’m procrastinating about I try to reduce it to the tiniest actions that I can do in 10 minutes in order to get it done. For example I recently had to get my passport renewed on top of a lot of ‘more important’ actions. It was annoying me. I reduced it to:
➡️ Getting the passport and putting it on the desk (day one)
➡️ Opening the page on passport renewals online and reading it for 10 minutes (day two)
➡️ Searching online for who takes passport photos in my area (day three)
➡️ Walking to the shop and having a passport photo taken (day four)
➡️ Using the photo information to complete the application online (day five)
➡️ Putting my passport into a secure envelope and addressing it (day six)
➡️ Walking to the Post Office when out shopping and posting the passport (day seven)
As a result the whole passport application felt easy and effortless!
