18 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 2023 Surveyor of the Year Questions with 2023 Surveyor of the Year: Jack Walker 52 Where did you grow up? I was raised in Eastern Oregon and Idaho. My grandfather received a homestead patent for a ranch in Oregon, and my father worked in heavy construction and mining in Idaho. Who is your role model and why? Individuals who made significant contributions applying mathematics and science to surveying and geomatics. How did you decide on land surveying as a career? I am a first-generation college student, and didn’t really understand what engineering and other careers entailed. I decided that structural engineering and designing buildings and bridges would be interesting, so I started in civil engineering. I came to realize that civil engineers live in a cubicle, which didn’t appeal to me. All the civil students took a surveying class, and I found the mathematics interesting, and the opportunity to make precise observations with sophisticated instruments in the field was enjoyable. I have always liked maps, and surveyors even get paid to make maps, so I changed my major to surveying. Great decision. Did you work in the private or public sector prior to teaching? I completed five internships with BLM, mostly in Alaska. Alternating six month internships with college allowed me to fund my education. Working out of camps in the Alaskan bush, flying in helicopters, and traveling in boats was like a paid vacation. You do have to have a tolerance for bad weather, mosquitoes, black gnats, and bears. I worked a few summers on interesting projects such as the Stanford Linear accelerator/collider, assisting with pioneering applications of new positioning technology to lay out the beamline equipment. Some of the network error ellipses had semi-major axes less than one millimeter. The world of subatomic physics was fascinating, and the SLAC collider proved the existence of the gravitational carrier particle which Einstein had predicted, and the work contributed to the Theory of Everything. I worked for Kiewit on a backscatter radar site, and do some ongoing work for a mineral exploration company in the Idaho backcountry, which is another paid vacation. When and why did you move into teaching? I assisted some of my classmates who were struggling with their assignments and found it rewarding when they “got it.” I found geodesy, the study of non- Euclidean geometry, to be particularly fascinating. The mathematics of least squares adjustment, analytical photogrammetry, and map projections are elegant. I wanted to study more in these areas, and was fortunate to receive a scholarship to Purdue University to continue graduate studies. When I graduated, a faculty position was available, and I thought I would teach for three to five years and move on. Well, that turned out to be 39 years! Why did you first become a member of PLSO? Surveying encompasses the positioning sciences, so it is appropriate to become licensed and a PLSO member. What is your proudest moment in your career? Receiving the Grand Prize in the NCEES Surveying Education Awards program. Recognition that the Oregon Tech Surveying program is one of the best in the nation is extremely gratifying. Do you have a favorite place that you’ve traveled? The Idaho backcountry is one of my favorite places. On the summit of Mt. Thielsen in the Oregon Cascades.
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