This year, the AGS has presented two lifetime achievement awards. Here, we speak to the first recipient, Jackie Bland. Jackie has been involved with the AGS for 30 years, serving as Leader of the Data Management Working Group for over 15 years, and currently sits on the Business Practice Working Group, Executive, and Development Fund.

What first inspired you to pursue a career in the geoscience industry?

Good question(!) – My route to geosciences was not a conventional one. It has been entirely from an information technology (IT) viewpoint.

I was completing my Computer Studies HND at Coventry Polytechnic (now Coventry University) when I was approached by a lecturer, Dickon Woods, from the Civil Engineering department. He, in turn, had been approached by Exploration Associates Ltd looking for someone to assist with developing their MS-DOS based systems for geotechnical reporting. It seemed an ideal opportunity/challenge to develop my skills in an industry that was just starting to develop its use of IT. It sounded exciting, so I jumped at the chance, and I’ve never left the industry. It’s filled with remarkable people and many technical challenges so I just can’t resist getting involved.

Looking back over your career, which achievement or moment are you most proud of?

The AGS Digital Data transfer format, creation and maintenance. The format has been developed ‘for the industry and by the industry’ to supply the ground investigation data and not digital paper (PDF) of the report. I’ve seen it develop from the initial creation and fledgeling version AGS 1.0 in 1991 to version AGS 4.2 in 2025. It’s a never ending process as Standards change, new tests are created and more items come into scope.

To confirm its worth, the format has been adopted in many other countries too, such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil and Hong Kong to name a few.

Has there been a particular turning point that significantly shaped your professional journey?

I feel I can take the ‘blame’ for the initial creation of the AGS Digital Data Format. My complaints to senior staff about the plethora of data interchange requirements for every new project coming through the business, all with the same data, but laid out differently within Lotus 123 (predecessor to Microsoft Excel) started a revolution – AGS called an industry meeting to discuss the issue in 1990, leading to AGS 1.0 in 1991. I feel obligated to continue maintaining what I was involved in starting!

How has the industry evolved since you first started, and what changes stand out most?

What springs to mind immediately is – from zero to hero…chalk and cheese…oil and water!

Data capture was a challenging thing when I first started in the industry. It was all we could do to digitally create a log and not type directly onto preprinted pages with a typewriter. Microsoft, Adobe, Google, Apple, Amazon and the internet happened and today we are hard pushed to not be able to capture data – photos, videos, speech, etc… – with our handheld devices and our interconnected world.

How important have collaboration and professional bodies such as AGS been throughout your career?

Exceptionally important.

What role has mentoring or supporting the development of others played in your professional life?

I have spent most of my career as a person of only one or two in the dept. It’s very hard to answer this question.

A fun day is explaining the intricacies of the company systems to be used to generate AGS data.

I always enjoy being on hand to chat over issues and improvements to the day to day digital grind.

What advice would you offer to early career professionals entering the industry today?

I love what I do every day and would like to think others are fortunate enough to do the  same. The interactions with other professionals in the industry, the education and knowledge they are happy to share is invaluable. My motto has always been “if I don’t get something, I find someone who can make me understand it”. Always ask and keep looking till you find the expert on the subject. Perseverance is important, there really is no substitute for your own learning.

In your view, what skills or qualities are essential for long-term success in this field?

I’m a Data Manager and system designer, so having a ‘data-head’ helps! What do I mean by that? It is simply that however data is stored, the easiest way to access that data should be at the forefront of any software design and data collection. To make that easy you need to understand the problem you’re solving, the area of the industry its aimed at and the skill of the data collectors.

What does receiving the AGS Lifetime Achievement Award mean to you personally?

I’m very proud to receive the award and surprised to have been nominated in the first place, as I’m not a geologist or a geotechnical engineer by training. It does, however, show what can be achieved through dogged perseverance with the same topic over a considerable period of time.