About Us
Brian Yellen (PhD), GeoPractical's lead instructor, has hosted more than 600 professionals for continuing education courses since 2012, with more than 70% of course registrants enrolling for at least a second class with him.
Brian is a seasoned educator and geologist with published research spanning the fields of hydrogeology, hydrology, sediment transport, and geomorphology. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2015 and a bachelors in geology from Brown. In addition to science training, Brian is a skilled teacher. He taught for many years at the high school level and was awarded UMass's Distinguished Teaching Award. As a research professor at UMass, Brian continues active projects spanning the fields of water resources and sediment transport.
In addition to courses offered directly by Brian, he brings in colleagues from academia and industry to broaden course offerings. All courses are taught with the same hands on approach and emphasis on developing relevant, practical skills.
For a list of Brian's publications, please refer to his ResearchGate profile page: link.
Brian is a seasoned educator and geologist with published research spanning the fields of hydrogeology, hydrology, sediment transport, and geomorphology. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2015 and a bachelors in geology from Brown. In addition to science training, Brian is a skilled teacher. He taught for many years at the high school level and was awarded UMass's Distinguished Teaching Award. As a research professor at UMass, Brian continues active projects spanning the fields of water resources and sediment transport.
In addition to courses offered directly by Brian, he brings in colleagues from academia and industry to broaden course offerings. All courses are taught with the same hands on approach and emphasis on developing relevant, practical skills.
For a list of Brian's publications, please refer to his ResearchGate profile page: link.
Educational Philosophy - Learn to do, not watch...
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Professionals find our courses useful because they provide a unique combination of engaging facilitators and practical, hands-on practice. Our goal is for you to leave with a discrete skill set that you can apply to your work immediately. We minimize information delivery - there's the internet and texts for that - and maximize applying new, useful skills, or honing and practicing those skills that need refreshing. Course material builds in layers, with fundamental skills practiced before moving on to more difficult tasks. By keeping a foot in academia and industry, we aim to showcase the newest technologies and methodologies.
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Instructors
These excellent geologists have partnered with GeoPractical to teach technical courses.
- Joe Kopera, MS - lead bedrock mapper at Massachusetts State Geological Survey.
- Carol Stein, PhD - Carol has over 30 years of experience in a range of environmental investigations. She was a research scientist for Sandia National Laboratories on the nation’s radioactive waste isolation programs, and subsequently was on the faculty of the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. In her work as an environmental consultant, she examines geochemical aspects of soil and groundwater contamination.
- David F. McTigue, PhD - Dave has over 30 years of experience in environmental research and applications. He worked on US radioactive waste isolation programs at Sandia National Laboratories, and taught hydrogeology at the University of Washington. He then entered the environmental consulting field, where he focuses primarily on groundwater flow and contaminant transport.
- Bill Clement, PhD - Bill is an extension professor of geophysics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He specializes in shallow earth geophysics and has taught courses in environmental geophysics and time series analysis.