PROFILE
The reasons for Dr. Erdmer’s tenure on the board are plenty. For one, he’s committed to giving back to the professions. “I can’t think of being a Member of APEGA and not participating in its life,” he says. “APEGA service is my main opportunity to support the concept and reality of my chosen profession, which has been very good to me. So it’s just normal payback and common sense.” Most satisfying, he says, is working alongside other professionals, many of whom have become great friends over the years. “You don’t serve on an APEGA committee if you don’t fundamentally agree with the mission, and it’s a thrill to work with like-minded individuals,” explains Dr. Erdmer. “I am always amazed at how competent, straightforward, and unassuming my colleagues on the board are. There’s something about the Alberta spirit — an egalitarian, we’ll-help-you-get-it-done attitude — which is most appealing to me.” Also rewarding: seeing hundreds of his former students apply for and earn their professional licence with APEGA. “It’s satisfying to see them enter the professions no longer as my students, but as my colleagues. Many are now working in Canada and all over the world.”
GROUNDED IN SCIENCE
Long before arriving in Alberta, a young Philippe grew up travelling the world as a self-described army brat. His dad, a Belgian military officer and UN peacekeeper, took his family with him on assignments to places like Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Switzerland, and France (where he got his first taste of sailing while at summer camp). When he was 16, his family moved one last time, this time to Ottawa, where a high school teacher introduced him to the Earth sciences. He later went on to earn a bachelor of geology degree from the University of Ottawa, followed by his master’s and a PhD at Queen’s University, both in geology. Early in his career, Dr. Erdmer worked across Canada in mineral exploration and spent time working for federal and provincial geological surveys and teaching geology at the Royal Military College of Canada. He’s supervised numerous M.Sc. and PhD candidates and led both national and international scientific research projects. His work has taken him to almost all of the provinces and territories, including places in the Far North that most Canadians have never seen or even heard of. “I still love geology, all these years later,” he says. “I can never disconnect from its fundamentals. Not to make a pun, but it keeps you grounded. In
62 | PEG WINTER 2015
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker