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“My father practically kidnapped me and brought me for a visit when I was a high school senior,” says Mary J. Spry Roth, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, about how her Lafayette career began. “I wasn’t interested in coming to Lafayette but he had gone here for a semester before he was drafted into the Army. We didn’t have an appointment in admissions, but this nice man saw us trying to figure out a campus map and offered to show us around. He guided us to admissions and arranged an interview. After I arrived on campus and saw the man again, someone told me that he was Dr. (Roald) Bergethon, Lafayette’s president.”
Roth earned her bachelor’s degree in 1983 and returned to join the faculty in 1991. She spent last year as a Fulbright Research Scholar in Norway, working with engineers and geologists at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute in Oslo. She specializes in geotechnical engineering, the field of civil engineering that concentrates on soil and rock as building materials. Geotechnical engineers design foundations, retaining walls, embankments, tunnels, and dams and are concerned with the strength and movement of soil and rock. She has been conducting research on the use of multi-electrode earth resistivity testing to investigate subsurface soil conditions since the mid-’90s.
“I received an NSF (National Science Foundation) grant to examine methods for improving risk assessment for geotechnical problems, particularly in karst (limestone) topography,” Roth says. Sinkholes are common in these areas, and the prevalent method of drilling holes and taking core samples is expensive and generally inadequate. “I began studying a technology that measures the ground’s resistance to electrical current. The method has been around since the 1920s but only recent advances in the technology allow detailed views of the subsurface to be obtained. The method is good at finding subsurface rock fractures, contaminants, sinkholes and other features.”
While in Norway, Roth studied the use of multi-electrode resistivity testing on “sensitive” clay soils common in Norway and on permafrost. “These were interesting applications of the technology, which had not been used before in Norway,” Roth says. “In the work on sensitive clays, we found that the slope stability models being used did not sufficiently incorporate the variability in the clay materials that was observed. The resistivity testing was also successful in permafrost, although the equipment had problems when the temperature was minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) with wind-chill of minus 40 degrees Celsius (-40 F).”
She has worked extensively with students mapping the subsurface features of Metzgar Fields and has co-authored 11 articles and conference papers with her student researchers. “I am able to bring my research into my courses, which improves the course and benefits the students,” Roth says.
“Prof. Roth is best described as the quintessential Lafayette professor,” said Brian Guzas ’00, a bridge engineer with URS Corp., Hunt Valley, Md. He is also working towards a master’s degree part-time at Johns Hopkins University. “In the classroom, she is dedicated to the education of her students. She genuinely cares if her students are learning the material and focuses her classes on making sure the students understand, turning somewhat dry subjects into interesting classes. She was not only a professor to me, she was a mentor. I worked with her on researching earth resistivity testing for the detection of sinkholes, which proved to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my college career. She gave me the opportunity to take the research in the direction I wanted and to present our results in publications and conferences. I always felt like I was working with her, not for her. She also educated me on the realities of the civil engineering industry and what to expect once I graduated. As a result, I was very well prepared for my first job as a bridge engineer. Many of the lessons I learned from Prof. Roth I still use today in my profession. I think it is a testament to her effectiveness as a professor that even though I am working in a field unrelated her hers, I frequently draw upon what I learned from her to help me do my job more effectively.”
“My first class with Mary was soils,” says Karen Tuomi Marosi ’94, associate dean of Bucknell University’s College of Engineering. “I loved it. I felt like I had found my calling. I always wanted to do engineering and was leaning towards civil. Her courses turned me on to geotech.” Marosi did a senior honors thesis with Roth on the reliability of pile design equations, and then went to Penn State to earn her Ph.D. “I felt very well prepared for graduate school. I was exposed to everything in my master’s level classes due to my work with Mary. My relationship with her has blossomed since I left Lafayette. She is a mentor and friend I have turned to whenever I’ve faced major career decisions. I respect her and the balance she has been able to create between her family and her professional life. As a woman academic in my field, she has been tremendously helpful whenever I’ve sought her advice.”
Highlights:
Publications: Roth, C. Shackelford, and P. Nelson, eds., Uncertainty in the Geologic Environment: From Theory to Practice, ASCE, N.Y., 1996; Roth, Jennifer Mackey ’99, Carrie Mackey ’00, and J. Nyquist,“A Case Study of Reliability of Multi-Electrode Earth Resistivity testing for Geotechnical Investigations in Karst Terrains,” Engineering Geology, in press; Roth and Bonnie Thomas ’97,“Evaluation of Site Characterization Methods for Sinkholes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” Engineering Geology, vol. 2, 147-152, 1999.
Honors: Fulbright Scholarship to Norway, 2000-01; Engineer of the Year, Lehigh Valley chapter of National Society of Professional Engineers, 2000 and Lehigh Valley chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers, 1999; Lafayette’s James Crawford Award, 1999.
Achievements: NSF research grants, 1996, 1998, 2000; technical reviewer for four professional journals; editorial board of Geo-Strat.
Contact: (610) 330-5427; rothm@lafayette.edu
Mary Spry Roth '83 (right), associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, leads a class discussion.