Interview with Dr. Craig Lake, by Ashley MacDonald
Dr. Craig Lake is a professor in the Civil and Resource Engineering Department for both undergraduate and graduate students, and has worn many hats over his almost 23 years at the university. Students may know him from taking his courses such as Soil Mechanics and Solid Waste and Landfill Engineering or even as the current undergraduate coordinator for the department. We hope you enjoy getting to know more about Dr. Lake and that you take something away from his experiences in engineering.
On his career before Dalhousie:
“I did my undergrad here at Dal- I did civil engineering, co-op. Before that, I grew up in Windsor, Nova Scotia … I went to Acadia for the first two years of my degree then I came here. I spent three years here, I worked co-op doing different lab testing type jobs like material, soil type stuff – that’s sort of how I got interested in soil mechanics. Then I went to Western university, I was there for 5 years to do my PhD. Then my wife and I moved back to Halifax, I took a job with a company called Jacques Whitford, which doesn’t exist anymore … basically I did geotechnical consulting. I was there for two years and a bit just working on projects for roadways, bridges, landfills, retaining walls, anything under the sun.”
On how he got into geotechnical engineering:
“So totally stumbled, I didn’t have a clue. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do civil engineering. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I did the two years, almost went into Mining Engineering but went into Civil because a lot of my friends were going into Civil … I started doing work terms, I did a work term with Jacques Whitford, the company I started working for 7 years later, and sort of liked the whole idea of construction and testing and theory.”
On what made him want to go into teaching:
“I had a great grandmother that was a teacher, I have a grandmother that’s a teacher, and my mother is a teacher. I didn’t ever think of teaching as a career choice, I don’t know why … My supervisor talked me into doing my PhD, actually, because he thought I would make a good professor and teacher. I went to work with this company for two years and then this job came up here at Dal. Professor jobs don’t come up every day, so I thought maybe I’d try it and see; I could always go back to what I was doing because I did like it. And I’ve been here for 22, almost 23 years.”
On a lesson learned in his career so far:
“I would say that you have to enjoy what you’re doing, if you don’t it is a very long life. Not to say that you need to enjoy it 100% of the time but by in large you do have to derive some sort of satisfaction.”
On his life outside of work:
“I have kids and they keep me busy, not as much as they used to. My wife and I, we have a pretty quiet life but I do like to exercise. I’m a very rigid fitness person. I like to go and be outside a lot, whether it’s going to my parent’s cottage in the summer, or I love walking … The last couple of months though, I’ve been addicted to Game of Thrones.”
On his advice for students:
“I’d say, students are very focused on results, and I think you have to be, but I think students could be just a little more focused on trying to do the best that they can do and try to understand things. Marks don’t matter so much, to be quite honest, for most things - they do for some. I feel like students get so worked up over their mark that they might sort of lose track of what they’re really there for, which is to learn. If you get an A and you can’t remember what you learned in a course, but you get a B and you remember everything, you’re probably that much further ahead.”
About life and careers after graduation:
“I think it goes back to what I said before, that you need to find something that you like. It may not become apparent the first time that you get a job, and liking something isn't necessarily liking everything. Maybe it’s the people that you like or the type of work or the location that you like; Something has to drive you to want to go to work. You’re at work 40 hours a week, you sleep a lot more than that and your spare time is actually a lot less than that so if you don’t like it, it’s really not a good way to go through life … If you like something you’re going to end up doing well at it, if you do well at it you’re probably going to make good money at it.”
Final note from Ashley:
A big thank you is owed to Dr. Craig Lake for his thoughtful responses and advice to students. We hope that this article provided not only a better background on Dr. Lake as a professor but also some comfort for students that may not know exactly where they want to end up yet. Again, thank you Dr. Lake for this interview.