Biography
Eldon Gath
Earth Consultants International
Orange, California
Mr. Gath received a B.S. in geology from the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota in 1978. Since moving to California in 1979, he has been active in post-graduate education, first in engineering geology at California State Uni
versity at Los Angeles, and most currently in the Ph.D. program in geology at the University of California at Riverside [from which he is on a yearlong leave of absence while serving as President of the Association of Engineering Geologists.] Eldon plann
ed to be a chemist, but after a bad-lab day came a geomorphology field trip, looking at terraces of the Minnesota River, followed by a campfire discussion of geology and life. That was all it took to forget about the indoor life of a chemist. Not really
liking the rocks, minerals, and the mining side of geology, he discovered engineering geology and immediately clicked with its involvement in civil structures and dynamic geologic processes affecting public safety like landslides and earthquakes. Eldon
joined Pacific Soils Engineering in Irvine, California in 1980, and then Leighton and Associates in 1984, eventually becoming Director of Geology for their Los Angeles Regional Center, a Principal in the firm in 1989, and on the Board of Directors in 1992
.
In January, 1997, he was appointed President of Earth Consultants International, a new affiliated company of Leighton. His projects have ranged from residential subdivision developments for hundreds of homes, city and county General Plan Safety Elemen
ts, seismic design and active fault studies for numerous projects, landslide remediation investigations, regional planning studies, and active fault research studies for the U.S. Geological Survey and the Southern California Earthquake Center. He has bee
n active in numerous professional organizations, including President of the Association of Engineering Geologists, and membership in the, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Geological Society of America, American Geophysical Union, Seismological S
ociety of America, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
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