Ruth Allington is an engineering geologist by training. She is Joint Senior Partner of GWP Consultants LLP, the firm she joined in 1981 immediately after graduating (then the Geoffrey Walton Practice). In addition to her BSc and MSc degrees, she also has an MBA, and she is a qualified commercial and community mediator. Throughout her career, she has specialised in the design of open pit mineral operations in the UK and overseas, particularly quarries for construction materials and industrial minerals. She is an experienced expert witness. She is the immediate past President of the European Federation of Geologists, a member of the Pan European Reserves and Resources Reporting Committee (PERC) and chair of an IUGS task group on global geoscience professionalism. She is committed to promoting the highest professional standards amongst geologists and others involved in the application of geoscience, particularly through the promotion of professional titles such as CGeol and EurGeol.
She is passionate about promoting ‘joined up thinking’ and encouraging collaborative approaches to problem definition, problem solving and dispute resolution based on effective communication and co-operation. This is especially important in coordinating the wide range of professional disciplines involved in quarry planning and management, and also in facilitating effective communication between the public and operators or developers (and their advisors).
She received the Glossop Medal and delivered the 13th Glossop Lecture in 2012, and was featured as one of 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining in a publication produced by Women in Mining in 2013. She is one of the principal authors of A Quarry Design Handbook 2014 (free to download at www.gwp.uk.com/qdeshbook.html).