Hi.  My name is Tom Seybert.  I am an Associate Professor at Penn State Wilkes-Barre where my primary duties include teaching surveying and engineering to the students enrolled in our associate degree and baccalaureate degree programs. I am also the chair for Surveying Engineering and Surveying Technology programs.  I have been working at this campus location since January 1996, however, I have a long association with Penn State University that started way back in the Fall of 1972, as a student at Penn State New Kensington.

I have completed the academic "hat trick" so to speak, receiving my B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Penn State, all in Civil Engineering.  On top of that, I have over 23 years of teaching and research experience with Penn State at the three campus locations of Beaver, University Park and Wilkes-Barre.  Penn State is a great place to pursue an education.  It is a great place to work.

Currently, I teach surveying and engineering to surveying students.  We have a pair of programs at Wilkes-Barre for the prospective professional surveyor.  We offer the degrees of Associate of Engineering in Surveying Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Surveying Engineering.  I typically teach the first year courses of Plane Surveying (SUR 111), Freshman Seminar (PSU 008) and Curve Geometry (SUR 112) to incoming students.  I am also responsible for the delivery of Land Development Design (SUR 482) and  Stormwater Management (SUR 485) to the third and fourth year students. These are my primary teaching responsibilities, however, like all faculty involved in the surveying engineering program, I have opportunities to teach other surveying courses as the need arises.  To learn more about the surveying engineering program at Penn State, visit our program web site at http://surveying.wb.psu.edu and browse a bit.

Along with my interest in surveying, I am an urban hydrologist.  You might say, oh, that's nice.  What is an urban hydrologist?  Well, in very simple terms, an urban hydrologist is someone who studies the rainfall-runoff process in the urban environment.  In particular, I am interested in such issues as stormwater management, flood control, surface water quality, transport of surface pollutants in runoff, removal of pollutants in runoff, groundwater recharge and other surface water issues as they pertain to the urban environment.

I enjoy participating in continuing education for practicing professionals.  Since 1984, I have been involved in an annual short course titled "Computational Methods in Stormwater Management" which is delivered by the Continuing and Distance Education folks of Penn State's Office of Outreach and Distance Learning.  We recently celebrated our 20th year of presenting the course which changes from year to year as methods and needs change. We have around 40 to 80 people per year attend the course. This activity keeps me connected with practicing professionals and affords me the opportunity to discuss current engineering design issues in the class room with undergraduate students. Check our web site at http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/Stormwater/ for more information.

Every year at the annual Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors state conference, I teach a workshop on Basic Hydraulics and Hydrology of Stormwater Management for surveyors.  Gert Aron, retired Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering from Penn State, teaches the course with me, and we typically interact with 25 to 30 surveyors who engage in land development activities.

In the past five years I have been involved in two watershed assessment and protection projects through the Growing Greener Program of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The first project was for the Sylvan Lake watershed in Ross Township, Luzerne County, PA. The second project was for Crescent Lake watershed in Auburn Township, Susquehanna County, PA. Both projects required the collection of rainfall and runoff data, along with extensive water quality sampling in the lake, and in the inflow and outflow streams of the lakes.  The result of the work is a plan for protecting the surface waters of the watershed from pollution and water quality degredation. Both were fun projects, particularly with the collection of field data.

        

I enjoy classic automobiles and sports cars.  I have owned a few classics in the past, particularly a 1966 Dodge Charger, a 1967 Chevelle Sport Convertible, a 1969 Corvette L46 coupe, and a 1970 Dodge Charger. They were all fun to own and drive.  I just sold the 1966 Dodge Charger after 29 years of ownership -- that might be some kind of record!  My daily driver used to be an older BMW 325i (258,000 miles and running strong when I sold it).   It is amazing how affordable a BMW can be, if one simply waits to buy it used with 100,000+ miles.  They are really not that expensive to maintain either.  And really, a 5 to 10-year old BMW is more fun to drive than a brand new Chevy, Honda, Ford or Toyota.  BMW builds a great car that is a joy to drive.  All roads are short when you own a BMW.

I like biking.  I own a mountain bike and ride it whenever I can.  I prefer to bike the back roads of Pennsylvania where traffic is light and nature is robust.  I really enjoy biking "Rails to Trails, particularly Pine Creek Gorge and Lehigh Gorge.  I also like the more primitive trails like the one from Montrose, PA to who knows where!!!  That is some kind of a trail.  It is easy to get lost in a few places, but rarely do you see another biker.

I also like hiking.  I prefer day trips, but occasionally I do the multi-day back-pack thing.  My favorite hiking area is the Pine Creek Gorge of north central Pennsylvania. There is just something about those trails and trees and mountains and streams in that area. The hikes are rigorous yet relaxing.  Since moving to northeastern Pennsylvania a few years ago, I have re-discovered Ricketts Glen State Park as another favorite hiking area.  Wow! This park is absolutely beautiful.  I particularly enjoy hiking the glen immediately after a freshly fallen snow.  So peaceful and calm, it is a great get-a-way outing.

What do I do when I want to have real fun?

What do I do to have real fun? Oh, I just said that. Uh, well, I travel to Disney World with my three favorite people -- my wife Chris (beside me in the Adventureland photo), -- Beth (the girl with the beautiful hair) and Ben (the guy who always wears that curious smile).  We visited during January 2004. It was a great trip with Christmas decorations still in place. We plan to visit again in December 2005.