Ms. Pamela Judge is a fifth semester PhD student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Previously she earned a BS in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 2005, and a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2006.   She then worked as a consultant for a private engineering company in the greater Washington DC area for six years.  Her predominate interest is finding cost effective mitigation techniques for geotechnical engineering issues related to natural disasters (such as landslides, sinkholes, and earthquakes).  As a consultant, she was involved in site characterization, soil and rock mechanics studies.  She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary projects which bring together engineering, earth sciences and other social or economic disciplines for innovative solutions to engineering problems.  While pursuing her PhD, Pam was a teaching assistant for Soil Mechanics, as well as a research assistant on the Perrell Fellowship.  Her current research includes investigating the relationship between soil strength and coastal erosion of soft saturated clay soils in tidal basins and wet lands.  She plans to become a professor upon completion of her PhD program.