Predicting earthquakes and finding oil doesn’t replace the joy of teaching for one MATC instructor. Ram Agrawal was involved in micro-earthquakes recording and prediction in New Madrid (southeast of Missouri), related to the New Madrid Fault Zone.
“By observing the frequency of occurrence of these minor quakes, I predicted the one quake that occurred in 1970 of magnitude 3.5 in that area,” Agrawal said. Later on, he worked at the University of Colorado-Boulder on related earthquakes’ research.
But he didn’t stop there. In 1981, Agrawal got hired by Amoco productions in Houston, Texas, as Staff Geophysicist. “My job was to explore and interpret seismic data to locate reefs (or oil-bearing horizons). The oil bearing horizons are where they find and drill for oil,” said Agrawal.
Years later, Agrawal got a better offer with Phillips Petroleum Company. While there, he found many more oil-bearing horizons in Michigan which are still producing oil.
After that he traveled all over the world for four years working as a geophysical consultant in places like Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
Agrawal expressed that the oil companies treated him well, and he “never thought of teaching.” But he got married and had two kids. Agrawal believed the life of traveling all over the world would be too hard on his family. He wanted to offer his children a stable place for their education, feeling the United States offered the best option.
“Their education was very important to me,” he said. “I sacrificed having that life to give my kids the best education.”
Education is something important to Agrawal. In 1968, after receiving his masters in GEO- Physics in Benaras Hindu University in India, he came to the United States because he wanted to get higher education.
He graduated from St. Louis University with a master’s degree in mathematics in 1970. Agrawal decided to live in Milwaukee because it’s “a nice place to live and raise a family.” His first job in the area was as a mine tunnel inspector. Soon he got a teaching job at UW-Waukesha.
In 1992, Agrawal got an offer from MATC to work as a full-time teacher and has been here ever since. He states that he uses simple language when teaching and puts himself in the students’ shoes. “I love teaching now,” he said.
Agrawal also expressed he enjoys using what he’s learned in the past to reach students. He offers advice to his students, such as not letting personal problems get in their way. “One should be determined, have perseverance, be goal-oriented, have a positive attitude and be punctual. Those are the qualities to succeed.”
Agrawal feels that the life he sacrificed was all worth it. With great pride he speaks of his children. “My son, Bobby Agrawal, graduated from Nicolet High School as valedictorian in June 1996 at the age of 17 years.”
His son got his bachelor’s degree from UW Madison in only two years. After that he went to the medical school at Madison. At the age of 25 years, he is in his third year of the Neurosurgery Residency Program at UW Hospitals in Madison.
Agrawal’s daughter, Sabina Agrawal, is working as a staff physician at V. A. Medical Center and as a Geriatrician in Madison. He credits his children’s success to his wife Meera. “Raising two kids to be physicians in the family is due to the incredible help of my wife,” he said. Besides teaching, Agrawal is also a faculty advisor for the International Student Organization.
He still gets calls from big oil companies offering him jobs. However, “I will never change the life I have here for any amount of money.
