Best of the best: Pioneer researcher Koenraad Weber and past AAPG president Robbie Gries head the list of people who will receive AAPG’s highest honors and awards in Long Beach.
Koenraad Weber , a pioneer researcher in hydrocarbon recovery and internationally recognized distinguished educator, will receive the 2012 Sidney Powers Memorial Award, AAPG’s highest honor, during the opening session of the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Long Beach, Calif.
Weber is joined at the top of this year’s AAPG awardees list by Robbie Rice Gries , president and CEO of Priority Oil & Gas LLC in Denver, who has been named recipient of this year’s Michel T. Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award.
The opening session is scheduled Sunday, April 22 at 4 p.m., at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in the Grand Ballroom. The program will be preceded in the same room at 3 p.m. by the first-ever open-to-all announcement of the winner of the AAPG Imperial Barrel Award competition.
In addition to honoring the awardees, the opening session also will feature the official welcome from ACE general chair Kay Pitts and the presidential address from AAPG President Paul Weimer.
AAPG awards, approved by the Executive Committee, are presented annually at the ACE opening session to recognize individuals for service to the profession, the science, the Association and the public.
Weber, who received AAPG Honorary membership in 2004, served a lengthy career as production geologist with Royal Dutch Shell while simultaneously teaching as professor of production geology at the Mining and Petroleum Engineering faculty at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
With Shell he worked both onshore and offshore fields (oil and gas) spanning five continents, having the fortunate opportunity of being involved with projects involving the Niger Delta, the Venezuelan Bolivar coastal fields and the Leman Bank field in the North Sea – to name a few.
Weber also has written many papers and been a sought-after keynote speaker for many conferences in a global capacity.
Gries, also an Honorary Member and AAPG past president is the sixth recipient of the Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award, given in recognition of outstanding and exceptional leadership in the petroleum geosciences.
Biographies and citations of all award winners will be included in a future BULLETIN.
Award winners announced by AAPG and who will be honored along with Weber and Gries in Long Beach are:
Honorary Member Award
Presented to members who have distinguished themselves by their accomplishments and through their service to the profession of petroleum geology and to AAPG.
- Adekunle A. Adesida, Priority Oil & Gas, Denver.
- Ibrahim A. Al-Jallal, Sandroses Geological Consultancies, Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
- Lee T. Billingsley, Abraxas Petroleum, San Antonio, Texas.
- Dudley W. Bolyard, Bolyard Land & Exploration, Centennial, Colo.
- Paul M. Harris, Chevron Energy Technology, San Ramon, Calif.
- Phillip H. Stark, IHS Energy Group, Englewood, Colo.
Norman H. Foster Outstanding Explorer Award
Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award
- Henry W. Posamentier, Chevron, Houston.
Distinguished Service Award
Presented to those who have distinguished themselves in long-term service to AAPG.
- Edith C. Allison, consultant, Rockville, Md.
- Susan M. Cunningham, Noble Energy, Houston.
- David A. Dolph, Nexen Petroleum International, Calgary, Canada.
- Paul F. Hoffman, Allen-Hoffman Exploration, Houston.
- Alain-Yves Huc, Institut Francais Du Petrole, Rueil-Malmaison, France.
- William A. Morgan, ConocoPhillips, Houston.
- Adedoja R. Ojelabi, Chevron Nigeria, San Ramon, Calif.
- Victor H. Vega, Equion Energia, Bogota, Colombia.
- Mark L. Wilson, Santa Maria Pacific Holdings, Bakersfield, Calif.
Grover E. Murray Memorial Distinguished Educator Award
Presented for distinguished and outstanding contributions to geological education, both at the university level and toward education of the general public.
- Andrew Hurst, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland.
- Howard D. Johnson, Imperial College, London, England.
Harrison Schmitt Award
(Previously “Special Award”)
Pioneer Award
Presented to long-standing members who have contributed to the Association and who have made meaningful contributions to the science of geology.
- Tim T. Schowalter, independent, Grandby, Colo.
Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the author(s) of the best AAPG BULLETIN article published each calendar year.
- Robert H. Lander and Linda M. Bonnell, for “A Model For Fibrous Illite Nucleation and Growth In Sandstones,” which appeared in the August 2010 BULLETIN.
Both are with Geocosm, Austin, Texas.
Robert H. Dott Sr. Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the author/editor of the best special publication dealing with geology published by the Association.
- Michael Pöppelreiter, Carmen García-Carballido and Martin Kraaijveld, for AAPG Memoir 92: Dipmeter and Borehole Image Log Technology.
Pöppelreiter is with Shell Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait; García-Carballido is with Kiethfield Smithy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland; and Kraaijveld is with Shell, Rsjswijk, Netherlands.
J.C. “Cam” Sproule Memorial Award
Presented to recognize and reward younger authors of papers applicable to petroleum geology.
- Alexei V. Milkov, for “Methanogenic Biodegradation of Petroleum in the West Siberian Basin (Russia): Significance for Formation of Giant Cenomanian Gas Pools,” which appeared in the October 2010 BULLETIN.
Milkov is with BP Russia, Houston.
John W. Shelton Search and Discovery Award
Presented to honor and reward the author(s) of the best contribution to the Search and Discovery website in the past year.
- Katherine Giles, for the article “Tracking the Migration of Salt Diapirs Using Halokinetic Sequence Stratigraphy.”
Giles is with New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, N.M.
George C. Matson Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2011 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Houston.
- Lars Wensaas, for the paper “Source Rock Prediction From Seismic Part I: Links Between Rock Properties and Seismic Attributes.”
His co-authors were Marita Gading, Helge Loseth and Michael Springer.
Wensaas is with Statoil, Trondheim, Norway.
Jules Braunstein Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2011 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Houston.
- Roger M. Slatt and Younane Abousleiman, for the poster “Multi-Scale, Brittle-Ductile Couplets in Unconventional Gas Shales: Merging Sequence Stratigraphy and Geomechanics.”
Slatt, an AAPG Honorary Member, is with the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.
Gabriel Dengo Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Milan, Italy.
- Jonny Hesthammer, with Emergy Exploration AS in Bergen, Norway, for his paper “CSEM Efficiency – Evaluation of Recent Drilling Results.”
His co-authors are Susanne Sperrevik and Aristofanis Stefatos.
Ziad Beydoun Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Milan, Italy.
- Stan Abele and Rocky Roden , for the poster “Multi-Scale, Brittle-Ductile Couplets in Unconventional Gas Shales: Merging Sequence Stratigraphy and Geomechanics.”
Both are with Seismic Micro-Technology, Houston.
Geosciences in the Media Award
Presented for notable journalistic achievement that contributes to public understanding of geology, energy resources or the technology of oil and gas exploration.
- Nick Eyles, professor of geology at University of Toronto in Canada, has authored more than 150 publications on ice age geology and environmental geology.
Two separate awards also will be presented during the opening session:
- William J. Barrett, retired CEO and chairman of Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp., will be honored as the recipient of this year’s L. Austin Weeks Memorial Medal, presented by the AAPG Foundation.
The Weeks Medal is presented annually by the AAPG Foundation in recognition of extraordinary philanthrophy and service in advancing the mission of the AAPG Foundation.
It is the Foundation’s highest honor.
- Sven Treitel will be presented with AGI’s Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal. AGI renamed its Legendary Geoscientist Award in honor of Marcus E. Milling (AAPG Honorary Member) upon his death in October 2006. Milling served as AGI executive director for 14 years.