Annual Report 2007: FY July 1, 2006-June 30, 2007
Distinguished Lecture Committee
The Distinguished Lecture Committee functions as an arm of AAPG that provides lecturers speaking on important and timely topics in the field of their expertise. The committee’s key strategies are to (1) identify topics that support the business decisions made within the exploration, development, and production industries, (2) showcase the state-of-the-art technology and concepts used in the oil & gas industry, whether it be in business or in the academic environment and (3) cooperate with other societies supporting joint lectures and bringing local societies into a common forum.
The committee nominates and selects distinguished speakers for Fall and Spring lecture tours. The committee currently consists of 20 dedicated professionals, representing 8 oil and gas companies, 1 consultant, 9 academic institutions, and 2 state and governmental offices. Based on the success of the 2006–2007 season (Table I) and the breadth of speakers for 2007–2008 (Table II), the committee continues to maintain a high caliber and balanced roster of lectures that demonstrate a breadth of science to wide audiences.
The costs for the 2006–2007 domestic and international tours were $214,668. This included $96,741 for direct travel. Income from host societies and universities to partially defray the expenses amounted to $41,883 with the AAPG Foundation using its Distinguished Lecture Fund to subsidize the remainder of the incurred expenses.
The seven 2006–2007 domestic Distinguished Lecturers provided a total of 102 visits, reaching an audience of 5080 students and society members. AAPG and SEG rotate responsibility for the AAPG-SEG Inter-Society Distinguished Lecturer. In 2006–2007, SEG coordinated the tour for William Fahmy, the selected speaker, visiting 36 groups and reaching 1821 people. Don Lawton was selected to be the 2007–2008 AAPG-SEG Inter-society Distinguished Lecturer, which AAPG is administering. This will be an international tour for the joint lecturer. The title of his talk is “Anisotropic Depth Imaging and Interpretation in Thrust-Belt Exploration”.
The slate of domestic Distinguished Lecturers for 2007–2008 (Table II) has increased to a total of 9 for the year and it looks to be a very successful year so far with a total of 208 requests. As usual, this number suggests that each speaker will have a very hectic schedule as he/she endeavors to broaden AAPG’s impact in the geosciences.
The International Distinguished Lecture program consisted of 4 speakers in 2006–2007 who also had very successful tours. They made 44 stops in Europe, the Middle East, Eastern/Central Asia and Asia/Pacific reaching and audience of 2310 geoscientists.
For the 2007–2008 year the slate of international speakers has been increased due to a continuous desire from the regions for more speakers. We are pleased to have 6 speakers traveling through Asia/Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe.
At the Houston Convention in 2005, the then President-Elect Lee Billingsley charged the DLC with a new program referred to as Distinguished Instructors. He asked the DLC to generate specific lecturers who could present anywhere from a half-day workshop to a two-day short course. The DLC spent considerable time at the Meeting discussing various lecturers and/or topics for this new offering. He encouraged the DLC to offer at least one domestic and one international Distinguished Instructor to the groups. During the 2006–2007 year we were able to offer the International Distinguished Instructor, Vitor Abreu, who visited 45 different cities with 2800 individual participants. The Distinguished Instructors will serve a two year term for AAPG; consequently, they will reach a broader audience. The domestic Distinguished Instructor will kick off this winter with Dr. Kevin Bohacs of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company.
AAPG appreciates the support demonstrated by the Distinguished Lecturers’ companies and universities in providing the resources required for the development of presentations and for the extended periods of absence from the office for the Distinguished Lecture’ and Instructor’s tours.
We are pleased the significant support from the AAPG Foundation has continued as a result of major contributions to the Distinguished Lecture Fund establishing named lectures, such as: the Allan P. Bennison International Distinguished Lecturer; the Haas-Pratt Distinguished Lecturer, funded by Merrill W. Haas; the Roy M. Huffington International Distinguished Lecturer, funded by Terry Huffington in honor of her father; the Dean A. McGee International Distinguished Lecturer, funded by Kerr-McGee Corporation; and J. Ben Carsey (a bequest from J. Ben Carsey, Jr., in memory of his father–former AAPG President).
The committee gratefully acknowledges the AAPG Foundation’s generous support and encourages AAPG members to support the Foundation’s Distinguished Lecture Fund, which will ensure the continued success of this program for future generations of geologists.
Gregor Eberli, Chair
Executive Committee Liaison: Ernest Mancini
Committee Members: John B. Anderson, Mark Cooper (vice chair), Rebecca Dodge (EMD Rep), Shirley P. Dutton, Gregor Eberli (chair), Rob Gawthorpe, Katherine Giles, G. Michael Grammer, Richard H. Groshong, Jr., Peter H. Hennings, Jean C.C. Hsieh, Charles Kerans, Lee F. Krystinik (vice chair), David K. Larue, Michael D. Lewan, Steve May, Mark Sonnenfeld, Carl Steffensen, Lori L. Summa, and Bruce Trudgill.
International subcommittee: John Armentrout, Paul Crevello, Herman Darman, Barry A. Goldstein, Alfredo Guzman, Ahmed Hameda, Peter W. Homewood, Nosa Omorodion, Frank J. Picha, William Sassi, Gabor Tari, and Stanley Wharton
Africa subcommittee: Nosa Omorodion, (chair) and Deborah E. Ajakaiye (president of the African Region).
Asia/Pacific subcommittee: Herman Darman (chair), Michael McWalter (Papua, New Guinea), Barry A. Goldstein (Australia).
European subcommittee: William Sassi, (chair), George Krastev Ajdanlijsky (Bulgaria), Knut O. Bjorlykke (Norway), Helena Dobrova (Switzerland), Carlo Doglioni (Italy), Vlastimila Dvorakova (Czech Republic), Andras Galacz (Hungary), Jan Golonka (Poland), Andrew Hurst (Scotland), Vanessa Kertznus (Scotland), Victor Mocanu (Romania), Wolfgang Nachtmann (Austria), Jeroen M. Peters (The Netherlands), Fancoise Roure (France)
Latin America subcommittee: Stanley Wharton (chair), Felipe Audemard (Venezuela), Alfredo Guzman (Mexico), Nilo Azambuja Filho (Brazil), Carlos Jorge Abreu, (Brazil, president of Latin America region)
Middle East subcommittee: Ahmed (Qasim) Hameda (chair), AbdulKader M. Al-Afifi, (president of the Middle East Region).