Peter Vail to Receive Powers Medal

42 Due Honors in Salt Lake City

Read the citation and background of each recipient by following the link on their name.

Peter R. Vail, acclaimed researcher and professor emeritus at Rice University, will be honored in Salt Lake City along with 41 others who will receive honors and awards during the opening session of the AAPG Annual Meeting.

Vail, this year’s recipient of the Sidney Powers Memorial Award, will be receiving the highest honor bestowed by AAPG.

The awards ceremony is part of the opening session of the AAPG Annual Meeting, which will take place at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 11, at the Salt Lake City Salt Palace convention center. The session will include a welcome and remarks from meeting General Chairman Tom Chidsey and AAPG President Dan L. Smith.

The opening session will use images and music to capture the excitement of the profession, the geology of Utah and the triumphs of the industry.

Immediately following the awards ceremony will be the Icebreaker reception in the nearby exhibits hall.

AAPG awards, approved by the Executive Committee, are presented annually to recognize individuals for service to the profession, the science, the association and the public.

Also being recognized will be award winners from last fall’s AAPG international meeting in Cairo, plus three who will receive House of Delegates’ honors.

Vail, retired senior research scientist of Exxon Production Research Co., is widely recognized for his work in seismic stratigraphy. These procedures were published in AAPG Memoir 26 and later led to the expansion of sequence stratigraphy.

Full biographies and citations of all award winners will be included in a future BULLETIN; a story on Vail and his achievements and contributions to the profession and scienc is on page 20.

Those award winners who will be honored along with Vail are:

Honorary Membership Award

Presented to members who have distinguished themselves by their accomplishments and through their service to the profession of petroleum geology and to AAPG. This year’s honorees are:

Mahmoud M. Abdul-Baqi, Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.	Kenneth W. Glennie, consultant, Ballater, Scotland.	Walter Grün, retired, Vienna, Austria.	Roger M. Slatt, School of Geology & Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.	M. Ray Thomasson, Thomasson Partner & Associates, Denver.

Michel T. Halbouty Human Needs Award

Honoring the outstanding application of geology to the benefit of human needs, recognizing scientific excellence.

Rex Monahan, independent geologist, Sterling, Colo.

Outstanding Explorer Award

In recognition of distinguished and outstanding achievement in exploration for petroleum or mineral resources, with an intended emphasis on recent discovery.

William J. Barrett, retired, Cherry Hills Village, Colo. (RELATED STORY)

Distinguished Educator Award

For distinguished and outstanding contributions to geological education, both at the university level and toward education of the general public.

Albert V. Carozzi, Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.	Frank G. Ethridge, Department of Earth Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.

Special Award

For those whose area of work may not qualify for one of the existing awards, but is worthy of association recognition.

Waverly Person, National Earthquake Information Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colo.

Public Service Award

To recognize contributions of AAPG members to public affairs -- and intended to encourage such activities.

Charles E. Brown II, independent geologist, Denver.

Pioneer Award

To long-standing members who have contributed to the association and who have made meaningful contributions to the science of geology. This year’s honorees are:

Rushdi Said, Intergeosearch, Annandale, Va.	Robert M. Sanford, international exploration consultant, Irving, Texas.

Distinguished Service Award

To those who have distinguished themselves in singular and beneficial long-term service to AAPG. This year’s honorees are:

Norbert E. Cygan, consultant, Castle Rock, Colo.	Donald W. Lewis, retired, Lafayette, Calif.	Steven L. Veal, DCX Resources, Denver.	Paul Weimer, Department of Geologic Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.

Journalism Award

For notable journalistic achievement, in any medium, which contributes to public understanding of geology, energy resources or the technology of oil and gas exploration. This year’s honorees are:

Ron Redfern, for his book, “Origins.” Redfern also won the Journalism Award in 1983, for “Corridors of Time.”	Simon Winchester, for his book “The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology.” Winchester will be the featured speaker at the All-Convention Luncheon on Monday, May 12, in Salt Lake City.

Robert H. Dott Sr. Memorial Award

To honor and reward the author/editor of the best special publication dealing with geology published by the Association.

Marlan W. Downey, Jack C. Threet and William A. Morgan, for Memoir 74: “Petroleum Provinces of the Twenty-First Century.”

Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award

To honor and reward the author(s) of the best AAPG BULLETIN article published each calendar year.

Stephen C. Ruppel and Roger J. Barnaby, for “Contrasting Styles of Reservoir Development in Proximal and Distal Chert Facies: Devonian Thirtyone Formation, Texas,” which appeared in the January 2001 BULLETIN.

George C. Matson Memorial Award

To honor and reward the best oral presentation at the AAPG annual meeting in Denver.

Richard G. Harris, with EnCana, Calgary, Canada, for “Structural Analysis of Eastern Yemen Using Remote Sensing Data.” His co-author was Mark Cooper, also with EnCana.

Jules Braunstein Memorial Award

To honor and reward the best poster presentation at the AAPG annual meeting in Denver.

Abreu	Spears	De Brock	Meyers	Nummedal
Vitor Dos Santos Abreu, with Exxon Mobil Upstream Research, Houston; Philip A. Teas, William Spears and Steve Pierce, all with Unocal, Sugar Land, Texas; Thomas David De Brock, with Energy Partners, New Orleans; Kendall Meyers; and Dag Nummedal, Institute for Energy Research, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo., for the poster “Reservoir Characterization of the South Timbalier 26 Field: The Importance of Shelf Margin Deltas as Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Gabriel Dengo Memorial Award

To honor and reward the best paper from the AAPG international meeting in Cairo.

Robert F. Marten, with BP Egypt, Cairo, for the paper “The Future of 4-D in the Nile Delta.” His co-authors were James Keggin and Giles Watts, both with BP Egypt.

Ziad Beydoun Memorial Award

To honor and reward the best poster presentation at the AAPG international meeting in Cairo.

Philip D. Heppard, Daniel Ebrom, Michael Mueller and Leon Thomsen, all with the BP Amoco Upstream Technology Group, Houston, and Toby Harrold, BP Amoco, Sunbury-upon-Thames, UK, for the poster “Using Shear Velocity and Vp/Vs to Predict Overpressure in Petroleum Basins.”

House of Delegates Honorary Membership Award

The House’s highest honor, presented in recognition of consistent, dedicated and exemplary service to the HoD.

Tom Mairs, independent consulting geologist, Dallas.

House of Delegates Distinguished Member Award

Presented to honor unique or exemplary service to the House through committee work.

Robert L. Countryman, Northwest Stevens RMT, Occidental Oil of Elk Hills, Bakersfield, Calif.	Ed Heath, retired independent, Durango, Colo.