Fred F. Meissner, an honored college professor who pioneered the concept that methane gas could be extracted from coalbeds, has been named the 2008 recipient of the Sidney Powers Memorial Award.
Meissner, who continues his long career at Colorado School of Mines in Littleton, Colo., heads the list of those being honored this year by the Association.
He is cited as an AAPG Honorary Member in 2001, also won AAPG’s Grover E. Murray Memorial Distinguished Educator Award in 2005.
Joining him at the top of the awardees list is AAPG past president and Honorary Member James A. Gibbs , with Five States Energy in Dallas, who is this year’s recipient of the Michel T. Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award.
AAPG awards, nominated via the Advisory Council and approved by the Executive Committee, are presented annually to recognize individuals for service to the profession, the science, the Association and the public.
As a recipient of the Powers Medal, Meissner is bestowed the Association’s highest honor.
Meissner and his fellow honorees will be recognized at the opening session of the 2008 AAPG Annual Convention, which will be held April 20-23 in San Antonio.
Interviews with Meissner and Gibbs will be published in a future EXPLORER, and biographies and citations of all award winners will be included in a future BULLETIN. [Past Award Recipients]
Those award winners approved by the Executive Committee and who will be honored along with Meissner and Gibbs in San Antonio 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.
- George Eynon, Canadian Energy Research Institute, Calgary, Canada.
- Donald W. Lewis , consultant, Lafayette, Calif.
- Peter M. Lloyd, Heriot Watt University, Falicon, France.
- Ernest A. Mancini, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
- Stephen A. Sonnenberg , Sonnenberg Associates, Golden, Colo.
- Jack C. Threet, independent, Houston.
Outstanding Explorer Award
Presented to members in recognition of distinguished and outstanding achievement in exploration for petroleum or mineral resources, with an intended emphasis on recent discovery.
- Dudley J. Hughes , Hughes Oil Inc., Flowood, Miss.
Distinguished Service Award
Presented to those who have distinguished themselves in singular and beneficial long-term service to AAPG.
- Katharine Lee Avary, West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Morgantown, W.V.
- John “Jack” D. Edwards, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
- Barry A. Goldstein, PIRSA, Adelaide, Australia.
- Douglas C. Peters , Peters Geosciences, Golden, Colo.
Grover E. Murray Distinguished Educator Award
Presented for distinguished and outstanding contributions to geological education, both at the university level and toward education of the general public.
- Robert S. Gray, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, Calif.
- S. George Pemberton, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Special Award
Presented to individuals and organizations whose area of work may not qualify for one of the existing awards, but is worthy of Association recognition.
- Nikolai V. Lopatin, Geosystem Institute, Moscow, Russia.
- Steven L. Veal, AAPG Europe Office, London, England, and DCX Resources.
Public Service Award
Presented to recognize contributions of AAPG members to public affairs – and intended to encourage such activities.
- Ashton F. Embry, Institute of Sedimentary Petroleum Geology, Calgary, Canada.
- Douglas C. Ratcliff, Jackson School of Geosciences, Austin, Texas.
Pioneer Award
Presented to long-standing members who have contributed to the Association and who have made meaningful contributions to the science of geology.
- Leonard Frank Brown Jr., Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin, Texas.
Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the author(s) of the best AAPG BULLETIN article published each calendar year.
- Graham R. Davies and Langhorne B. Smith Jr., for “Structurally-Controlled Carbonate Diagenesis: Creation of Hydrothermal Dolomite and Leached Limestone Reservoirs, ” which appeared in the November 2006 BULLETIN. Davies is with GDGC, Calgary, Canada, and Smith is with New York State Museum, Albany, N.Y .
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.
- P.M. “Mitch” Harris and L.J. “Jim” Weber, for AAPG Memoir 88, Giant Hydrocarbon Reservoirs of the World: From Rocks to Reservoir Characterization and Modeling . Harris is with Chevron Energy Technology, San Ramon, Calif., and Weber is wit h ExxonMobil, The Woodlands, Texas.
J.C. “Cam” Sproule Memorial Award
Presented to recognize and reward younger authors of papers applicable to petroleum geology.
- Alejandro Escalona, for the paper “Petrophysical and Seismic Properties of Lower Eocene Clastic Rocks in the Central Maracaibo Basin. ” Escalona is with the University of Stavanger, Tananger, Norway.
George C. Matson Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the AAPG Annual Convention in Long Beach, Calif.
- Cathy L. Farmer, for the paper “Structural and Sedimentological Evolution of the Ultra-Deep Gas Play Fairway – Gulf of Mexico Shelf, Texas and Louisiana.”
Her co-authors are Debra H. Phillips, R.H. Benthien, D.V. Dailey, B.W. Horn, D.G. Derbecker and K.L. Hargrove . All are with BP America, Houston.
Jules Braunstein Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the AAPG Annual Convention in Houston.
- Jose I. Guzman, Rod Sloan, Shengyu Wu and Shaoqing Sun, for the poster “A Comprehensive Classification of Seals Based on Worldwide Subsurface Analogs.” All are with C&C Reservoirs, Houston.
Geosciences in the Media Award
Presented for notable journalistic achievement in any medium, which contributes to public understanding of geology, energy resources or the technology of oil and gas exploration. Granting of this award in any year is discretionary.
- Tyler Priest , chief historian for the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) history project and author most recently of The Offshore Imperative: Shell Oil’s Search for Petroleum in Postwar America. Priest also is clinical professor and director of global studies, Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Texas.