Professor, researcher and visionary geologist [PFItemLinkShortcode|id:2126|type:standard|anchorText:John W. Shelton|cssClass:|title:Medalist Shelton a ‘Persistent Expediter’|PFItemLinkShortcode] will receive the 2011 Sidney Powers Medal, AAPG’s highest honor, during the opening session of the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Houston.
Joining Shelton at the top of this year’s awardees list is [PFItemLinkShortcode|id:2132|type:standard|anchorText:Dan L. Smith|cssClass:|title:Smith: Leading With Fairness, Integrity|PFItemLinkShortcode], exploration vice president for Sandalwood Oil and Gas and independent geologist in Houston, who will receive the Michel T. Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award.
The one-hour opening session will begin at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 10, at the George R. Brown Convention Center. A pre-show multi-media presentation spotlighting the profession, the industry and AAPG will begin at 3:30 p.m.
In addition to honoring the awardees, the session also will feature the official welcome from ACE general chair Steve Levine, and the presidential address from AAPG President David Rensink.
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.
Also to be honored is Houston independent oilman [PFItemLinkShortcode|id:2099|type:standard|anchorText:Jack C. Threet|cssClass:|title:Threet Honored|PFItemLinkShortcode], the recipient of this year’s L. Austin Weeks Memorial Medal; and AAPG member Robert H. Dott Jr., will be presented with AGI’s Matrcus Milling Medal.
The Weeks Medal is presented annually by the AAPG Foundation in recognition of extraordinary philanthropy and service in advancing the mission of the AAPG Foundation.
It is the Foundation’s highest honor.
Among Shelton’s achievements over his career is his foresight in the early 1990s to plan and implement AAPG Datapages, the Association’s digital library and publishing program. His leadership continued the growth in the digital library, and an award is in his name that recognizes the best contribution to the Search and Discovery website over the year.
Shelton was an early developer of the concepts and application of sedimentary petrology and depositional environments to petroleum exploration, and at Shell Research was among the pioneers in applying depositional environments to prospect definition.
He had a 20-year career as a professor at Oklahoma State University, mentoring many of his master’s students to distinguished careers.
Working with ERICO and later Masera, Shelton also was a pioneer in the concept of multi-client studies and took lead roles as both director and contributor on major projects in the North Sea, North Africa, the Mediterranean, Africa and China.
Smith is the fifth recipient of the Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award, given in recognition of outstanding and exceptional leadership in the petroleum geosciences.
Interviews with both Shelton and Smith are included in this EXPLORER, and biographies and citations of all award winners will be included in a future BULLETIN.
Award winners who will be honored along with Shelton, Smith and Threet in Houston are:
Honorary Member Award
- Robert L. Countryman, Bakersfield, Calif.
- Barry J. Katz, Chevron, Houston.
- R. Randy Ray, R-3 Exploration, Lakewood, Colo.
- Charles A. Sternbach, Star Creek Energy, Houston.
- Steven L. Veal, DCX Resources, London, England.
Outstanding Explorer Award
- Douglas K. Strickland, Jayden Consulting, Oklahoma City.
Strickland is the principle discoverer of the Covenant Field in Sevier County, Utah, the initial discovery within the central Utah Overthrust Belt.
Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award
Ole Jacob Martinsen, Statoil ASA, Bergen, Norway.
Martinsen, the head of exploration research at StatoilHydro, is one of the key geoscientists in northwest Europe.
Distinguished Service Award
- Deborah E. Ajakaiye, Abuja, Nigeria.
- Herman Darman, Shell International E&P, Rijswijk, Netherlands.
- Rick L. Ericksen, Mississippi State Board of Registered Professional Geologists, Jackson, Miss.
- Gretchen M. Gillis, Aramco Services.
- Gina B. Godfrey, PetroWeb, Denver.
- Sigrunn Johnsen, RWE Dea Norge AS, Oslo, Norway.
- Walter C. “Rusty” Riese, BP Alternative Energy, Houston.
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.
- Lawrence D. Meckel, L.D. Meckel and Company, Denver, honored for a long teaching and training career for both companies and schools, largely at the Colorado School of Mines.
- Ronald J. Steel, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. Steel is both professor and David Centennial Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, and Sixth-Century Chair of Sedimentary Geology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
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.
- Anthony Doré, Statoil, Houston, honored for his published contributions and analysis on the tectonic history, geology and petroleum systems, of the northeast Atlantic margin; for his “influential” leadership in working to bridge industry and academia; and for being “an enlightened” senior manager who has influenced his company to embrace new geological play concepts and technology.
- Myron K. “Mike” Horn, M.K. Horn and Associates, Tulsa. Horn, an AAPG Honorary Member, has developed four global databases that are significant parts of the GIS-UDRIL project.
Public Service Award
Presented to recognize contributions of AAPG members to public affairs – and intended to encourage such activities.
- Mark J. Doelger, Barlow and Haun, Casper, Wyo., for his efforts since the late 1960s to “accurately communicate” the story of oil and gas exploration to the general public. He has played an on-going role in speaking to state and federal regulators, government agencies, environmental and industry trade groups and various commerce and civic associations. He also has played a prominent role in helping with Wyoming legislation regarding the role of the Wyoming Pipeline Authority.
Pioneer Award
Presented to long-standing members who have contributed to the Association and who have made meaningful contributions to the science of geology.
- J. Myles Bowen, retired (Shell), Newton Abbot, England. Bowen had a long and successful career as the leader of exploration teams, working (and scoring discoveries) in Venezuela, Nigeria, the North Sea (as leader of Shell Expro) and Italy, among other ventures (See February EXPLORER).
- John Wold, Wold Oil and Gas, Casper, Wyo. Wold, who previously received AAPG’s Public Service Award, has had a long and successful career as a geologist and leader in Wyoming. Also, in 1969 he became the first professional geologist to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. (See story, page 56.)
Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the author(s) of the best AAPG BULLETIN article published each calendar year.
- William A. Ambrose, Tucker F. Hentz, Florence Bonnaffe, Robert G. Loucks, L. Frank Brown Jr., Fred P. Wang and Eric C. Potter, for “Sequence-Stratigraphic Controls on Complex Reservoir Architecture of Highstand Fluvial-Dominated Deltaic Lowstand Valley-Fill Deposits in the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Woodbine Group, East Texas Field: Regional and Local Perspectives,” which appeared in the February 2009 BULLETIN.
All are with Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, 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.
- Claudio Bartolini and Juan Rogelio Román Ramos for Memoir 90, Petroleum Systems in the Southern Gulf of Mexico.
Bartolini is with Repsol, Madrid, Spain, and Ramos is with Pemex, Mexico City.
J.C. “Cam” Sproule Memorial Award
Presented to recognize and reward younger authors of papers applicable to petroleum geology.
David M. Dutton, for the paper “Four-Dimensional Analysis of the Sembo Relay System, Offshore Angola: Implications for Fault Growth in Salt-Detached Settings.”
Dutton is with Nexen Petroleum, Woking, England.
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.
- Dwight M. “Clint” Moore and Robert O. Brooks for the article “The Evolving Exploration of the Subsalt Play in the Offshore Gulf of Mexico.”
Moore is with ION Geophysical, Houston; Brooks, formerly with TGS, Garland, Texas, is deceased.
George C. Matson Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2010 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in New Orleans.
- Satinder Chopra, for the paper “Detecting Stratigraphic Features via Cross-Plotting of Seismic Discontinuity Attributes and Their Volume Visualization.”
Chopra is with Arcis, Calgary, Canada. His co-author is Kurt J. Marfurt, with the ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.
Jules Braunstein Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2010 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in New Orleans.
- Eddy Lee, Craig Shipp, Willem Hack, J. Larry Gibson and Fa Dwan for the poster “Quantifying th Probability of Occurrence of Shallow Gas as a Geohazard.”
AAPG members Lee, Shipp and Gibson are with Shell International E&P, Houston. AAPG member Dwan is with Shell E&P Technology, Houston. Hack is with Shell International E&P, Houston.
Gabriel Dengo Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2010 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Calgary, Canada.
- Jennifer Scott, for the paper “Petroleum Systems of the Northern Red Sea.” AAPG member Scott is with Hess Corp., London, England. Her co-authors were AAPG members Benn Hansen, Niall McCormack and Laura Lawton, all with Hess Corp. in London, England, and members John Guthrie, Steve Crews, Andy Pepper and Caroline Burke, all with Hess Corp. in Houston.
Other co-authors were Graeme Gordon, Dean Griffin, Rod Graham and Tim Grow.
Ziad Beydoun Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2010 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Calgary, Canada.
- Kathryn Hoffmeister and Diane Kamola for the poster “Forebulge Influence on Deposition of the Cretaceous Castlegate Sandstone, Book Cliffs, Utah, USA.”
Hoffmeister is a Student member and Kamola is a professor, both at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.
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.
- Ronald C. Blakey, for the significant contribution to his website. Blakey is professor of geology at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Ariz.
- Tom Zoellner, for his book “Uranium.” Zoellner is a professional journalist and lives in Hanover, N.H.
House of Delegates Honorary Member
The AAPG House of Delegates’ highest award.
John R. Hogg, a past HoD chairman, honored for the “global vision (that) led to the formation of AAPG’s Regional structure, and for “continuous dedicated service to the HoD for the past 25 years.”
House of Delegates Distinguished Member
- James S. McGhay, exploitation vice president and chief geologist of Mid-Con Energy, Tulsa, current treasurer of AAPG and a member of the HoD since 1992.
- Stephen A. Sonnenberg, professor of geology and the Charles Boettcher Distinguished Chair in Petroleum Geology at the Colorado School of Mines, he is an AAPG Honorary Member, a past president of AAPG and DPA, and a past chair of the HoD.