AAPG’s Division of Professional Affairs (DPA) is moving forward on two initiatives aimed at building global recognition:
- The first initiative – to enhance the current Board Certification process by adding an exam-based component.
- The second initiative – to develop a new certification to recognize Subject Matter Experts.
Board Certification
The DPA initiated Board Certification in 2006 as a means of recognizing DPA members who maintained a minimum of 20 hours/year of professional development. The maintenance of professional development made Board Certification a step above Certification. However, as Board Certification is still a peer-reviewed certification, it did not achieve the assurance of competency needed to achieve global recognition.
Furthermore, since the application and review process for Board Certification is less rigorous than that for a “Charter Member” of the Geologic Society of London, Board Certification is not the global standard.
In order to provide a true measure of competency, the DPA is moving to make Board Certified recognition an exam-based process. Applicants for Board Certification will need to:
- Be a Member in good standing of the Division of Professional Affairs.
- Complete 20 professional development hours in the previous 12 months, including one hour of ethics training.
- Affirm to the Board of Certification their adherence to the AAPG’s Code of Ethics.
- Successfully complete an examination set forth by the Division’s Board of Certification.
The addition of the examination will make DPA’s Board Certification the most rigorous of all Society/Association certifications and as, if not more, rigorous than any State licensure.
An Ad hoc committee within the DPA currently is working on building the exam, which will consist of two sections: The first section will address ethics and professionalism, and the second section will be focused on petroleum geoscience. Each section is expected to take three-to-four hours to complete.
Subject Matter Experts
The second DPA initiative is to add a new level of certification as Subject Matter Experts (SME) in one of the following areas of expertise:
- Resource and Reserve Evaluation and Reporting
- Conventional Resource Evaluation
- Unconventional Resource Evaluation
- Well Planning, Well Operations and HSE
- Environmental Geosciences
- Geomodelling, Geostatistics, Data Analytics and AI
Applicants for certification as a SME must meet the qualifications to be a member of the DPA and have a minimum of 600 professional development hours relevant to the Subject Matter Expert recognition being sought. The DPA ad hoc committee on global recognition of certification, in conjunction with the DPA Board of Certification, are currently working on the requirements for SME certification, as well as the review and interview process.
Help Wanted
The DPA is looking for individuals who have sufficient expertise in each of the above listed Subject Matters to help define the criteria needed to be certified as a SME and assist the DPA in reviewing SME applications. If you are qualified, or know individuals who are, please contact Bob Shoup at [email protected], and Margo Liss at [email protected].
With your help, we can ensure that those individuals who are Board Certified, or are Certified Subject Matter Experts, will have globally recognized credentials.