AAPG Announces This Year's Best of the Best

Paul E. Potter, an award-winning geology professor, researcher and best-selling author with more than 60 years of experience and distinguished accomplishments, has been named the recipient of the AAPG Sidney Powers Memorial Award – the Association’s highest honor.

Potter, professor emeritus at the University of Cincinnati, is widely celebrated as an expert on the Midwestern U.S. Paleozoic – he performed groundbreaking research on paleocurrent analysis and basin analysis – and is the author of “Sedimentology of Shale (1980),” one of the first textbooks on the subject.

Joining him at the top of this year’s awardees list is Scott W. Tinker, an AAPG Honorary member, past president and multiple award winner, who has been named recipient of the Michel T. Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award.

Tinker, acclaimed for his role as Texas state geologist and head of the influential Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, also is known worldwide as the co-creator and onscreen presence of the award-winning documentary film, “Switch.”

As AAPG president, Tinker played a pivotal role in promoting the growth of AAPG’s international Regions, as well as advancing interdisciplinary cooperation with other geoscience societies, including SEG, SPE, SEPM, GSC and EAGE.

Potter and Tinker head the list, but they are just two of the 56 award winners who have been announced by AAPG and who will be recognized at the opening session of the 2016 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, set June 19-22 in Calgary, Canada.

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.

Biographies and citations of all award winners will be included in a future AAPG BULLETIN.

Joining Potter and Tinker as this year’s AAPG awardees 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.

• Hussain M. Al-Otaibi, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
• Rebecca L. Dodge, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas.
• Michael C. Forrest, consultant, Duncanville, Texas.
• Lawrence D. Meckel, L.D. Meckel and Company, Denver.
• Valary L. Schulz, consultant, Dallas.

Norman H. Foster
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.

• Richard K. Stoneburner, retired, Houston, honored for his significant role in the discoveries and developments of both the Eagle Ford and Haynesville shale plays.

Robert R. Berg
Outstanding Research Award

Presented to honor a singular achievement in petroleum geoscience research.

• Michael D. Lewan, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colo., honored for his pioneering role and expertise in petroleum geochemistry.
• Quinn R. Passey, retired (ExxonMobil), Kingwood, Texas, honored for his contributions in well-log geochemistry and the petrophysics of unconventional reservoirs.

Distinguished Service Award

Presented to those who have distinguished themselves in singular and beneficial long-term service to AAPG.

This year there are nine recipients of the honor:

• Abdulkader M. Afifi, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
• Sa’id A. Al-Hajri, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
• Paul English, Nexen Energy, Calgary, Canada.
• Peter H. Hennings, ConocoPhillips, Houston.
• Arthur H. Johnson, Hydrate Energy International, Kenner, La.
• Stephen E. Laubach, Bureau of Economic Geology, the University of Texas at Austin.
• Geir Lunde, Concedo ASA, Gjettum, Norway.
• Terrilyn M. Olson, EOG Resources, Denver.
• Debra P. Osborne, COG Operating Co., Midland, Texas.

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.

• Brenda L. Kirkland, Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Miss.
• Xiaomin Zhu, deputy director, Academic Committee, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, China.

Harrison Schmitt Award

Presented to recognize individuals who, for a variety of reasons, do not qualify for other Association honors or awards.

• Gary Barchfeld, Barchfeld Productions, Wimberley, Texas, honored for his work as the official photographer of AAPG events for more than 20 years.
• William A. Cobban, honored posthumously for a 75-career as a geologist, stratigrapher, biostratigrapher, paleontologist and mapmaker with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Public Service Award

Presented to recognize contributions of AAPG members to public affairs – and intended to encourage such activities.

• Lawrence “Larry” Anna, Anna GeoScience Inc., Littleton, Colo., honored for his activities in geosciences and public policy, and in geosciences outreach efforts.
• David Martineau, Pitts Oil Co., Dallas, honored for his activities (recent chairman) involving the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association.

Pioneer Award

Presented to long-standing members who have contributed to the Association and who have made meaningful contributions to the science of geology.

• Lawrence A. McPeek, independent, Denver, honored for his discoveries and developments of several large oil and gas fields in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Cave Gulch Field in Wyoming’s Wind River Basin.

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.

• Ben Gadd, Canmore, Canada, honored for a long career as a naturalist, guide, teacher and author of the popular and influential book, “Handbook of the Canadian Rockies.”
• Kirk Johnson and Ian Miller, honored for their work in publicizing the significant paleontological find of Ice Age fossils near Snowmass Village, Colo., especially the book “Digging Snowmastodon: Discovering an Ice Age World in the Colorado Rockies.”
  
  Johnson, who previously won AAPG’s Geosciences in the Media Award in 2013, is director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Miller is department chair of earth sciences and curator of paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award

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

• Christopher A.L. Jackson, Daniel T. Carruthers, Seshane N. Mahlo and Omieari Briggs, for “Can Polygonal Faults Help Locate Deepwater Reservoirs?” (September 2014 AAPG Bulletin.
  
  Jackson and Carruthers are with the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, and Mahlo and Briggs are with the department of earth science and engineering, Imperial College, London.

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.

• Lisa Marlow, Christopher C.G. Kendall and Lyndon A. Yose, for AAPG Memoir 106: Petroleum Systems of the Tethyan Region.
  
  Marlow is with Halcon Resources, Houston; Kendall is emeritus professor at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.; and Yose is with ExxonMobil, Houston.

J.C. “Cam” Sproule Memorial Award

Presented to recognize and reward younger authors of papers applicable to petroleum geology.

• Robert J. Heller and John Vermylen, for “Experimental Investigation of Matrix Permeability of Gas Shales” (AAPG BULLETIN, May 2014).

John W. Shelton
Search and Discovery Award

Presented in recognition of the best contribution to the “Search and Discovery” website in the past year.

• Ronald C. Blakey, Colorado Plateau Geosystems, Phoenix, for “Paleogeography and Paleotectonics of the Western Interior Seaway, Jurassic-Cretaceous of North America.”

George C. Matson Award

Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2015 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Denver.

• Jeremy Jameson, ExxonMobil Research Qatar, Doha, Qatar, for “Textural Types of Evaporites in Holocene Sabkhas of Qatar and Their Geological Significance.”

Jules Braunstein Memorial Award

Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2015 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Denver.

• Xuejun Wang, Lirong Dou, Zhao Yuguang, Mao Demin, Qunwei Zhang and Wei Xiaodong, for “Fractured Granite Basement Reservoir Discoveries in the Bongor Basin of Chad.”
  
  Wang, Zhao, Mao, Zhang and Wei are all with the BGP Geophysical Research Institute, Zhuozhou, China. Dou is with the Chinese National Petroleum Co., N’djamena, Chad.

SEG/AAPG Best Paper
In Interpretation Award

Presented in recognition of the best contribution to the new SEG/AAPG journal, “Interpretation.”

• Dave Hale and Richard H. Groshong Jr., for “Conical Faults Apparent in a 3-D Seismic Image” (February 2014).
  
  Hale is with the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo., and Groshong is with the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Gabriel Dengo Memorial Award

Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2015 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Melbourne, Australia.

• Charlie Smith, Halliburton, Oklahoma City, for “Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Response to Textural Reservoir Changes.”

Ziad Beydoun Memorial Award

Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2015 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Melbourne, Australia.

• Angela G. Griffin, Kyle J. Bland, Brad Field, Dominic P. Strogen, Gareth Crutchley, Mark J. Lawrence and Richard Kellett, for “Reservoir Characterization of the East Coast and Pegasus Basins, Eastern North Island, New Zealand.”

All of the authors are with GNS Science, New Zealand.