AAPG member James E. Brooks, professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University, has received the 2015 AAPG Presidential Award for Exemplary Service.
AAPG President Randi Martinsen bestowed the honor upon Brooks "for a lifetime of inspired and dedicated service to his profession and community, and for the education of hundreds of students for whom he has served as an outstanding teacher, wise mentor and genuine friend."
Brooks, who also received the AAPG Public Service Award in 1994, taught courses there for more than 60 years at SMU, serving in a range of capacities: professor, department chair, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, university provost, interim university president and as chairman of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man (ISEM).
Although now officially retired, he remains on the department staff in various roles, most recently with ISEM.
"He is a beloved teacher, mentor, role model, counselor and principal professor of dozens of M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations," said AAPG Honorary member and former AAPG President James Gibbs, who was among several AAPG members who nominated Brooks for the award.
"He has been very supportive of petroleum geology science and business," Gibbs added.
"I've known Jim for 40 years, and he is a man whose character, accomplishments and modesty I greatly admire," said past AAPG president, Sidney Powers award winner and Honorary member Marlan W. Downey.
"An extraordinary number of distinguished people have passed under Jim's wings at SMU and (ISEM) in Dallas and have been influenced by him," Downey said.
That group included such renowned geologists and geoscientists as Ray Hunt, Leighton Steward, Mike Forrest, Roy Huffington and Susan Morrice, "to name just a few," Downey said. "Jim is one of the 'good guys.'"