John C. Lorenz
John C. Lorenz,
a candidate for AAPG elected editor, is a distinguished
member-technical staff with Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque,
N.M.
A native
of Toledo, Ohio, Lorenz earned his bachelor's degree from
Oberlin College, and served in the Peace Corps, assigned
to Morocco. Upon his return, he earned his master's from
the University of South Carolina and worked for the U.S.
Geological Survey for two years, leaving the USGS to earn
his doctorate from Princeton University.
Lorenz
then joined joined Sandia Laboratories as a geologist-technical
staff in 1981. His research projects as he moved through
the ranks at Sandia have focused on reservoir characterization,
including a Multi-Well Experiment in Colorado, the San Juan
Basin and the Lisburne Limestone in Alaska.
His
work in the past 15 years has emphasized natural fracture
studies in the United States and internationally.
Lorenz
joined AAPG in 1982. AAPG activities include serving on
the Distinguished Lecturer Committee from 1990-96; he was
a Visiting Professional Geologist in 1990-91; was on the
Publications Committee from 1985-87; was a delegate to the
AAPG House of Delegates in 1994-97; and has been an AAPG
associate editor since 1991.
Lorenz
has presented a number of technical papers at AAPG and other
professional meetings, and has published numerous publications
through both his AAPG and Sandia activities. He also has
authored Triassic-Jurassic Rift Basin Sedimentology in 1988
and Energy Frontiers in the Rockies, published by the Albuquerque
Geological Society.
AAPG
awards include the Jules Braunstein Award in 1988 and the
Levorsen Award in 1990. He has been secretary/treasurer
of the AAPG Rocky Mountain Section in 2000 and also in 1989.
Other
professional affiliations include SEPM, the Society of Petroleum
Engineers and the Albuquerque Geological Society, of which
he is a past president.
Why I Accepted the Invitation to be a Candidate for AAPG Office
by John C. Lorenz
The nomination
to run for the office of AAPG editor was not accepted lightheartedly
or in the course of a single conversation. The potential commitment
of time and effort that would be required to maintain the tradition
of a line of dedicated AAPG editors is daunting. I needed to make
sure I would have strong support from my management, sponsors, and
family.
I accepted
despite ambiguous to lukewarm responses on all three fronts. I accepted
because I believe AAPG is a leader in advancement of the geosciences,
and because the AAPG editor is an integral part of that program.
Moreover, the
editor has the delightful task of helping to herd the geosciences
along at an international scale, absorbing some of that science
and growing professionally in the process.
I am deeply
honored to be nominated, and would look forward to serving in the
position if elected.
Laird B. Thompson
Laird B. Thompson,
a candidate for AAPG elected editor, is a Dallas-based consultant
and adjunct professor at Utah State University who had a
25-year career with Mobil Oil.
A native
of Port Washington, N.Y., Thompson received his bachelor's
degree from Stanford University and his master's from the
University of California, Davis. Joining Mobil after receiving
his master's in 1974, Thompson earned his doctorate at the
University of Texas at Dallas in 1982.
At
Mobil, he began as a biostratigrapher specializing in foraminiferal
studies. He worked the Plio-Pleistocene Gulf of Mexico offshore
for several years. By the mid-1980s he was working in Canada
analyzing the East Coast of Canada, including the Hibernia
and Scotia Shelf discoveries, moving into the role of general
stratigrapher and basin analyst.
Returning
to Dallas in 1987, Thompson worked on reservoir scale deformation
elements, heading the Mobil fractured reservoir research
and development program by 1995. He also co-taught Mobil's
reservoir characterization field seminar, retiring as senior
geological advisor.
Thompson
joined AAPG in 1993. AAPG activities include being an instructor
in the AAPG Borehole Image Analysis school in 1996, and
being an associate editor since 1999. He also is editor
of the recently released AAPG Datapages Atlas of Borehole
Images CD publication. He has authored numerous in-house
reports for Mobil on specific wells and field studies, as
well as training manuals for borehole imaging and fractured
reservoirs.
He
also is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers;
an inaugural member of the North American Micropaleontological
Society; and was the first president of the International
Downhole Imager Society, a chapter-at-large of the Society
of Professional Well Log Analysts.
Why I Accepted the Invitation To Be a Candidate For AAPG Office
by Laird B. Thompson
When I was
five years old I saw a picture of a dinosaur and decided that I
wanted to be a paleontologist. In college I scaled down to work
on microfossils, which I not only found interesting (one can do
a full population study using only a spoonful of raw materials)
but also economically viable (I could actually get a paying job
working with Foraminifera).
In my 25 years
in the oil industry, I have had the great good fortune of being
able to "follow my nose" through a series of studies and challenges
that interested me.
I moved from
biostratigraphy through general stratigraphy (including studies
in both siliciclastic and carbonate depositional systems) into petrophysics.
I started working with borehole imaging technology in the late 1980s,
and began seeing indications of fractures in most of the images
I examined.
Over the past
decade, I have worked on the issues of characterizing reservoirs
whose production is dominated by faults and fractures. I worked
on many international fields and ran Mobil's fractured reservoir
R&D program for the last five years.
In doing research
and in working on both exploration and production problems, the
first publication I would turn to for related studies was always
the AAPG BULLETIN. To me, the BULLETIN is the most important geological
periodical in the industry and one of the top publications in the
world. To be selected as a candidate for editor of such a prestigious
intellectual vehicle is both a joy and an honor.
I feel that
I am in a unique position to bring an array of experience to the
job. As noted above, my background has been quite varied, and I
have had significant involvement with a broad range of scientific
topics, not just a narrow focus of study. Additionally, my work
at Mobil involved active participation in a number of industry consortia,
which allowed me to interact with a large number of colleagues working
in the academic realm at universities in the United States and abroad.
Finally, in
teaching an in-house seminar on integrated reservoir characterization,
I have worked with a number of colleagues in the engineering and
business communities, further broadening my professional experiences.
By accepting
a severance and retirement package from the ExxonMobil merger, I
am also in the position of having the time and desire to devote
all my energies to the position of editor. I have gotten to a point
in my professional life that I am able to work on problems because
they are interesting to me and are "the right thing to do." I will
be able to focus on this endeavor with a minimum of outside distractions.
If elected
editor, my goals would be to maintain the high level of quality
in BULLETIN technical content, seek to move the medium forward in
the information age (I have completed a CD publication with AAPG
in 2000) and support opportunities for publishing multidisciplinary
studies of increasing importance to the industry as it continues
to evolve.