The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) have selected new editorial leadership for Interpretation, the peer-reviewed journal jointly published by the two organizations.
Kurt J. Marfurt, professor of geophysics at the University of Oklahoma’s ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics, will serve a three-year term as Interpretation’s editor in chief, and Hongliu Zeng, senior research scientist at the University of Texas’ Bureau of Economic Geology, will serve a three-year term as the publication’s deputy editor in chief.
Interpretation, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal focused on advancing the practice of subsurface interpretation, is published jointly by SEG and AAPG, and both organizations are represented on the editorial board. SEG and AAPG alternate the appointment of editors in chief and deputy editors in chief, both of which serve three-year terms.
Marfurt succeeds Yonghe Sun as Interpretation editor in chief. Sun was the journal’s first editor and the driving force behind the journal’s launch. Zeng succeeds R. Randy Ray as deputy editor in chief. Marfurt and Zeng already have begun transitioning into their new roles. Their official terms begin Jan. 1, 2016.
“It has been a great pleasure to serve on Interpretation’s first editorial board,” said outgoing editor in chief Sun. “It has been especially gratifying to see SEG and AAPG work together on the publication and to see that the journal is off to a good start. I am confident that under the editorial leadership of Kurt and Hongliu, Interpretation will be in good hands.”
Marfurt joined the University of Oklahoma in 2007; he serves as the Frank and Henrietta Schultz Professor of Geophysics within the ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics. Marfurt’s primary research interest is in the development and calibration of new seismic attributes to aid in seismic processing, seismic interpretation, and reservoir characterization.
Marfurt earned a doctorate in applied geophysics at Columbia University’s Henry Krumb School of Mines in New York in 1978 and served as an assistant professor there for four years. He worked 18 years in a wide range of research projects at Amoco’s Tulsa Research Center, then joined the University of Houston for eight years as a professor of geophysics and the director of the Allied Geophysics Laboratories.
He has received SEG best paper (for coherence), SEG best presentation (for seismic modeling), and, as a coauthor with Satinder Chopra, best SEG poster (for curvature) and best AAPG technical presentation. Marfurt also served as the SEG/EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) Distinguished Instructor in 2006, teaching a short course at more than two dozen locations worldwide. In addition to his teaching and research duties at the University of Oklahoma, Marfurt leads short courses on attributes for SEG and AAPG and is a member of SEG, AAPG, and EAGE.
Zeng is a senior research scientist for the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences. He earned his bachelor’s (1982) and master’s (1985) in geology from the Petroleum University of China and his doctorate (1994) in geophysics from the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include seismic sedimentology, seismic chronostratigraphy, seismic interpretation, and attribute analysis. He has experience working in research institutions as well as in the university and oil-and-gas-industry settings on research and production projects around the world. He received the Pratt Memorial Award from AAPG in 2005 (for seismic chronostratigraphy). Zeng is a member of SEG and AAPG.