Lawrence “Larry” Meckel is the recipient of the Association’s highest honor, the AAPG Sidney Powers Memorial Award.
Meckel is an Honorary Member and celebrated for his extensive subsurface experience and his innovations in integrated applied research. He is a past winner of AAPG’s Grover E. Murray Distinguished Educator Award for his numerous contributions to geological education.
He has his own exploration consulting company based in Denver, and is also an adjunct professor at the Colorado School of Mines, teaching courses on unconventional petroleum systems.
He is also well known to AAPG Members for his many lectures through AAPG and other societies.
AAPG Honorary Member Edward Dolly joins him at the top of the awardees list as this year’s recipient of the Michel T. Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award.
Dolly already has more than half a dozen AAPG and House of Delegates awards to his credit, including the A.I. Levorsen Award, a Distinguished Service Award and a few Certificates of Merit. In recent years, he’s been a driving force as a leader and member of AAPG’s 100th Anniversary Committee and in the creation of the GeoLegend videos that were so wildly popular when they debuted at the Annual Convention and Exhibition (ACE) in Denver last year.
Meckel and Dolly will be recognized, along with the rest of the AAPG award winners, at the opening session of the 2017 100th Anniversary ACE in Houston, set for April 2-5.
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 Meckel and Dolly 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.
- Katharine “Lee” Avary, independent, Morgantown, W. Va.
- David Cook, ExxonMobil (retired), Essex, U.K.
- Steven Goolsby, Goolsby Brothers and Associates, Lakewood, Colo.
- Leslie Magoon, Stanford University, Cupertino, Calif.
- Walter “Rusty” Riese, retired, adjunct professor and lecturer, Houston.
- James “Jim” Rogers, National Geological Services, Aurora, Colo.
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.
- Terry Mather, Thomasson Partner Associates, Castle Rock, Colo., honored for his contribution to the Boise Basin discovery and his persistent effort to discover the first production in the state of Idaho.
Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award
Presented to honor a singular achievement in petroleum geoscience research.
- Julie LeFever, U.S. Geological Survey, Grand Forks, N.D., honored for her pioneering role and expertise in petroleum geochemistry.
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:
- Fowzia Abdullah, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait.
- Anwar Al-Beaiji, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
- Sylvia Anjos, Petrobas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Mary Broussard, Freeport-McMoRan Oil and Gas, Lafayette, La.
- Richard “Rick” Fritz, Council Oak Resources, Tulsa.
- Creties Jenkins, Rose and Associates, Santa Barbara, Calif.
- Kurt Neher, California Resources Corporation, Bakersfield, Calif.
- Robert “Bobby” Ryan, Chevron, Houston.
- Lawrence “Larry” Wickstrom, Wickstrom Geoscience, Worthington, Ohio.
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.
- Norman “Norm” Hyne, University of Tulsa, Tulsa.
- Cari Johnson, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Harrison Schmitt Award
Presented to recognize individuals who, for a variety of reasons, do not qualify for other Association honors or awards.
- Julia Gardner, U.S. Geological Survey, posthumously honored for her pioneering work as the one of the first oil and gas biostratigraphers, among a host of other accomplishments and distinctions.
- Zhongjian Qiu, CNPC, Beijing, China, honored for his outstanding leadership in petroleum geoscience and sustained contribution to the Chinese petroleum industry for over 60 years.
Public Service Award
Presented to recognize contributions of AAPG Members to public affairs – and intended to encourage such activities.
- W. “Lynn” Watney, Kansas Geological Society, Lawrence, Kan., honored for his efforts in educating the public and policymakers on the role of evaporite karst in the Hutchinson, Kan. gas explosions.
- Friends of Dinosaur Ridge (Volunteer Board Member Norb Cygan), Morrison, Colo., honored for the organization’s ongoing contributions to the education of the general public regarding the paleontologic, geologic and historic resources on Dinosaur Ridge.
Pioneer Award
Presented to long-standing Members who have contributed to the Association and who have made meaningful contributions to the science of geology.
- John Oty, independent, Green Valley, Ariz., honored for his contributions to the science of petroleum geology, generating many prospects in Oklahoma, Colorado and Montana throughout his extensive and active career in the oil and gas industry.
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.
- Michael Collier, photographer and author, Flagstaff, Ariz., honored for his life’s work as an ambassador for the geosciences through his photography, books, exhibits and other projects.
Young Professional Exemplary Service Award
Presented to Members who have promoted growth, awareness and expanded opportunities within the organization for Young Professionals.
- Aisha Al-Bulushi, Petroleum Development Oman, Muscat, Oman, honored for ensuring students and YPs in the Middle East have opportunities to enrich their geoscience careers.
- Catherine “Cat” Campbell, Robert L. Bayless, Producer, Denver, honored for her tireless support and advocacy for YPs in industry and AAPG.
- Nick Lagrilliere, Maersk Oil, Houston, honored for his unyielding support and accomplishments in expanding the scope of YP involvement in the Association.
- Ryan Lemiski, Calgary, Canada, honored for promoting growth and expansion of YP involvement in the Association.
Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the author(s) of the best AAPG BULLETIN article published each calendar year.
- Keith Shanley and Robert “Bob” Cluff, for “The evolution of pore-scale fluid-saturation in low-permeability sandstone reservoirs” (AAPG Bulletin, October 2015).
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.
- Dana Ulmer-Scholle, Peter Scholle, Juergen Schieber and Robert Raine, for AAPG Memoir 109: A Color Guide to the Petrography of Sandstones, Siltstones, Shales and Associated Rocks. Dana Ulmer-Scholle and Peter Scholle own Scholle Petrographic, based out of Magdalena, N.M.
J.C. “Cam” Sproule Memorial Award
Presented to recognize and reward younger authors of papers applicable to petroleum geology.
- Joseph English and Luke Ferreira, for “Geologic evolution of the Iraqi Zagros, and its influence on the distribution of hydrocarbons in the Kurdistan Region” (AAPG BULLETIN, February 2015).
John W. Shelton Search and Discovery Award
Presented in recognition of the best contribution to the “Search and Discovery” website in the past year.
- Mike Blum, Kristy Milliken, John Snedden and William Galloway, for “Record of Cretaceous through Paleogene Gulf of Mexico Drainage Integration from Detrital Zircons” (Presented at the 2015 ACE in Denver).
SEG/AAPG Best Paper In Interpretation Award
Presented in recognition of the best contribution to the new SEG/AAPG journal, “Interpretation.”
- Roderick Perez Altamar and Kurt Marfurt, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla., for “Identification of brittle/ductile areas in unconventional reservoirs using seismic and microseismic data: Application to the Barnett Shale” (INTERPRETATION, November 2015).
George C. Matson Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2016 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Calgary.
- Martin J. Kennedy, Stefan Loehr and Natalie Debenham, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, for “Seeing is Believing; High Resolution Electron Imaging and Mineral Mapping Shows Trace Minerals can Control Reservoir Properties.”
Jules Braunstein Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2016 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Calgary.
- Jenna M. DiMarzio, Svetoslav V. Georgiev, Holly Stein and Judith Hannah, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo. for “Effect of Precipitation of Asphaltenes on Re-Os Isotropic Ratios.”
Gabriel Dengo Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2016 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Cancun, Mexico.
- Thomas Murphy, LT Environmental Inc., Arvada, Colo., for “Groundwater Environmental Liability Management Using Baseline Sampling Programs.”
Ziad Beydoun Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2016 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Cancun, Mexico.
- Daniel Emiliano Bolaños-Rodríguez, Manuel Cruz-Castillo and Adriana Acosta-Angeles, for “Conceptual Geological Model About Hydrocarbon Flow Through Fractures in Siliciclastic Sequences of the Chicontepec Formation.”
All of the authors are with the Mexican Institute of Petroleum.