Kenneth Peters is this year’s recipient of the Association’s highest honor, the AAPG Sidney Powers Memorial Award.
Peters is an Honorary Member and is being honored for his foundational work in organic geochemistry and his advancement of petroleum geology’s understanding of source rocks.
Peters works for Schlumberger as a geochemistry adviser. He has 40 years’ experience with Chevron, Mobil, ExxonMobil and the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as Schlumberger. He has published more than 165 books and papers on geoscience, and he is an adjunct professor in the Stanford University Basin and Petroleum System Modeling Industrial Affiliates Program.
AAPG Honorary Member Bernard Duval joins him at the top of the awardees list as this year’s Michel T. Halbouty Outstanding Leadership Award recipient.
As head of the Total Exploration and Production Scientific and Technical Center in France, Duval organized numerous research and development studies, the focuses of which included the sedimentology of deltaic systems, promotion of an early use of outcrop to field analysis, and stratigraphic-geochemical modeling, all of which led to direct applications and considerable reserves additions.
Duval’s leadership, breadth of knowledge and clarity in communication are widely acknowledged as a major factor in Total’s exploration success over the years.
Chuck Caughey is the recipient of this year's Vlastimila “Vlasta” Dvořáková International Ambassador Service Award. This award is given to those who have promoted growth and awareness of the AAPG organization internationally, outside the United States, and created opportunities for the Association to reach a wider audience of geoscientists worldwide. Caughey is being honored for his leadership role in promoting and organizing international events and for establishing greater connections and collaborations between regional professional and academic societies and AAPG.
Peters, Duval and Caughey will be recognized, along with the rest of the AAPG award winners, at the opening session of the 2019 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, set for May 19-22
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.
The rest of 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.
- Kevin Bohacs, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Center, Houston.
- Larry Jones, Spartan Petroleum Corp., Houston.
- Larry Wickstrom, Wickstrom Geoscience, LLC, Johnstown, Ohio.
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.
- Chengzao Jia, PetroChina Company Limited, Beijing, China, honored for his great contribution in significant petroleum discoveries, as an outstanding and visionary leader on lithostratigraphic reservoir exploration in China and for his seminal contribution to the giant discovery of the Kela-2 gas field in the foreland thrust and fold belts of northern Tarim Basin, China.
Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award
Presented to honor a singular achievement in petroleum geoscience research.
- Kurt Marfurt, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla., honored for his research in the development and calibration of new seismic attributes to aid in seismic processing, seismic interpretation, and reservoir characterization.
Distinguished Service Award
Presented to those who have distinguished themselves in singular and beneficial long-term service to AAPG.
This year there are 10 recipients of the honor:
- Ibrahim A. Al-Ghamdi, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
- Marvin Brittenham, retired, Encana, Parker, Colo.
- Satinder Chopra, TGS, Calgary, Canada.
- John Curtis, Colorado School of Mines, Englewood, Colo.
- Evelyn Medvin, Core Laboratories, Houston.
- Kenneth Nemeth, retired, Schlumberger (posthumous).
- Tim Rynott, Ridge Resources LLC, Durango, Colo.
- K. B. Trivedi, PetroSA, Cape Town, South Africa
- John T. Williams, Petrolog Inc., Ventura, Calif.
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.
- Michael Grammer, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla.
- Kathleen Marsaglia, California State University, Northridge, Calif.
Harrison Schmitt Award
Presented to recognize individuals or organizations that, for a variety of reasons, do not qualify for other Association honors or awards.
- Edward A. Merewether, for providing the framework that generations of geologists have based their work on with regard to the geology of the Western Interior of the United States, concentrating on the stratigraphy and framework of the Cretaceous.
Public Service Award
Presented to recognize contributions of AAPG Members to public affairs – and intended to encourage such activities.
- Timothy Elam, retired, Chevron, San Ramon, Calif., honored for his fundraising and tireless efforts to improve the outreach programs of the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History.
Pioneer Award
Presented to long-standing Members who have contributed to the Association and who have made meaningful contributions to the science of geology.
- Janell Edman, Edman Geochemical Consulting, Denver, Colo., honored for her outstanding career of bridging scientific theory with practical understanding and application and her selfless dedication to advancing the science and economic success of petroleum geology and exploration.
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.
- Aaron Harber, Aaron Harber TV Show, Denver, Colo., honored for the Aaron Harber Show’s “Energy Roundtable Summit” educational series.
Young Professional Exemplary Service Award
Presented to Members who have promoted growth, awareness and expanded opportunities within the organization for Young Professionals.
- Olatunbosan Afolayan, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Lagos, Nigeria, Africa, honored for her leadership and service for AAPG in the Africa Region.
- Wan Ching Low, Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, honored for her service and leadership within AAPG Asia Pacific Region.
- James “Hunter” Lockhart II, BHP Billiton, Houston, honored for his service and leadership within AAPG’s Gulf Coast Section.
Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the author(s) of the best AAPG BULLETIN article published each calendar year.
- Kurt W. Rudolph and Frank J. Goulding, for “Benchmarking exploration predictions and performance using 20+ yr of drilling results: One company’s experience” (February 2017 AAPG Bulletin).
J.C. “Cam” Sproule Memorial Award
Presented to recognize and reward younger authors of papers applicable to petroleum geology.
- Yuanjia Han, Brian Horsfield, Richard Wirth, Nicolaj Mahlstedt and Sylvain Bernard for “Oil retention and porosity evolution in organic-rich shales” (AAPG BULLETIN, June 2017).
John W. Shelton Search and Discovery Award
Presented in recognition of the best contribution to the “Search and Discovery” website in the past year.
- Michael Grammer, Jim Karsten, Dennis Prezbindowski, Benjamin Dattilo and Jonathan Havens for “Reservoir Characterization and 3D Modeling of Silurian Reef Slopes: Pipe Creek Jr. Quarry, Grant County, Indiana, #51440 (2017)” (Presented at the 2017 AAPG Eastern Section 46th Annual Meeting, Morgantown, W. Va., Sept. 24-27, 2017).
SEG/AAPG Best Paper In Interpretation Award
Presented in recognition of the best contribution to the new SEG/AAPG journal, “Interpretation.”
- Rui Zhang and Sergey Fomel for “Time-variant wavelet extraction with a local-attribute-based time-frequency decomposition for seismic inversion” (Feb. 2017).
George C. Matson Award
Presented to honor and reward the best oral presentation at the 2018 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Salt Lake City.
- Ayrat Gizzatov for “Interaction of Surfactants at Nanoscale with Water-Wet and Oil-Wet Calcite Surfaces at Reservoir Conditions.”
Jules Braunstein Memorial Award
Presented to honor and reward the best poster presentation at the 2018 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Salt Lake City.
- Toti Larson, Benjamin P. Smith and Nick Ettinger, for “From Carbonate Factory Collapse to Recovery: Insights Through Box Modeling of Carbon Isotope Excursions of Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs).”
(Editor’s Note: Award winners’ portraits are included according to availability.)