The Houston Geological Society held a 100th Anniversary Gala Celebration on Oct. 7, 2023, at the Petroleum Club of Houston. The mood was inspiring, grateful, forward-looking and humbling. HGS is a volunteer-led organization run by geoscientists. More than 130 celebrants gathered to mark the historic milestone and to remember those unable to attend and those who have gone before.
The HGS 100th Anniversary Committee thanks committee members, especially Jeff Lund (sponsorship chair and wine auction), Craig Dingler (historian and co-editor), Alexandra Price and husband Leonardo Gutierrez (check-in), Mark Hamzat Erogbogbo (HGS Day Proclamation), HGS President Paul Britt (the 100th) for leading us in the champagne toast, and generous sponsors and wine auction participants.
If you want to see some videos from Gala, we invite you to visit the HGS YouTube channel: HGSGeoEducation.
A Year of Events
The HGS 100th Anniversary Gala was the culmination of a series of events in 2023 to celebrate HGS’ centennial year:
- The GeoGulf2023 Convention, held April 22-25 at the Norris Conference Center as covered in the May and June EXPLORER
- A special issue of the HGS Bulletin, edited by Charles Sternbach, Linda Sternbach and Craig Dingler, published in August (PDF available to HGS members online, hardcopies available hgs.org)
- HGS Past Presidents Luncheon, Tuesday, Aug. 8, at the Petroleum Club of Houston
Houston Demographics
On Aug. 8, 1923, when HGS was founded, Houston had approximately 175,000 citizens and was the 40th largest city in the United States. By our last quarter-century milestone in 1998, Houston’s population exceeded 2 million. As Houston grew to the fourth largest city in the country, so did our members’ interests. HGS responded by forming special interest groups to meet the expanding needs of our membership.
During the post-World War II era during our second quarter century (1948-‘71), Houston and HGS experienced a rapid rise in citizenship and membership.
Why?
The rapid adoption of air conditioning!
HGS is also a good neighbor with the 13 affiliated societies of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies – the AAPG Gulf Coast Section. Together, we contribute Gulf Coast geoscience to a greater global community.
Ongoing Mission
HGS continues to fulfill our geoscience, professionalism, education and outreach mission. The HGS 100th Anniversary Special Issue editors designed the publication around these four pillars:
1. Geoscience: As Houston’s population grew, HGS went from a group with a Gulf Coast focus to a Gulf Coast group with a global focus – committees formed with chairs, co-chairs, budgets and creative autonomy. The ability to attract excellent leaders (many serving for decades) became an HGS tradition. This model allowed a flexible structure of what General Stanley McChrystal has called “a team of teams.”
Special interest groups founded geoscience conference franchises, enabling HGS to accomplish its mission. These SIGS (and the conferences they created) include the International Group (Africa and Latin America conferences with the Geoscience Energy society of Great Britain and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers), emerging technology (Technofest), North American explorationists (various conferences), north siders (Mudrocks), and engineering and environmental (Flood Conference).
The Mudrocks conferences (2007-18) remain a shining example. A dedicated group of geoscience pioneers led by Frank Walles tackled real-time operator needs like, “Is it the rock or the frac?”, “Where are the sweet spots?” and “Will nanopores allow liquid hydrocarbons to flow?” Elite committee experts shared privileged case studies. How fortunate that HGS served as the host for such a transformation.
Other organizations might have been the host for such a transformation. Why did this happen at HGS? HGS welcomed expert leaders, service companies, operators and geoscience volunteers looking for an organization to empower them that they did not find elsewhere.
2. Professionalism: Many young professionals make their first contact with professional organizations like AAPG and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists through local societies. HGS is a valuable partner in this effort with a coordinated series of outreach and professional committees guiding young professionals into our industry.
This industry pipeline includes:
- K-12 and public outreach with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Earth Science Week, Maps in Schools, and sold-out Guest Nights held at HMNS. Participants number in the tens of thousands.
- Scholarships for college and graduate students with the Calvert and Undergraduate Scholarship Funds granting more than $1.4 million grants to 346 students at more than 29 universities. HGS Scholarship Night annually (February) presents checks while welcoming students, their families, and faculty.
- Industry and academia partner programs like the annual Bob Sheriff Lecture, with more than 1,000 students from the University of Houston in 25 years. On Nov. 13, 160 attendees celebrated 40 student poster presenters.
- The annual HGS Job Expo: The 2023 Student Expo had 250 students, 97 recruiters and 24 sponsoring companies (thanks to Amanda Johnston, Cecilia Ramirez, Katie Fry).
- NeoGeos supports YPs once they enter the industry. In its 25th year, this program has fostered hundreds of leaders and many social media pioneers in the greater HGS community.
- Legends programs inspire geoscience professionals to succeed in business with a dozen programs, history-making speakers and 2,500 attendees. Bill Armstrong will continue the tradition on Jan. 8, 2024.
3. and 4. Education and outreach: HGS has partnered with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, fostering tens of thousands of general public interactions that have furthered geoscience education and Industry awareness.
The Continuing Education Committee produces short courses on various topics. From 1998 to 2023, the CEC has fulfilled its mission to provide timely courses that provide material that participants can immediately apply when they return to their offices. CEC members were also the drivers behind the 2017 HGS acquisition of Zoom video conferencing licenses.
HGS embraces digital transformation, experimenting with multimedia communication, broadcast software like Zoom, and resources to further our mission. The HGSGeoEducation YouTube channel has pioneered educational geoscience videos, which have received countless views – proving that “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million.”
History, and the Future
The HGS Special Issue of the Bulletin celebrates 100 years of geoscientist volunteer leadership, past presidents, executive board members and all awardees, including 15 Jerry Cooley awardees, the highest honor HGS bestows. The mural “100 Years, 100 Presidents” was created for the HGS Gala. This mural invokes all past and present presidents in one place and one time. We also recall milestones like two historic lunches in downtown Houston, separated by 100 years.
For the future, we foresee Improvements in computing, imaging, communicating, discoveries of stratigraphic traps, deeper water production, recovery efficiency, lower carbon and energy export, as well as surprises we can’t predict. Demographic resources predict a fertile crescent of energy, a global gateway of talent, corporate headquarters, offshore technology, service companies, industries, universities, NASA, and the Houston Ship Channel.