As the year draws to a close, the AAPG Academy continues to offer accessible opportunities for professional education and advancement.
Aimed primarily at geoscientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, the Academy is a series of webinars and interactive discussions presented by AAPG’s divisions and technical interest groups, explained Susan Nash, AAPG director of innovation and emerging science/technology.
Topics covered in November and December include maximizing production recovery, ethical issues in sustainability, hydrogen prospecting, helium prospecting converting wells to geothermal and more.
“We’ve explored new aspects of geologic hydrogen, the importance of geology in offshore wind energy, new imaging (surface / subsurface), lithium brine mining, orphan well programs, carbon credits for plugging wells, repurposing and revitalizing historical fields, and more. 2024 is not yet finalized,” Nash said.
“We have offered an average of two webinars per month which are brought to the audience by our divisions and technical interest groups, namely the Division of Professional Affairs, Division of Environmental Geosciences, Energy Minerals Division, the Deep Learning Technical Interest Group and more. Registration ranges from 150 or so to 1,600, (such as) when we timed our webinar in conjunction with the Mars Perseverance Mission. Other popular topics include critical minerals, lithium brine mining, hydrogen resources, geothermal, carbon capture usage and storage, and energy storage, along with orphan wells, petroleum systems, offshore exploration, carbon credits for plugging orphan wells, and more,” she said.
Genesis of the Academy
“The Academy started as we phased out of the ‘Pivoting during the Pandemic’ series of webinars, which allowed people to connect, stay engaged and learn new things during the pandemic,” she said.
Offering webinars as “AAPG Academy” was suggested by Executive Committee member Linda Sternbach. The concept of AAPG Academy has also been enthusiastically embraced by the DPA Education Committee for Joint Committee on Petroleum Reserves Evaluator training and more.
Nash noted that the webinars also offer opportunities for participants to earn professional development hours.
She also said organizers have expanded and offer ethics seminars to satisfy DPA requirements and plan to work further with DPA to offer more extensive training.
“We measure success through attendance, but even more importantly, how the topics evolve into more opportunities for engagement, such as special sessions at IMAGE, CCUS, URTeC, and more, and into workshops and small conferences (“Energy In Data”), and panels and presentations in pavilions at IMAGE and other events. We also seek ways to connect people so that they can explore professional collaborations or launch new endeavors, including businesses,” Nash said.
Nash organizes the webinars “with help from leadership and members from the divisions, as well as the speakers and subject matter experts, who come from all kinds of places.”
“The presenters are recruited at events and via direct contact and recommendations come from all sides – AAPG leadership, division leadership, members, and interested people,” she said.
For more information or to become involved, contact Nash at AAPG at [email protected].