The curtain is going up on one of AAPG’s proudest and most important programs, offering geoscience innovation and insights to members around the world.
Seven speakers have been selected for this year’s AAPG’s Distinguished Lecture season – and they represent a team of international experts offering diverse and cutting-edge talks on a variety of topics.
Those lectures, available to all free of charge via the AAPG website but also available by request on a limited basis in a live setting, promise talks that are not just compelling and interesting, but relevant for the profession, the science and, in some cases, even the culture.
“The DL program is among the Association’s premier programs for sharing geoscience information and developments,” said Jonathan Allen, a co-chair of the DL Committee. “We’ve seen programs come and go through the years, but the DL has truly stood the test of time … and is still going strong today due to the generous support of the AAPG Foundation and its supporters.”
Since its creation in 1941, the DL program has been the Association’s flagship initiative for offering expert presentations to geologists and geoscientists around the world.
The program is managed by AAPG and funded by the AAPG Foundation.
“The DL program is critical to our mission of ensuring the future of our profession,” said AAPG Foundation Chair Jim McGhay. “It brings the best and current thinking to our practicing geoscientists, thus elevating their ability to contribute meaningfully to finding solutions.”
This Year’s Lineup
This year’s lecturers represent not only expertise – included in the slate are award-winning geoscientists – but also boast a blend of academic excellence and practical industry experience.
These speakers will be addressing the newest technical developments, the latest updates in geoscience concepts, headline-grabbing topics (fiber optics and climate change, for example), and for the career-minded geoscientist, practical advice and insights into navigating tomorrow’s workforce and environment.
It’s an all-star lineup of geoscience, this year featuring:
- Andreas Busch, professor of Earth sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He also is the head of the GeoEnergy research group and acting academic co-lead of the Lyell Centre, an interface between earth and marine sciences.
His topic: “Geological CO2 Storage Integrity – Should We Be Worried?”
- Geoffrey Ellis, research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, as well as project chief of the USGS’ Potential for Geologic Hydrogen Gas Resources project, and affiliated faculty member at the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo.
His topic: “Natural Hydrogen: An Overlooked Potential Energy Resource.”
- Ge Jin, associate professor in geophysics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo. He previously was a research geophysicist at ConocoPhillips.
He also is this season’s SEG-AAPG Joint Distinguished Lecturer, and his topic is “Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensing Applications for Oil and Gas: A Non-Seismic Version for Geophysicists.”
- Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce, department chair and professor of geology at Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C. She also is lead scientist of the Engare Sero footprint project – a collaborative team of geologists, paleoanthropologists, geochronologists and volcanologists studying the dynamics of a group of early Homo sapiens who made hundreds of footprints in a volcanic mudflow deposit in northern Tanzania about 20,000 years ago.
She offers two lectures:
- “Reconstructing a Late Pleistocene East African Paleolandscape Using the Footprints of Our Ancestors”
- “Exploring the Early Miocene: Uncovering the Environmental Roots of Our Primate Ancestors”
- Linda Price, senior principal, ExxonMobil, Houston. She received the 2023 AAPG Norman H. Foster Explorer Award, presented for outstanding achievement in petroleum exploration.
Her topic is “Next Step in Geoscience Skill Development: Revitalizing Regional Frameworks, Systematic Critical Thinking and Collaborative Interpretation Approaches.”
- Fernanda Raggio, exploration vice president, YPF, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Previously she was vice president of upstream conventional E&P, exploration executive manager and technical disciplines manager; and participated in management programs at the IAE Business School, Di Tella and San Andrés universities.
Her talk: “Shaping New Leadership in an Evolving Energy Business.”
Lesli Wood, Weimer Distinguished Chair and professor, geology and geological engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo. She’s a recipient of AAPG’s Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award, and before joining CSM had industry experience with Amoco and was with the Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin, Texas, where she originated and directed the Quantitative Clastics Laboratory research group.
She offers two lectures:
- “The Future of Geoscience: Your Role in Saving the Earth”
- “The Shelf is a Dangerous Place: Surfing the Cretaceous Seaways”
“I think our members will be very pleased this year at the diverse group of speakers and talks,” Allen said, which “showcase some fantastic science and research across a range of disciplines.”
Spreading the Word
The DL program is free of charge and available at any time, to anyone, anywhere on Earth via the AAPG website and thanks to the AAPG Foundation’s support.
Live virtual talks, including a Q&A with the speaker, are offered by AAPG throughout the season. Those talks are recorded and added to the website for on-demand viewing.
Also, a specific virtual DL talk can be arranged for a group setting, including the Q&A session.
Of course, those who remember the program’s early years recall how all speakers used to make actual, face-to-face tours – a practice that was halted during the global pandemic and still challenged by health concerns, company policies and speaker schedules, which impact and restrict travel availability.
The DL Committee and AAPG staff continue to seek ways for more face-to-face opportunities.
“In the last couple of years, the Committee has been working toward having our lecturers hit the road once again,” Allen said. “Now, the program won’t look like the DL tours that occurred in the past, but we feel one of the most valuable aspects of the program is the in-person interaction our speakers have with audiences in academic institutions and local geologic societies.”
For Allen, the goal is even more personal.
“I remember that we always had an AAPG DL every year at the university where I did my graduate work,” he said. “Being able to go out and have a few drinks with the speakers and hear what they were working on was always a real pleasure, and it gave you a larger perspective about what people were working on in the geosciences, both academic and applied.
“I strongly encourage student groups, local geological societies and anyone else to submit a request for an in-person lecture,” he said – with emphasis on “strongly” and “in-person,” and added, “and we will strive to accommodate these requests.”
Lecturers are selected annually by the DL Committee, which strives to have “a large, evergreen pool of potential speakers, who are experts in as diverse range of topics,” Allen said.
Along with Allen, this year’s Committee members are Julia Wellner (co-chair), Irene Arango, Julia Gale, Ashley Harris, Allegra Hosford, Juan Lovecchio, Dwandari Ralanarko, Molly Turko and Tongwei Zhang.
“The committee generates a list of potential speakers for various themes, along with nominations from other groups,” Allen said, referring to AAPG divisions, other committees and individual members. “We discuss them, and then a ballot is sent out … the top vote earner in each theme is then invited to serve as a DL.
“We try to get as diverse a group as possible when we generate potential speakers,” he said.
“I want to thank all of our DLs past and present,” he added, “for their willingness to serve as lecturers, the time they put into the program, and the enthusiasm in which they represent the Association and our science.”
For more program and speaker information, or to arrange an in-person lecture or a live virtual talk with a speaker, visit the AAPG website (www.aapg.org/career/training/in-person/distinguished-lecturers), or contact [email protected].