Honors and Awards Ceremony 2019
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Honors and Awards Ceremony 2019 Drew Waggener, President Ed Rothman, Honors and Awards Chairman Murray Matson & Marty Parris, Committee Members Special Thanks to Karin Alyea, AAPG–Tulsa, Award Design and Fabrication AWARDEES 2019 PROFESSIONAL AWARDS 2018 PRESENTATION AWARDS Margaret Hawn Mirabile Memorial Best Student Paper Award John T. Galey Memorial Award A.I. Levorsen Memorial Best Paper Valerie Smith, Isis Fukai, Andrew Dr. Gary G. Lash Award Duguid, Dana Divine, R.M. Joeckel, Patrick Rutty and Dan Blankenau Honorary Membership Award Brandon Nuttall Ralph L. Miller Best Energy Best Student Poster Award Minerals Div. Best Paper Keithan Martin, L. Song, P. Kavousi, Distinguished Service Award Thomas Bardol and T.R. Carr Drew Waggener & Pittsburgh Geological Society Best Gordon H. Wood, Jr. Memorial Presentation on Appalachian CERTIFICATES OF MERIT Award (ES-EMD) Geology Columbus, OH W. John Nelson Jr. Meeting Organizing Committee Division of Environmental George V. Cohee Public Service Geosciences Best Paper Award General Chair-Steve Zody Award Christopher B. T. Waid Technical Program Co- Thomas M. Berg, Sr. chairs- John Wicks & Larry Vincent E. Nelson Memorial Best Wickstrom Outstanding Educator Award Poster Award Field Trip Chair-John Miller Dr. Juergen Schieber Jeffrey C. Reid, C.W. Myers and R.H. Exhibits Chair-Amy Lang Carpenter Sponsorship Chair-Mark Division of Environmental Neese Geosciences Meritorious Energy Minerals Division Best Poster Short Course Chair-John Contributions Award Award Thomas Guochang Wang Dr. Neeraj Gupta Finance Chair-Marissa Dessert Student Expo Chair-Tim Carr Division of Environmental Presidential Award Judging Chair- Amber Conner Geosciences Best Poster Award Peter MacKenzie Utility Chair- Jim McDonald Heather McCarren, Autumn Haagsma, A. Conner, S. Mawalkar, S. Mishra and N. Gupta 1 E a s t e r n S e c t i o n A m e r i c a n A s s o c i a t i o n o f P e t r o l e u m G e o log i s t s H o n o r s a n d A w a r d s 2019 retiring from teaching in January 2018. During his JOHN T. GALEY MEMORIAL tenure at Fredonia, Lash maintained an extensive AWARD research program. His early work entailed structural and stratigraphic studies of deformed shelf and deep Dr. Gary G. Lash water Ordovician rocks of the central Appalachian orogen as well as western and central Newfoundland. In the late 1990s, Lash began investigating the well- exposed Devonian shale succession of western New York with emphasis on the nature and origin of natural hydraulic fractures hosted by these rocks, especially the organic-rich black shale. Lash’s work on Devonian shale evolved from fracture mechanics and the nature of the Devonian lithospheric stress system to the subsurface stratigraphy of these rocks throughout the Appalachian Basin as well as the trace element geochemistry of both the organic-rich and organic-lean shale. Further, Lash has elucidated the role of very early (biogenic) methane generation and migration within the succession on the diagenetic history of these deposits. Most recently, he has published on the stable element isotope chemostratigraphy and magnetic susceptibility of the Upper Devonian sequence with emphasis on the timing and significance of large amplitude isotope events. This work has resulted in the recognition of microtektite-like objects in the succession that correspond roughly with the Alamo Impact Event. Lash is presently working with several research groups from Chinese universities, including the University of the Chinese Academy of Science, on a variety of research projects related to facies and depositional models of black shale, very early diagenetic processes that can alter these deposits both “For his many contributions to the texturally and compositionally, and the evolution of nanoporosity. understanding of organic-rich shale which helped build the foundation of Lash has been involved in an especially fruitful collaboration with Professor Emeritus Terry Engelder unconventional exploration and of Penn State. In 2011, Lash, with Engelder and development in the Appalachian Basin” George Mitchell, was cited as one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” for helping to make gas shale a geopolitical issue. Lash was a Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Gary Lash received featured scientist on “Crude,” a documentary a B.A. in geology at Kutztown University and his produced by the History Channel in 2008. In 2012, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at Lehigh University. As a Dr. Lash was named the Eastern Section American graduate student, Lash worked with the United States Association of Petroleum Geologist Outstanding Geological Survey on field studies of the Appalachian Educator. He was awarded the Frank Kottlowski foreland basin sequence of southeastern Memorial Award for the best paper, Energy Minerals Pennsylvania. Part of this work entailed the Division, at the 2012 National American Association application of modern oceanographic and tectonic of Petroleum Geologists meeting. Lash has authored principles to the analysis of the Ordovician deep- and co-authored well more than 100 publications in water sedimentary succession. Lash became a peer-reviewed journals, books, abstracts, and member of the Geology faculty at the State technical reports. University of New York, Fredonia, in August 1981, 2 E a s t e r n S e c t i o n A m e r i c a n A s s o c i a t i o n o f P e t r o l e u m G e o log i s t s H o n o r s a n d A w a r d s 2019 University, and made a better grade in that course than in Finally, Lash has served on the editorial board of The his planned major, chemistry. In 1975, he received a Open Petroleum Engineering Journal; he is currently bachelor’s degree in geology from Eastern Kentucky on the editorial board of the Journal of University and went to work evaluating coal reserves in Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology. western Kentucky. In 1978, he joined the Kentucky Geological Survey and enjoyed a more than 40-year Citationist: Randy Blood career there. His first job at KGS was to process incoming permits and HONORARY MEMBERSHIP well completions for central and eastern Kentucky. With his finger on the pulse of activity, Brandon acted as the AWARD Kentucky respondent to the AAPG Committee on Statistics of Drilling. The information developed by that Brandon Nuttall committee became the root of the Kentucky Oil and Gas Well Records database. That database expanded significantly after the creation of the East Kentucky Tight Formation Committee, which gathered data to qualify wells for Section 29 tax credits. That cooperative effort led to a project to compile an inventory of Devonian shale wells in eastern Kentucky. Brandon has published and presented on a variety of subsurface mapping and research projects, including oil and gas resource assessment, carbon sequestration, reservoir evaluation for enhanced oil recovery, production data analysis, enhanced natural gas recovery in shale using CO2, and natural gas liquids possibilities in Kentucky's shale plays. He has served on statewide committees to formulate policy and regulations for the development of coalbed methane and carbon storage in Kentucky. He serves as a technical liaison to the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and was appointed by the cabinet secretary to a position on the Kentucky Oil and Gas Regulatory Modernization Workgroup. Although the depth of his knowledge and passion for geology are impressive, what really distinguishes Brandon is his willingness to share with colleagues and students. He assists others with GIS, GPS, computer software, and “In recognition of more than 40 years of statistics applications. He served as technical program co- dedicated service to the petroleum industry chair for two Eastern Section annual meetings, and is currently editor for AAPG’s Search and Discovery online and the Eastern Section, as an exemplary journal. It should be no surprise that he has also been geoscientist and respected colleague” awarded Eastern Section’s Cohee Public Service Award, the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association’s Outstanding Brandon grew up in the western Kentucky oil patch, Service Award, and the Kentucky Section of AIPG’s where in the 1950s and ‘60s he tagged along with his Outstanding Kentucky Geologist Award. In addition, he father to mud rotaries in the Pond River bottoms and other received the Eastern Section Division of Environmental choice locations. He learned to drive on the section roads Geosciences Best Paper Award in 2009. of southern Illinois while accompanying his dad on field excursions for Humble Oil (now Exxon/Mobil). In 1972, I cannot think of a geologist who has had a greater impact he took a geology course as an elective at Emory on the petroleum industry in Kentucky. Brandon is well 3 E a s t e r n S e c t i o n A m e r i c a n A s s o c i a t i o n o f P e t r o l e u m G e o log i s t s H o n o r s a n d A w a r d s 2019 known and respected by colleagues across the Eastern Section. He epitomizes all that AAPG stands for. I am fortunate and proud to have worked with him for 29 years. “In recognition of his outstanding leadership while serving on the Brandon retired from KGS in 2019 and lives in Frankfort, Kentucky with Beverly, his wife of 42 years. He enjoys Executive Committee of the Eastern fly fishing, photography, exploring Kentucky’s back roads Section and as an officer of the for wine, bourbon, family diners, and hiking in parks and preserves.