I remember well when I joined the AAPG. I had been a floundering dual-degree undergraduate, spent a little
time in the U.S. Navy, just started grad school at Vanderbilt and became a graduate research assistant on a
corporate-sponsored program looking at the Mississippian in the Illinois Basin. I went to the ACE in Dallas
at the suggestion of our corporate sponsor. It was a fresh world for me with a sense of newly discovered
intellectual belonging. My wife and I discussed and adjusted our budget for several weeks to come up
with the $40 necessary to join the AAPG in 1984. For me, I had found a body of like-minded, professional scientists who studied the earth I so loved. The
beginning of my professional, research, academic,
management and leadership career began with
me joining the AAPG.
I have several key strengths to offer the AAPG.
First, I have a very broad experience base that
touches all futures for the AAPG. I have experience
as a production and exploration geologist and fully
understand the science and technology, agony and
ecstasy of the search.
Second, I have considerable practical and
research experience in energy, environmental and
engineered earth sciences ranging from coal,
underground storage and rare-earth elements to
managing the research support to major national
programs in CO2 sequestration, storage risk
assessment, deep borehole nuclear storage, nuclear
cleanup, ultra-high pressure/high temperature deep
earth reservoirs, and much more. I have a growing
and abiding experience in space sciences, lunar and
Martian geology and astrogeology research. All of
these are in the future mix for the AAPG.
Finally, I have considerable experience in
leading national and international programs,
projects, teams and people, all unified in globally
meaningful scientific and forward-looking
goals that support the strategic aims of the
AAPG. I have the business and management
skills necessary for the success of the AAPG.
Importantly, this has always been with joint
commercial, academic and governmental
programs and teams.
For me, to serve and to lead are synonymous.
The AAPG continues to serve as a global leader
in the geologic understanding of our planet in
petroleum, but also in energy mineral resources,
advanced environmental knowledge, stewardship
and sustainability, and a growing role in adapting
our skills to advanced earth engineering. Our highly
trained and skilled membership has a growing voice
in educating and advising international leaders in
technologically advanced energy production in an
environmentally friendly process. Additionally, our
unique understanding of the complex nature of the
surface and crust of the earth supports important
global development in areas of water resources,
environmental risk assessment, sustainable
development and global hazard safety.
More importantly, I believe that the scientific
thought processes and philosophies that are
taught, learned and are common within our AAPG
membership are highly valuable for a reasonable
approach to our mutual global future. The AAPG has
added value to our past, adds value to our present
and will add new vale to our future.
After 40 years of progressive and amazing
work, I have developed an appreciation for the
Greek philosopher Heraclitus. I am particularly
fond of two of his statements:
“Nothing is permanent except change.”
“Those who wish to know about the world
must learn about it in its particular details.”
For me, these two statements are the sum
of human philosophy and global science we in
the AAPG experience every day, every minute.
Personal service, organizational leadership and a
combined success are why I am willing to serve.
Humans will always need fundamental
geoscience knowledge on Earth and any
other place we go. The AAPG is critical to that
knowledge and to our human success!