2006 annual report of the society of exploration geophysicists seg/annual reports... ·...

2006 Annual Report of theSociety of Exploration Geophysicists

Reports of the Officers Page

President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Terry K. Young 3President-elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Leon Thomsen 4First vice president . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David J. Monk 4Second vice president . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stephen H. Danbom 5Vice president . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .María Ángela Capello 5Secretary-treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Frank D. Brown 6Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Yonghe Sun 7

Reports of the Standing Committee ChairmenAdvisory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Peter M. Duncan 11Annual International Meeting 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Albert (Al) P. Brown 11Constitution and Bylaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dan A. Ebrom 11Continuing Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jon Conaway 12Development and Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John R. Waggoner 12Distinguished Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .William (Bill) L. Abriel 12Exhibitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gordon J. McCoullough 13Foundation Board of Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Richard A. Baile 13Foundation Trustee Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gary G. Servos 14Geoscience Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gary M. Hoover 15Global Affairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Aldo L. Vesnaver 16Gravity and Magnetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David R. Oxley Jr. 17Honors and Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sally G. Zinke 17Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .W. Verney Green 19Joint Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Klaas Koster 20Meetings Review and Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Klaas Koster 20Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Roy E. Clark Jr. 20Mining and Geothermal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mary M. Poulton 23Nominations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Craig J. Beasley 23SEG Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Susan Mastoris Peebler 24Project Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ivan de Araújo Simões-Filho 24Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Satinder Chopra 25Publications Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stephen J. Hill 26Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arthur C. H. Cheng 26Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David C. Bartel 26Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Karen K. Dittert 27Student Sections/Academic Liaison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kathleen J. Aikin 31Technical Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ted Mariner 31Tellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Daniel J. Piazzola 31THE LEADING EDGE Editorial Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ali Tura 32Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sergio Chávez-Pérez 33

Reports of the Ad Hoc Committee Chairman Page

eGY 2007-2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ralph W. Baird 34

Reports of the RepresentativesAmerican Geological Institute (AGI)

Government Affairs Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wayne D. Pennington 36American Geological Institute (AGI)

Member Society Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wayne D. Pennington 36American Petroleum Institute (API)

Central Committee for Telecommunications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Clifford H. Ray 36International Association of Oil and Gas Producers

Geodesy Working Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan K. Faichney 37Offshore Technology Conference (OTC)

Board of Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jack Caldwell 38Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Technical Program . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gene W. Sparkman 38Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Roy E. Clark Jr. 39Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Young Professionals Event . . . . .Sverre Brandsberg-Dahl 39Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)

Oil and Gas Reserves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Matthew J. Mikulich 40

Financial StatementsFoundation with Independent Auditors’ Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Society of Exploration Geophysicists with Independent Auditors’ Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

SEG 2006 Annual Report

Terry K. Young, president

The mission of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists isto be the leading international applied geophysics professionalsociety. The focus of this year’s Executive Committee has beento improve SEG’s processes for serving its diverse internation-al membership that during the year climbed to nearly 27 000,the majority of whom reside outside North America. Thisfocus derives from momentum established by preceding com-mittees combined with the inherent interests of the individu-als elected to serve on this Executive Committee. Strategic ini-tiatives supporting this focus include: (1) SEG Online—enhancing SEG’s virtual presence worldwide via the Web; (2)electronic meetings—doing more of SEG’s business by Web-supported teleconferences; (3) regional meetings—continuingtechnical forums in diverse international venues, partneringwith other societies in joint meetings, and instituting regionaldistinguished lecture series; (4) regional offices—establishingSEG offices in key locations around the globe; (5) studentdevelopment—growing student leaders from around theglobe; and (6) increasing the percentage of the internationalmembers who are active, voting members.

SEG Online began as a comprehensive brainstormingactivity of the SEG staff aimed at identifying all member ser-vices that would be facilitated by a significantly enhanced Website. After review and feedback by SEG members and a busi-ness analysis by a consulting firm, SEG Online is now a majorstrategic initiative of the Society and the SEG Foundation. Amultiyear effort, SEG Online ultimately will impact the inter-national membership in many ways such as professional devel-opment through continuing education online.

As executive committees and other standing committees ofthe Society become increasingly diverse in their internationalrepresentation, it is important that the work of the Societyprogress through virtual meetings conducted electronically byteleconference, supported by Web-based conferencing tools.This year’s Executive Committee elected to reduce the num-ber of its face-to-face meetings, while increasing the number ofits meetings, by making greater use of Web-based virtual meet-ings. Other committees, such as the Foundation’s “Projects ofMerit,” accomplished all their work through virtual meetingsvia electronic conferencing.

To serve a vibrant international membership more effec-tively it is important to convene the technical meetings of theSociety in diverse international venues. Last year’s ExecutiveCommittee, under the leadership of Craig Beasley, began orga-nizing small, topical technical forums for this purpose. This

year, SEG continued in this direction with the “Hydrogeo-physics” workshop in Vancouver, British Columbia, and theSEG Development and Production Forum, “Deepwater Chal-lenges in Exploration, Development, and Production,” in Riode Janeiro, Brazil. Rather than proliferating the number ofmeetings worldwide, it is desirable to partner with other soci-eties, particularly those native to a region, in conducting meet-ings of special importance to that region. Therefore, the Deep-water Forum was convened out of a partnership among SEG’sDevelopment and Production Committee, the SociedadeBrasileira de Geofisica (SBGf), and the Latin American Geo-physical Union (ULG). Similarly, in November 2005, SEGjoined with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), theEuropean Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE),and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists(AAPG) to convene the first International Petroleum Tech-nology Conference, held in Doha, Qatar. In the future, theExecutive Committee plans to sponsor lecture tours by distin-guished members from SEG’s various international regions.

Although the Internet provides means for effective virtualconferencing and SEG Online promises to enhance the deliv-ery of member benefits via the Web, the Executive Committeebelieves that the Society will benefit from having offices dis-tributed around the globe. These offices are intended toenhance local effectiveness in delivering member services andin partnering with regional professional societies in organizingregional meetings. It is a big step to distribute the staff of SEGamong multiple offices worldwide, and the Executive Com-mittee is working with Executive Director Mary Fleming,assisted by a consultant, to carefully select the right combina-tion of locations for international offices. The venues for thefirst two distributed offices are expected to be announced atthe Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

The future of the Society depends not only on serving thecurrent membership but also on developing its future leaders.In partnership with the SEG Foundation, the Executive Com-mittee is sponsoring the development of a “Student LeadershipInitiative.” Starting in 2007, SEG plans to invite leader repre-sentatives from student sections around the globe to partici-pate in a development program in conjunction with the Annu-al International Meeting.

In approximate terms, the current membership of the Soci-ety consists of 1/3 active members, 1/3 associate members, and1/3 student members. Another priority of this year’s ExecutiveCommittee has been to grow the percentage of members whoare active in the leadership of the Society and able to exercisea vote, i.e., to increase the number of active members. Inresponse to the initiative of the Membership Committee, with

Executive Committee Reports

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4 SEG 2006 Annual Report

crucial input from the Global Affairs Committee, the Execu-tive Committee approved a change in the process for approv-ing applications for active member status. In the future,instead of requiring a candidate applying for active member-ship to have three active member references, the new proce-dure stipulates that only one of the three references must be anSEG active member. Additional references may be selectedfrom the following sources: active or equivalent member ofSEG’s allied or cooperating societies; current or past geo-science employers; or the applicant’s authorship of a technicalpublication in a journal sponsored by SEG or one of its alliedor cooperating societies. Modification of the process forapproving applications for active member status requires aBylaws change and thus will await Council approval beforebeing put in place.

It is important to note that leadership of the Society andtangible progress on strategic initiatives has become a com-bined effort of the Executive Committee working togetherwith the SEG Foundation Board and the Trustee Associatesleadership. This year the SEG Foundation Board, under theleadership of Dick Baile, took an important step impacting thefinancial strength of the Society by deciding to commencepaying 100% of the Foundation’s imputed costs and by con-tributing $200 000 toward immediate funding of the SEGOnline strategic initiative.

It has been an honor to serve the Society this year as part ofan Executive Committee team consisting of Leon Thomsen,Dave Monk, María Ángela Capello, Steve Danbom, FrankBrown, and Yonghe Sun.

Leon Thomsen, president-elect

This year, following recent practice, former President CraigBeasley and current President Terry Young included me instrategic discussions that require continuity between successiveexecutive committees, starting shortly after the election, evenbefore my actually taking office. This continuity of exposureto issues is important to provide institutional memory, as eachsuccessive executive committee is composed of part-time vol-unteers with only a short time in office. So, as I prepare to takeoffice in October as your president, I feel fully briefed on themajor issues before the Society.

In a departure from recent practice, Young and I conferredwith the Finance Committee and SEG staff in Tulsa in April,prior to the presentation of the annual budget to the ExecutiveCommittee later that month. As a result, the budget, althoughstrikingly different from recent past budgets (see the report byChairman Frank Brown, elsewhere in this Annual Report), hasreceived full discussion and deliberation by your elected repre-sentatives, and it has our approval.

At Young’s request, I served as Executive Committee liai-son to the SEG Foundation. The Board of Directors of theFoundation has a longer tenure in office than does the SEGExecutive Committee, and consequently has a longer-termview of the needs of the Society. Elsewhere in this Annual

Report, BOD Chairman Dick Baile relates the expanding roleof the Foundation in support of SEG activities. An importantpart of that support will derive from the Foundation’s MajorGifts Campaign, where I also sit on the campaign cabinet. Aspart of this liaison, I met monthly with Baile and FoundationVice Chairman Gary Servos; we will be working closely withthem next year.

I also liaised with the Project Review Committee, whichjudges and prioritizes project applications from members allover the world, for funding by the Foundation; the report ofChairman Ivan de Araújo Simões-Filho appears elsewhere inthis Annual Report.

Representing Terry Young and SEG, I attended the bian-nual convention of our Indian affiliate, SPG-India, in Kolkatain January. In February, I attended NAPE in Houston, whichhas grown to the same size as the SEG Annual Meeting, or big-ger. Also in February, I attended the annual AAPG LeadershipConference in Galveston, where representatives from manypetroleum-related societies were invited to discuss mutualproblems, including public outreach. With Young’s concur-rence, I agreed there to encourage and deepen efforts to coop-erate with AAPG in a variety of contexts. In April, I attendedthe AGU Leadership Conference in Washington, where manygeoscience societies were invited, for a similar purpose. InMay, I attended the Annual Symposium of the Permian BasinSection, in Midland, Texas. In August, I represented SEG atthe biannual convention of our Indonesian affiliate, HAGI, inJakarta. None of this travel was paid by SEG.

David J. Monk, first vice president

President Terry Young assigned me to serve as liaison with thefollowing committees: 76th Annual Meeting, Development andProduction, Exhibitors, Meetings Review and Planning, OTC(Board of Directors, Technical Program, Arrangements, andYoung Professional Event), Joint Meetings, and eGY.

Following the natural disaster in New Orleans in 2005,perhaps the most important decision made by the ExecutiveCommittee and Annual Meeting Committee was to hold oursingle most important event in New Orleans in 2006. Supportfor this meeting has been exceptional, and the Technical Pro-gram will be equivalent to that developed for the 75th anniver-sary meeting in 2005 in Houston.

As of July 1, 926 booths have been sold. We anticipate thisnumber will increase and that the 2006 Annual Meeting inNew Orleans will be a great success.

The year 2007 has been designated the Electronic Geo-physical Year (eGY), and the Executive Committee supportsthe philosophy of eGY. Awareness of eGY has been promotedto SEG membership and will continue.

The Meetings Review and Planning Committee has evalu-ated numerous proposals for meetings throughout the world,and the chairman of this committee has been active in keepingmembers informed and active through the use of the SEGWeb site eCommunities.

SEG 2006 Annual Report 5

The schedule for planning the OTC does not naturally fitwith the term of the Executive Committee, as much of theOTC planning is completed prior to the time a new memberof the Executive Committee can meaningfully participate. Asliaison for SEG, I believe that I could best serve the membersby being involved from the start of planning for OTC 2007,and I am currently working on the OTC Technical ProgramCommittee for the 2007 meeting.

This year has been challenging for the Development andProduction Committee (D&P), with perhaps the biggestissues stemming from the 2006 D&P “Deepwater Forum”held in Rio de Janeiro and cosponsored by the SociedadeBrasileira de Geofísica (SBGf), and the Latin American Geo-physical Union (ULG).

It has been a pleasure to participate in the activities of ourSociety over the past year, and to work with the ExecutiveCommittee, SEG staff, and the numerous volunteers whoserve the Society. It is hoped that the New Orleans AnnualMeeting will be a success and may help in the planning offuture meetings further afield, which will demonstrate theExecutive Committee’s commitment to the growing SEGmembership from overseas.

Stephen H. DanbomSecond vice president

It has been a pleasure working with President Terry Youngand the other members of the Executive Committee duringthis past year. I was honored to be elected to the position ofsecond vice president of SEG. It was a year I will not soon for-get.

Young started the year off quickly with a meeting at theclose of the 2005 Annual Meeting by requesting input for liai-son assignments for the extensive committee structure of SEG.My committee liaison assignments were agreed upon toinclude Membership, chaired by Roy Clark Jr.; Gravity andMagnetics, chaired by Dave Oxley; Interpretation, chaired byW. Verney Green; Mining and Geothermal, chaired by MaryPoulton; Technical Standards, chaired by Ted Mariner; AGIMember Society Council, and AGI Government Affairs,chaired by Wayne Pennington. In addition, consistent withthe second vice presidential role of representing the nonpetro-leum sector of SEG, I was given the liaison position with theNear-Surface Geophysical Section of SEG, whose currentpresident is Louise Pellerin.

Subsequent to these established liaisons, I was able to focuson three specific goals involving the Membership Committee,Interpretation Committee, and the Near-Surface GeophysicsSection. The year has been spent attending to the wide varietyof items that comprise the agendas of Executive Committeemeetings throughout the year including some items derivedfrom my specific goals.

Certainly at the top of my list of agenda items for the yearwas the Executive Committee meeting on April 26, duringwhich the Membership and Global Affairs committees pre-

sented two different perspectives on needed changes to thestructure of our membership. Roy Clark Jr., chairman of theMembership Committee, and a member of the Global AffairsCommittee, gave an extensive presentation that was centeredaround six different discussion topics: (1) change active mem-ber application process; (2) institute automatic upgrade toactive from associate after set amount of time; (3) give associ-ate members voting rights; (4) suspend corporate member-ships after 2006; (5) allow dues reduction to those who requesthelp; and (6) support the student member sponsorship pro-gram. The Executive Committee passed changes associatedwith many of these topics consistent with our global and oftenremote membership constituency and our increasing relianceon electronic communications.

The committees with which I liaison submit their ownreports for this 2006 SEG Annual Report.

In closing, I thank the membership for their trust in elect-ing me to this position, and I hope others of you reading thiswill get a similar opportunity to serve the Society in the future.

María Ángela Capello, vice president

It has been a great honor to be your representative on theSEG Executive Committee and to serve with such a distin-guished group of geophysicists. I come from an emergingnation, Venezuela, and have been a committed member of ourSociety since the 1990s. Never did I expect to have this won-derful opportunity to serve our membership and help make, Ihope, a difference to SEG’s future.

My passion has always been to create a global Society thatembraces all geophysicists no matter where they live and work.I now know from personal experience that all of SEG’s execu-tive and committee leadership share this commitment to aSociety that serves and reflects our global profession.

Your Executive Committee established goals early in ourterm. Global issues predominated. I am very happy to shareour progress with you. We have committed to the opening ofglobal offices to better serve current and future regional mem-bers. We have discussed options with the Global Affairs Com-mittee and other groups of members and have identified threeprimary opportunities to progress with all practical haste. Iexpect that we will be able to announce at least one new officeby the time of the October Annual Meeting, and that morewill be announced in 2007.

We have approved a new regional lecturer program recom-mended by the Distinguished Lecture Committee. Lecturerswill be selected through nomination from SEG sections andthe Global Affairs Committee. They will serve as regionalambassadors of our profession. SEG will fund a regional tourand a trip to the Annual Meeting where they will be honoredfor their contributions to the science and technology of geo-physics. Funds have been budgeted to initiate this new pro-gram with two regional lectures in the first half of 2007.

Another goal of your Executive Committee has been toincrease participation of our global membership in the gover-

nance of the Society. We have examined the requirement foractive membership and approved, for SEG Council ratifica-tion this October, relaxing reference requirements. Ifapproved, candidates for active membership will be able to useemployers and members of other professional societies forsome of their references. I thank the SEG Membership Com-mittee and Membership Department staff for their efforts toshorten application times through online application and ref-erence forms.

The SEG membership should be very proud of the talent-ed staff we have working for us at the Tulsa business office. Ihave met many of them and can say they are an exceptionalgroup dedicated to the Society’s mission and vision. This smallgroup works effectively and cheerfully while serving a mem-bership of nearly 24 000! I can’t express enough my thanks tothem for all that they do.

Our Society has grown immensely since I first becameinvolved in the Global Affairs Committee. Our membership isnow very global, with 58% living outside the United States.Much has been accomplished and opportunities still remain. Ihope soon to see strong global representation on all of SEG’sstanding committees. I hope to see the outstanding youth out-reach programs of the Geoscience Center Committee accessi-ble to young people around the globe. And then, my greatesthope is to see the disbanding of the Global Affairs Committeebecause it is no longer relevant in a truly global SEG.

Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to serve.

Frank D. Brown, secretary-treasurer

I am pleased to report that our Society’s financial conditionis excellent. SEG has positioned itself well to provide increasedservices to the membership while maintaining a healthy bal-ance sheet.

Budget for 2005–2006. SEG ended the 2005–2006 fiscalyear with a positive income of $1 117 235, up from $455 339last year, and up about $325 000 from preliminary forecasts.

The primary reasons for the good news are:

1) the 75th Annual Meeting in Houston netted $2.4 million,about $540 000 over budget. Congratulations will be duethe steering committee for quite some time

2) an increase in advertising and membership revenue ofabout $225 000

3) an increase in revenue from NAPE and OTC of about$395 000.

Revenues for the year totaled $10 978 020, an increase of$1 600 000 from the prior year. Highlights from the revenueside are noted above. Expenses for the year were $9 860 785,an increase of $938 000 from the prior year. Highlights fromthe expense side include $370 000 in increased annual meet-ing costs (more than offset by the increase in revenue), anincrease in overhead (as a result of increased staff travel and

training) and a healthy increase in postage and delivery costs.Also in this fiscal year, SEG made $226 000 in matching con-tributions to the SEG Foundation as part of the Major GiftsCampaign.

Budget for 2006–2007. The budget for fiscal year 2006–2007looks very different. We are projecting net operating revenueswill be less than total expenses by about $746 000. This shortfallis due, almost entirely, to a reduced projected net income for theAnnual Meeting in New Orleans. While we are optimistic thatthe Annual Meeting will surpass our budget numbers, the Exec-utive Committee felt it prudent to plan for the “possible.”

The forecast revenue for fiscal 2006–2007 is $10 317 000,a decrease of $661 000 from the prior year. This includesreduced Annual Meeting revenue and the ever-present “unre-alized gain (loss)” line. Increased revenue is being forecast fromthe Continuing Education program, from advertising and sub-scriptions, and from Foundation support for costs associatedwith the business office administration of some projects.

The forecast expense for fiscal 2006–2007 is $11 063 000,an increase of about $1 202 000 from the prior year. In addi-tion to the reduced net revenue from the Annual Meeting, thisincludes an increase in printing costs to accommodate anexpansion in the size of GEOPHYSICS (see Yonghe Sun’s reportfor details) and an increase in staff support for student sec-tions, scholarships, and IT support.

The Executive Committee, building on the work of previ-ous committees, also made a number of strategic budget deci-sions:

• Approved the position of director of global relations. Theperson who fills this position will take the lead in movingSEG toward serving its worldwide membership by open-ing and managing offices outside North America and byorganizing meetings and conferences.

• Approved the position of Web editor. The person who fillsthis position will manage the content of SEG’s Web sitesand be responsible for implementing the publications-related projects in the SEG Online Plan. The SEG OnlinePlan is a major piece of the Foundations’s Major GiftsCampaign.

• Approved, for the Annual Meeting in San Antonio, theproduction of a Student Leadership Forum. We hope thatthis forum will provide SEG student section leaders theopportunity to interact with industry and SEG leaders in ahands-on way that will encourage them to become active(and “active”) members in the future.

• Approved the continuation of the matching contributionprogram to the Foundation’s Major Gifts Campaign, anamount estimated at $365 000.

This is all very exciting and more than a bit daunting, but resteasy in the knowledge that the forecasts for 2007–2008 show abudget in balance. Be aware also, that SEG’s balance sheetremains strong, with total net assets of about $11 377 000 andtotal current liabilities of about $3 671 000.



Finally, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportuni-ty to thank the following people, without whose guidance andhelp this job would have been beyond me:

• the members of the Finance Committee: Susie Peebler,Steve Hill, Randy Byrne, and Charlie Smith

• the members of the Executive Committee, especially TerryYoung

• the staff in Tulsa, especially Nancy Carter.

Yonghe Sun, editor

This report summarizes the major new developments inGEOPHYSICS in the past year. Our focus is on reducing GEO-PHYSICS’ review and publication turnaround time.

Reviews for the Seismic Interferometry special supplementwere completed at the beginning of 2006 and the supplementis scheduled to mail with the July–August issue of GEO-PHYSICS.

We have a new special section on Marine Controlled-Source Electromagnetic Methods to promote the technicalexchange of information in this field that has recently seenexciting applications to hydrocarbon exploration. The firstround of reviews for the section is under way.

Although GEOPHYSICS remains the premier publication inapplied geophysics, some authors find the wait too long andhave elected to publish in other journals. The GEOPHYSICS edi-torial team and GEOPHYSICS staff at SEG have taken steps inrecent years to address this problem. We have implementedseveral new measures in the past year to further reduce GEO-PHYSICS’ turnaround time.

New review schedule. We set a goal of reducing GEOPHYSICS’median review time (from submission to final decision) to aboutone year. This goal was set after a review of turnaround timesand practices of other journals was published by a few of SEG’speer societies. All members on the editorial team have commit-ted to providing high-quality reviews in a timely manner.

New production schedule. The SEG Publications Depart-ment has been taking bold steps, including the change in com-position vendors to AIP, to reduce the time from acceptanceto publication. SEG and AIP have made significant progressand implemented step-by-step production schedules toachieve the goal of publishing a paper online within 2–3months of acceptance.

Reduction of publication backlog. Toward the end of 2005,GEOPHYSICS publication had a backlog of a few months. Thereduction in review cycles had resulted in a flood of newlyaccepted papers for the period between November 2005 andMarch 2006 and exacerbated the backlog problem. The SEGExecutive Committee has approved budget variances to allowGEOPHYSICS to publish large issues (65 papers/per issue, twicethe normal size) until the publication backlog is cleared by the

beginning of 2007. The backlog was about four months inmid-2006.

The policies adopted during the past several years, includ-ing the adoption of an online review system and additions ofseveral new sections (GEOPHYSICS Letters, Annual MeetingSelections, and Geophysical Software and Algorithms) by theprevious editorial teams, and the implementation of the newturnaround schedules, are yielding results. This progresswould not have been possible without strong support fromGEOPHYSICS staff at SEG. The time from submission to accep-tance is now six months, down from 13.5 months. Time fromsubmission to publication is now 12.5 months, down from 20months. By early 2007, with the four-month publicationbacklog cleared, the median time from submission to publica-tion is expected to be shortened further by 3–4 months to beless than nine months.

In the coming year, reducing the turnaround time will con-tinue to be our main emphasis. In addition, this year’s statis-tics on the ratio of papers from industry and academia contin-ues to show the journal is receiving more participation by geo-physicists from the industry. GEOPHYSICS should furtherencourage peer-reviewed expository discussions and provideplatforms for cross-validating practical interpretation and pro-cessing workflows that solve real world problems.

Total number of papers submitted for publication in GEO-PHYSICS July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006: 350

Table 1. Origin of papers submitted for publication in GEOPHYSICS by countryJuly 1, 2005–June 30, 2006

USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Saudi Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Switzerland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Venezuela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3Algeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Iran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Croatia (Hrvatska) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Taiwan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Trinidad and Tobago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .350

Table 2. Origin of papers submitted for publication in GEOPHYSICS by employerJuly 1, 2005–June 30, 2006

Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .206Research institutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50Oil companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Service companies and manufacturers . . . . . . . . . . .30Governments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Instrument companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .350

Table 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Manuscript handling statistics

Year submitted Average number of daysJuly 1–June 30 required for first review

1991–92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1721992–93 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1571993–94 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1841994–95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1821995–96 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2111996–97 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1861997–98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2051998–99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2141999–2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2122000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2112001–02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1782002–03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1332003–04 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1412004–05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1052005–06* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

* First reviews have not been returned for all papers.

Table 4. Manuscript handling statistics

Average number of daysYear published between acceptanceJuly 1–June 30 and publication

1991–92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1761992–93 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1811993–94 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1781994–95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2101995–96 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .N/A1996–97 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .N/A1997–98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1801998–99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1771999–2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2022000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2082001–02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2132002–03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1952003–04 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1612004–05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1582005–06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181


11

AdvisoryPeter M. Duncan, chairman

Membership in this year’s Advisory Committee consisted ofthe five most recent past presidents: Craig J. Beasley, Peter M.Duncan, Mike Bahorich, Sally G. Zinke, and Walter S. Lynn.The committee had an initial meeting during the 2005 AnnualMeeting and met again in January in conjunction with an Hon-ors and Awards Committee meeting in Houston. Other discus-sions during the year were accomplished by e-mail and tele-phone.

The committee has no formal charge other than to advisethe serving president and Executive Committee upon request.The committee did receive one specific assignment this year.At the request of the president, the committee engaged an out-side consultant to conduct an independent review of SEG’scompensation and benefit program for the Tulsa businessoffice staff. Foreman and Associates, Inc., of Tulsa, was select-ed to perform this audit from three competitive bids. Theaudit was performed over the period March 1 to April 15. Thecommittee then reviewed the audit and presented its observa-tions on the audit findings and recommendations for action tothe Executive Committee on April 25 in Houston.

Seventy-Sixth Annual MeetingAlbert (Al) P. Brown, general chairman

The 76th Annual Meeting will be held in New Orleans,Louisiana, October 1–6. This meeting is a really big boost tothe geoscientists situated in New Orleans and also a big vote ofconfidence that the SEG Executive Committee has in the cityof New Orleans—which we all know sustained significantdamages in late 2005. I am pleased to say that we are on trackto have an outstanding meeting. All parts of the city being uti-lized in our meeting are now up and running. For a while hav-ing the meeting as scheduled for New Orleans was in doubt,but after adequate reassurances the Executive Committeevoted to continue as planned.

The steering committee consists of Warren A. Mautz, gener-al vice chairman; Rocky Detomo Jr., Technical Program chair-man; Jacob W. Brown, Special Programs chairman; Gordon J.McCoullough, exhibitors chairman; Laura F. Serpa, Applied Sci-ence Education Program chairman; Michael J. A. Burianyk andKlaas Koster, International Showcase cochairmen; RosemaryAustin, Spouses’ Program chairman; and Ellen F. Clark, arrange-ments chairman. The steering committee has met twice in Hous-

ton and twice in New Orleans with one more walk-throughmeeting in New Orleans. A great deal of our work was carriedout by e-mail as we were not all in New Orleans.

The meeting will include more than 500 technical presenta-tions. This year’s Technical Program Committee had a very dif-ficult time paring a near record of submitted abstracts. Elevenconcurrent technical sessions will run over three and a half days.The Applied Science Program will include a presentation by oneof the world’s leading astronomers—Richard Binzel, professor ofPlanetary Science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, andPlanetary Sciences at MIT, and a widely recognized expert onPluto and asteroids. His topic will be “Exploration of the PlutoNew Horizons Mission.”

At the time I am writing this report, both sponsorship andsales of exhibit space are ahead of our budget expectations. Anadditional challenge this year will be in getting volunteers to assistduring the conference. Many companies and individuals havestated their plan to show support for the conference by offeringassistance. As we approach the date of the meeting, we anticipatethe spirit of New Orleans to be on display through this commu-nity effort.

The golf tournament on October 5 will be hosted byAudubon Golf Course, in Aububon Park (a short ride downSt. Charles Avenue).

A very interesting spouses’ program includes a talk by ElsieMartinez who wrote “Growing up in New Orleans,” a tour ofthe Herman-Grimma house in the French Quarter, and of theplantation house at Oak Alley (as well as food).

A Global Theater “Africa on the Horizon” will showcaseexhibitors from Africa and presentations that illustrate thebusiness, geophysical, and geologic complexities of the area.

The Wednesday night gala “The Celebration,” will offerjazz, a Mardi Gras parade, food, drink, and dancing—similarto what we had in 1998—and will be held in the headquartershotel, Hilton New Orleans Riverside.

All this and more will take place at the 76th SEG AnnualMeeting. As always, the “Kickoff” event will be the Sundaynight Icebreaker in the Exhibition Hall.

Please take this as my personal invitation to come to expe-rience the spirit of this fine city. See you in New Orleans!

Constitution and BylawsDan A. Ebrom, chairmanGuy W. Purnell, vice chairman

For the past two years, issues have come to the fore whichspanned the gamut from the straightforward and easy to the

Reports of the Standing Committee Chairmen

difficult and contentious. I would first like to thank all com-mittee members who have been both hardworking and frankin the execution of our collective duties: Roy Clark, JackKruppenbach, Guy Purnell, Bryan DeVault, Walter E. John-son, and Bill Barkhouse.

This year the committee reviewed the bylaws of the Aso-ciación Colombiana de Geólogos y Geofísicos del Petrolero(ACGGP) which petitioned to join SEG: They met the SEG cri-teria and were chartered as a new section on January 31, 2006.

Perhaps the most difficult conversations our committeehave had this year have been on the topic of the status of asso-ciate membership, and the standards for promotion to activemembership. This apparently trivial topic carries within it theseeds of bigger questions, such as how the franchise to changeour Society will, or might, be redistributed in the comingyears. Although the individual committee member views onthese topics have frequently been at odds, everyone involvedhas been clearly dedicated to the goal of maintaining SEG asthe world’s premier applied geophysical society.

Continuing EducationJon Conaway

The Continuing Education Committee had a busy andsuccessful year marked by several changes. The first was thedecision of Frank Brown to step down from the chairmanshipafter several years of exceptional service.

We continue to update and upgrade the curriculum, andadded three new courses to the curriculum this year:

• Migration without Math (OK, a Little Greek Math), byBee Bednar;

• Marine Electromagnetic Methods for HydrocarbonExploration (CSEM), by Steve Constable;

• Seismic Data Processing, by Steve Hill

We are also adding a new education week in Houston,which will bring the total to four: north Houston in the fall,and west Houston, New Orleans, and Calgary in the spring.

Course enrollment continues to be strong—we offered 18public courses with an enrollment of 364, six section-spon-sored courses with an enrollment of 207, and have a scheduledcontract course in June with an enrollment of 100.

The Distinguished Instructor Short Course (DISC) alsounderwent changes this year. Perhaps the most significantevent was the “retirement” of Bradley Birkelo as chairman, andhis replacement by Tad Smith (Veritas). The success of theDISC program in the past few years has largely been due toBirkelo’s hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm.

During this past year, several new members were named tothe DISC subcommittee: Doug Foster (ConocoPhillips), MartinAlbertin (BP), Ken Tubman (Veritas), and Frank Brown (Digi-tal Prospectors, Inc.). Their service is appreciated.

Most of our time was spent finalizing selection for the 2007DISC (Biondo L. Biondi), and compiling a list of candidates

for the 2008 DISC. In April, EAGE and SEG DISC subcom-mittee approved Bill Abriel (ChevronTexaco) as the 2008DISC instructor. Abriel has accepted and is currently workingon his material.

The subcommittee will meet this summer to develop a listof viable candidates for the 2009 DISC.

Lastly, we thank SEG staff members Peter Pangman, BillUnderwood, and Candice Chinsethagid, who actually com-plete the plans and do all the hard work the committee canconceive.

Development and ProductionJohn R. Waggoner, chairman

There have been some challenges this year for the Develop-ment and Production Committee, but those have been over-come. The biggest issues stem from the 2006 D&P forum tobe held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 7–11 at the “Deep-water Challenges in Exploration, Development, and Produc-tion” forum cosponsored by Society of Exploration Geophysi-cists, the Sociedade Brasileira de Geofisica (SBGf), and theLatin American Geophysical Union (ULG). Michael Payne ischairing the organizing committee that includes membersfrom the other societies, and Kristi Smith is working closelywith SBGf to ensure meeting logistics are well coordinated andproperly arranged. Payne and Smith deserve a great deal ofcredit for handling the issues that come with holding the meet-ing outside a United States venue.

The speaker at the D&P luncheon at the 2006 SEG Annu-al Meeting in New Orleans will be Nader C. Dutta, chief geo-scientist, Reservoir Seismic Services, Schlumberger, and amember of the U.S. Department of Energy’s MethaneHydrates Advisory Committee. His topic is “Natural GasHydrates: Detection and Quantification of This PotentialHydrocarbon Resource and Drilling Hazard.”

Plans are proceeding for the 2007 summer D&P forum.Larry Lines, from the University of Calgary, will chair theforum on “Overcoming Geophysical Challenges in Heavy OilDevelopment and Production,” along with Mike Batzle of theColorado School of Mines, and Doug Schmitt of the Univer-sity of Alberta. While the venue has not been determined,Smith is working with the organizers to select a location inCanada; possibilities are Calgary, Kananaskis, or Edmonton.

And finally, many thanks to Roger Turpening for chairingthis committee for the past few years. Well done.

Distinguished LectureWilliam (Bill) L. Abriel

Rebecca Latimer was the fall 2005 SEG/AAPG Distin-guished Lecturer speaking on the topic of inversion. Latimertraveled extensively throughout North America, and to otherinternational sites and reached a large number of people.Latimer’s audiences consisted of a significant number of non-


geophysicists who appreciated how she was able to speak tothem as well as to geophysicists.

A special event in the fall of 2005 was the SEG 75th-Anniversary-Distinguished Lecturer Panos Kelamis. Kelamiswas able to visit many international sites with a well received talkon an important and challenging topic, multiple attenuation.

Gary Mavko, the spring 2006 Distinguished Lecturer, pre-sented “Rock Physics Strategies for Facies and Fluids Map-ping.” Mavko’s lecture was well received and widely recog-nized as an important contribution to the SEG community.

The fall 2006 SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecture will bepresented by William A. Fahmy of Exxon Mobil, and titled“DHI/AVO Best Practices Methodology and Applications.”This talk promises to be a useful discussion of the business sig-nificance of systematically employing a consistent methodolo-gy for seismic amplitude analysis.

Len Srnka of ExxonMobil is preparing his talk on con-trolled-source electromagnetics (CSEM) practices and exam-ples. Srnka is widely known for his expertise on this interest-ing and timely topic.

Thanks to the persistence and effort of the SEG Online ini-tiative, the SEG Web site now contains most of the morerecent distinguished lectures and are receiving a significantnumber of Web visits—5000 viewings from August 2005 toMay 2006. These recorded presentations are a way to reach theinternational community and have set the precedent for dis-tinguished lectures in future years.

Also under consideration for 2007 is a proposal being pre-sented to the SEG Executive Committee to institute an inter-national SEG regional lecturer program as a companion pro-gram to the long established SEG distinguished lecturer pro-gram. The goals are similar, but the regional lecturer programdiffers from the distinguished lecturer program in that thefocus is to transfer knowledge within a region and therebystrengthen the services SEG provides to an expanding globalmembership. Lectures may be given in English or a languagemore appropriate for the region. Selection as SEG regional lec-turer is an honor that will be acknowledged by the Society.

The regional lecturer program will be aligned with six geo-graphic regions based on considerations of the number ofSEG-affiliated sections and cost efficiency. The regions areSouth and East Asia; Pacific South; Europe; Middle East andAfrica; Central and South America; and North America. Eachregional lecturer will visit approximately 10 locations in theregion and will also make a presentation at the SEG AnnualMeeting. The goal is to sponsor one lecturer in each regionannually, and to visit every section and student section at leastonce in a three-year period with either an SEG regional lec-turer or an SEG distinguished lecturer.

ExhibitorsGordon J. McCoullough, chairman

Since inception in 1999, the Exhibitors Committee hasrelayed concerns and ideas of exhibiting companies to the SEG

leadership. Committee members Lynn Asher, Denise Burke,Carmen M. Comis, Liz Ivie, and Amanda R. Jones were avail-able throughout the year to collect ideas and field questionsregarding exhibiting at the meeting and for enhancing benefitsto exhibitors. The committee also was involved with theApplied Science Program and other volunteer activities.

The committee surveys exhibiting companies of all sizes tolook for benefits to the exhibiting companies during the meet-ing. Over the last year, there were two major initiatives. A sug-gestion that became reality was the commercial theater whichallows exhibitors to promote their products and services in a100-seat setting. Another idea initiated last year was the mallconcept in the exhibit hall; larger exhibitors had booths on theoutside corners of the hall, enabling better traffic flow.

Booth sales for the 2006 Annual Meeting were at 926 as ofJuly 1. This number is in line with the 2005 Annual Meetingin Houston, and early indications are that New Orleans will bea strong event. We hope to have a record turnout!

Foundation Board of DirectorsRichard A. Baile, chairman

The Foundation Board of Directors welcomed four newdirectors appointed by SEG President Terry Young. Theseappointments increased the number of directors serving on theFoundation Board from nine to 11. The new directors, MarkGregg, Susan Mastoris Peebler, Vicki Messer, and Zee Wangjoined sitting directors Dick Baile, Gary Servos, CharlieSmith, Bill Barkhouse, Elwin Peacock, Brian Russell, andGene Sparkman.

The Foundation Board thanked retiring directors BobGraebner and Lee Lawyer by recognizing their many contri-butions to the improvement of the Foundation’s structure andoperations. The board looks forward to the continued supportof Graebner and Lawyer in their roles as directors emeritus.

During the past year the progress of the Major Gifts Cam-paign, under the leadership of Bill Barkhouse, along withstrong support from Peter Pangman and Debbie Starnes of theTulsa staff, exceeded all expectations. Lending their support ashonorary chairs are Rutt Bridges, past SEG president; LukeCorbett, CEO Kerr-McGee Corporation; Decker Dawson,chairman Dawson Geophysical; John Gibson, CEO ParadigmGeophysical; Scott Petty, former CEO Petty-Ray Geophysical;Booth Strange (now deceased), former CEO Western Geo-physical; Aubra Tilley, retired founder and former CEO ofInput-Output; and Xu Wenrong, assistant president ChinaNational Petroleum Corporation.

During 2005, the SEG Executive Committee reserved $1million for the Foundation’s Major Gifts Campaign. Thesefunds match individual gifts of $5000 to $50 000. This hasresulted in matching a number of substantial individual con-tributions, thus doubling their impact on the programs select-ed by the donors.

A majority of Foundation directors and SEG ExecutiveCommittee members and others have generously given or



pledged financial support for the major gift effort. We believethis initiative will successfully conclude by elevating the Foun-dation’s ability to provide increased support to worthwhileprograms on the order of five times what has been experiencedin the past.

Major programs supported through the Foundation’sfundraising efforts include the following:

SEG Online. Geophysical expertise must be available to meetthe pace of today’s activity. SEG’s Web presence will provideinformation access, education, and peer support as well asserve as a beacon to youth. During 2006, the Foundation pro-vided $200 000 in funding for the initial growth phase of SEGOnline.

SEG Live. The Distinguished Instructor Short Course(DISC), Distinguished Lecturer, and the new Regional Lec-turer programs will be expanded to further strengthen the peernetworks that are a core enabler to the advance of technology,and to share the excitement of geophysical careers with stu-dents. The Foundation currently provides approximately $90000 per year to support the DISC program.

SEG Innovation. Innovation requires interchange of ideasamong creative thinkers. SEG has excelled at providing fertileground for this, but the pace can be accelerated through anexpanded program of focused forums and the Foundation’sProjects of Merit program. The Foundation awarded Projectsof Merit funding totaling $65 000 to nine innovative projects.

SEG Student Sections. Students have organized to strength-en their connection to SEG, and by doing so have createdopportunities to develop leadership skills and strengthen theireducation. Travel grant programs make certain that studentshave the opportunity to attend the SEG annual meetings andother meetings and workshops throughout the year. During2006, the Foundation awarded $10 000 in PCs for StudentSection grants, $20 000 in Annual Meeting travel grants and,as a result of a special partnership with the Colorado School ofMines, $17 000 in travel grants for the SEG/EAGE SummerResearch Workshop in Utah.

SEG Scholarships. The scholarship program faces two bigchallenges: to increase the number of emerging nation awardsand to maintain the financial relevance of developed nationawards. This year, 147 scholarships totaling $271 450 wereawarded. More than 50 of the scholarships were awarded tostudents studying in universities outside the United States.

Each of these programs is scheduled for expansion throughthe growth of the Foundation’s major gift initiative titled,Advancing Geophysics Today and Inspiring Geoscientists forTomorrow.

The past year the Foundation Investment Committee,chaired by Charlie Smith, has overseen an expansion in port-folio assets from $8.8 million to $11.1 million as of April 1,

2006. The committee meets on a regular basis to performquarterly reviews of investment management performance. Asa result of the increase in assets, the committee has added moreinvestment managers and repositioned certain assets, all ofwhich helped increase the Foundation’s portfolio asset value.The Foundation thanks Nancy Carter, Melanie Laster, andNancy Preston of the Tulsa staff for their accounting expertiseand for providing timely reports to the board.

As chairman of the SEG Foundation Board, I am verygrateful for the hard work, time, and money being poured intothe Foundation major gifts initiative. This effort has capturedthe enthusiasm and unbelievable support of the Foundationboard, honorary chairmen, Major Gifts Campaign cabinet, theTrustee Associates Steering Committee, chaired by Gary Ser-vos, and our very able Tulsa staff under the direction of MaryFleming.

The board would also like to thank Karen Dittert, chair-man of the SEG Scholarship Committee, Rod Cottrell, Foun-dation liaison to the Scholarship Committee, and BrianYoung, Tulsa staff, for their commitment and dedication tothe scholarship program.

As one can see, we have many energetic and dedicated peo-ple working to make our Society and its foundation strongerand more effective. I urge each one who reads this to getbehind this group and lend support to our efforts.

We welcome your interest and support of this great effortbeing put forth by so many.

Foundation Trustee AssociatesSteering CommitteeGary G. Servos, chairman

The Trustee Associates continue to support the activities ofthe SEG Foundation. As the fund-raising efforts are imple-mented, the Trustee Associates play a major role in support ofthese efforts and continue to be significant contributors to thecampaign.

The 2006 annual meeting of the Trustee Associates washeld in Charleston, South Carolina, and the 2007 meeting isscheduled for San Antonio, Texas. The annual meeting of theTrustee Associates, including spouses, combines daily meet-ings to review and discuss SEG Foundation status, activities,plans, tour local attractions, or enjoy a game or two of golf ona scenic course, partake of excellent local cuisine, and visit withfriends and associates. A highlight of each annual meeting isthe current Society president’s presentation on the state of theSociety.

The Trustee Associates luncheon during the 2006 SEGAnnual Meeting in New Orleans will present and honor thedonors who have made gifts to the Foundation Major GiftsCampaign and present an up-to-date status of the Foundationactivities. Since the 2005 annual meeting luncheon, the fol-lowing individuals have become Trustee Associates: FrankBrown, David Monk, Robert Peebler, and Sally G. Zinke.


Geoscience CenterGary M. Hoover, chairman

The objective of the Geoscience Center (GC) is to interestyouth in the study of the geosciences and to encourage futurecareers in geosciences. The GC has focused its operating activ-ities into four major areas: youth programs, youth educationoutreach, science fairs and awards, and historical preservation.After recently assuming responsibility for oversight of theInternational Science and Engineering Fair activities of SEG,the committee is now responsible for all SEG K-12 programs.

Youth programs. Under direction of Administrator SusanHenley, more than a dozen educational projects and manymore exhibits are available to student groups touring the Geo-science Center. Last year, nearly 3000 students received hands-on instruction in geophysics, geology, and oil and gas technol-ogy with the assistance of docents. A recent donation of a 48-channel seismic recorder will allow hands-on demonstration ofseismic acquisition. In June, the Geoscience Center partneredwith the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board to host a 60-teacher workshop in Tulsa.

An educational curriculum will guide the future develop-ment and evaluation of new educational programs and projectsat the center. This curriculum, being formulated by a com-mittee of teachers and industry representatives, will ensuremeeting the expectations of both industry and educationalinstitutions.

Youth education outreach. Educational programs andresources are developed, their effectiveness evaluated withtouring student groups and then collected at the center for dis-tribution to the SEG community worldwide. More than 500sets of the seismic cube interpretation package were distributedthis past year. It was extremely popular with students in Cara-cas, Venezuela, at the Sociedad de Geofisica de la UniversidadCentral de Venezuela under the direction of SEG Vice Presi-dent María Ángela Capello.

Global Affairs Committee members contributed new trans-lations of existing downloadable Web site materials in Spanish,Chinese, Russian, Italian, and Arabic. It is planned to contin-ue the expansion of outreach programs by organizing a moreformal distribution network, designating regional coordina-tors, and by packaging the projects. This will help educatorsand others who coordinate and supervise the distributedhands-on activities at remote sites. The committee is seekingnew ideas for outreach and interested SEG members to helpwith this worthwhile and challenging endeavor.

Science fairs and awards. The Geoscience Center again par-ticipated in the Tulsa Engineering Challenge (TEC), a pro-gram to encourage engineering and technical interest in high-school students. A booth manned by geoscientist volunteersexhibited geologic, seismological, and exploration principlesand distributed educational materials to students and teachers.

SEG continues its support of the ISEF held in Indianapo-lis this year. Richard Nolen-Hoeksema, ISEF subcommitteechairman, led an SEG judging team, and he, along with SusanHenley, administered awards to winners including top SEGwinner Jonathan Bell, age 17, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. FutureSEG-sponsored financial awards for ISEF will be assisted by aFoundation endowment from Mr. and Mrs. Richard Baile.The committee is seeking changes to the SEG ISEF awardstructure to remain in alignment with other sponsoring orga-nizations.

Historical preservation. The Geoscience Center was a keycontributor to SEG’s 75th-anniversary celebration year. It pro-vided the archival photographs for the TLE articles, the SEGonline daily history photographs, assistance in the develop-ment of the DVD “Reflections in the Field” with originalvideo footage and photos, and the 21 eight-foot tall historicaldecade kiosks for the Houston Annual Meeting, the Geo-science-Geophysics Timeline and the Exploration Geophysics—Petroleum Industry Timeline (authored by Geoscience Centercommittee member John Stockwell) that was distributed to allSEG members via insert in the SEG @75 special publication,and collaboration with the Geophysical Society of Houston tocreate the historical exhibits and theater at the 75th AnnualMeeting.

The Geoscience Center received generous historical artifactdonations this year. Louis Schneider donated a scale model ofthe seismic vessel, The Gary Chouest, on behalf of EdisonChouest Offshore. This ship display is extremely popular withtouring student groups. Herbert Valliant of ZLS Corporation,Austin, Texas, facilitated the donation of analog control elec-tronics for LaCoste & Romberg air/sea gravity meter circa1970. A surveying altimeter-microaltimeter base station man-ufactured by American Paulin Systems was donated in June byDaniel Finnefrock/Amerada Hess Corporation of Tulsa.

SEG contributed historical geophysical artifacts to theOklahoma History Center Petroleum History gallery thatopened in November 2005 in Oklahoma City, and loanedmaterials to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum during thegrand opening of its new planetarium in April.

Plans include addition of an exhibit of the original Karcherseismograms, currently in SEG possession, and displays of geo-physical instruments spanning the era from the 1960s to cur-rent. Working models of geophysical equipment are ofextreme interest and high educational value to students. Con-tributions such as seismic sources (e.g., air gun) are sought.

Virtual Geoscience Center. Due to the dedication of com-mittee volunteers, the Virtual Geoscience Center is addingnew material, improving functionality, and moving to supportthe larger SEG effort toward increasing online resources forstudents and SEG members worldwide. With three major pro-jects in the SEG Five-Year Online Plan, the Geoscience Cen-ter Web site looks forward to redesigning and updating itsWorld Wide Web presence and services.

SEG shows great leadership. This multifaceted effort toadvance the Geoscience Center as a youth educational resourcedevelopment center, a distribution center for educationalmaterials and awards, along with historical archival responsi-bilities is a valuable component of the Society. SEG is recog-nized as a leader in youth geoscience educational efforts and,through the foresight and essential support of membership,this dedication to youth education will, in time, bring new tal-ent, ideas, and excitement to the industry.

Global AffairsAldo L. Vesnaver, chairmanDavid M. Pitcher, vice chairmanVikram Sen, past chairman

Wonderful international growth let SEG pass the record ofnearly 24 000 members in 2006. This expansion highlightedthe main challenges that the Global Affairs Committee (GAC)faced this year: facilitating new SEG international offices, andpromoting fair representation of international members interms of voting rights.

The organization of major international meetings outsidethe United States can benefit a lot from local offices world-wide. This is already done by the international oil companiesand contractors, who populate the producing areas with localbranches. SEG has been planning over the last few years to setup international offices where significant communities of geo-physicists are active. Our committee provided information,advice, and actual contacts for areas we considered strategic forSEG, i.e. Russia, China, India, and the Middle East. For Rus-sia (Moscow) and India (Dehradun), preliminary businessplans were delivered.

Probably for the first time, the Global Affairs Committeeheld its winter meeting outside the United States, in nearbyCalgary, Canada, on March 13–14, 2006. We chose thisvenue for its relevant number of geophysicists, and for the easeof getting a visa for international members, which is becomingmore and more difficult in the United States.

During our winter meeting, we discussed and approved pro-posals for possible changes to the SEG Constitution and Bylaws.The committee felt that the current distribution of voting rightsunfairly penalized the international membership, and that theobjectives of the Society would be better served if all memberswere allowed to vote. We proposed to grant voting rights toassociate members, and to automatically upgrade associate toactive members after four years of SEG membership. Thisapproach has been adopted by the Society of Petroleum Engi-neers (SPE), Canadian SEG (CSEG), and the European Associ-ation of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE), among others.Unfortunately, our proposals were rejected by the SEG Execu-tive Committee. Only a minor step forward is being done bysimplifying the procedure for active membership. I hope thatthe new Executive Committee will proceed much further alongthis way, making SEG a truly democratic and global society.

One of the new procedures discussed and adopted in ourwinter meeting was using the eCommunities system for dis-cussing items during the year, involving GAC members whocannot attend the committee meetings in person. Voting by e-mail is being tested for possible major recommendations of theGAC, the same way that has been done for years in nominat-ing the candidate for the GAC chairman position.

Yoram Shoham was awarded GAC honorary membershipstatus for his years of work on the GAC and for SEG—espe-cially in the FSU region. The GAC passed the motion to forman advisory committee which would be comprised of formerGAC chairmen and honorary members.

The GAC formed 10 task forces and appointed GAC mem-bers who did not have a role as a country representative orregional coordinator to help team leaders from each task force.The purpose was to work jointly to support similar SEG com-mittees in expanding their goals, activities, and members toinclude the global community.

Task force leaders are as follows:

Global Spotlight, Mike BurianykK–12, María Ángela CapelloInternational offices, Aldo L. VesnaverMembership, Ralph BridleNetworking issues, Vikram SenPCs for students, David M. PitcherProjects, Aldo L. VesnaverStudent Sections, David M. PitcherSponsorship, Fred AminzadehTranslations, Mike Burianyk

PCs for Students Sections Program (David Pitcher, task forceleader). Twenty-four applications from SEG student sections in13 countries were received for the 2005 PCs for Students Pro-gram. The SEG Foundation provided a grant of $12 500 during2005–2006, enabling the purchase of computer systems for sixdifferent sections. Upon evaluation of the applications, systemswere awarded to the following universities: Ain Shams Universi-ty, Egypt; Ankara University, Turkey; Bandung Institute ofTechnology, Indonesia; Kazakh National Technical University,Kazakhstan; University of Bucharest, Romania; and Universityof Buea, Cameroon.

In addition, Hampson-Russell and Seismic Micro-Tech-nology have agreed to provide free educational licenses fortheir geophysical software. SEG would like to thank thesecompanies for their continued support of this program.

New translations were completed for the K-12 initiative, toattract teenagers worldwide for possible studies in geosciences.The GAC Spotlight is published in TLE with Mike Burianyk asguest editor. It includes information on international confer-ences, workshops, sections, student activities, and GAC projectsand challenges. The GAC Web site received a major facelift withthe posting of country and regional reports and photos of theregional coordinators, thanks to the efforts of Vikram Sen.

A symbiosis continued with the International Showcaseorganization, dedicated this year to the theme, “Africa on the



Horizon.” The two cochairmen, Mike Burianyk and KlaasKoster, are among the most active GAC members. Wafik Bey-doun, a past chairman, is coordinator of the Global Theater.

An important action of the committee is facilitating excel-lent internationally oriented speakers for the international lun-cheons during the Annual Meeting. This year, the followingspeakers were arranged:

• Former Soviet Union/European: Robert Peebler, presidentInput/Output, “Making the Vision of Fully Sampled,Full-Wave Imaging a Reality”

• Africa/Middle East: Hassan Hataba, Egyptian Ministry ofPetroleum, “Exploration and Product Recent Successes inEgypt”

• Latin American: Hugo Pelliza, Petrobras, “ExplorationOutlook for Argentina, a Present Challenge”

• Pacific/Asia: Sukusen Sumarinda, vice president Pertamina,“The Oil and Gas Business Opportunities in Indonesia andthe New Role of Pertamina,” and Apurba Saha, presidentSPG-India, ONGC, India, “SPG-Initiative to Promote Geo-physics”

Several new regional coordinators and national representa-tives were appointed, injecting new blood in the largest SEGcommittee—more than 140 members. In this way, our com-mittee is ready to support further the main goal of SEG, i.e.,disseminating science and professional skills, at the highestlevel and to the broadest international community.

As usual, the kind and superlative efficiency of PamelaTerekhova is what often built a solid bridge between the GACplans and their actual implementation.

Gravity and MagneticsDavid R. Oxley Jr., chairmanE. Gerald Hensel, vice chairman

The Gravity and Magnetics Committee (G&M) serves as afocus for activities within the Society dealing with gravity andmagnetics and promotes the knowledge and use of these poten-tial field methods. Our committee meets twice a year—April andagain at the Annual Meeting. Committee members are instru-mental in organizing Annual Meeting sessions and activities, pro-viding input to THE LEADING EDGE, advising on technical stan-dards, and overseeing the SEG G&M Web page and a dedicat-ed list server which includes geophysicists outside SEG.

For the 2005 Annual Meeting, committee members orga-nized two technical oral sessions, one poster session, and theG&M luncheon. The luncheon, as always, proved to be a pop-ular, well-attended event. Mark T. Lemmon, associate researchscientist from Texas A&M, Department of Atmospheric Sci-ence, presented a talk “Exploring Mars: The Mission of theSpirit and Opportunity Rovers.”

The 2006 Annual Meeting will feature technical sessions, aluncheon, and a workshop. Harold Yarger, with abstract-

reviewing assistance from committee members, has organizedthree technical oral sessions and one poster session. The G&Mluncheon, organized by Jerry Hensel and Dave Oxley, will fea-ture Anthony D. Socci, senior fellow, American Meteorologi-cal Society, speaking on near-term and long-term effects of cli-mate change. Guy Flanagan and Dave Oxley are organizingthe postconvention workshop titled “The Bishop Model:Investigations into the Use and Abuse of Test Models.”

Our committee is also heavily involved in SEG publicationactivities. The January 2006 issue of THE LEADING EDGE hada special section on magnetic gradiometry. The articles, editedby Terry McConnell, were derived from the 2004 AnnualMeeting postconvention workshop. The “Meter Reader” col-umn, organized by Bob Van Nieuwenhuise, continues as a reg-ular TLE feature. Work organized by Stuart Hall, Dale Bird,Pat Millegan, and Jerry Hensel is in progress to update L. L.Nettleton’s gravity and magnetics monograph.

The G&M Committee continues improving its Web pres-ence through the SEG-hosted Web site and an active exchangeof gravity and magnetics related issues between SEG membersand nonmembers over the list server hosted by Columbia Uni-versity. Chuck Campbell oversees these Web activities.Bimonthly dinner talks are organized by committee memberDale Bird for presentation through the Potential Fields SIG ofthe Geophysical Society of Houston. Continuing Educationactivities continue with Michal Ellen Ruder presenting a grav-ity and magnetics methods and interpretation short course sev-eral times a year.

The chairmanship of the Gravity and Magnetics Commit-tee is on a two-year rotation with the vice chairman takingover next. My term will be completed at this year’s upcomingSEG Annual Meeting in New Orleans; it has been my pleasureto keep potential fields in play for solving the puzzles whichcontinue to confront all explorationists.

Honors and AwardsSally G. Zinke, chairman

One of the most important functions of our professionalsociety is honoring those who have made important contribu-tions to the profession and to science. By unanimous agree-ment of the Honors and Awards Committee and the ExecutiveCommittee, the 2006 honorees are:

Maurice Ewing Medal: Fred J. Hilterman for his distin-guished contributions as a researcher in AVO relationshipsand applications, an educator of geophysics students and pro-fessionals, a disseminator of geophysical knowledge throughpublications and workshops, and a volunteer in professionalsociety activities.

Honorary Membership: Alistair R. Brown for his outstand-ing contributions to the advancement of 3D interpretationtechnology both by enhancing the range of 3D interpretationmethods and by educating geologists, geophysicists, and petro-


leum engineers in 3D applications for better geologic andreservoir understanding.

Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal: D. J. (Eric) Verschuur inrecognition of his outstanding work on surface-related multi-ple elimination (SRME), resulting in a method for multipleprediction and elimination of surface-related multiples inde-pendent of velocity. Verschuur has developed the theory, pub-lished extensively on the subject, and provided code to theindustry through his association with the Delphi Project atDelft University.

Cecil Green Enterprise Award: A. Peter Annan, CharlesDavid Leggatt, Steven W. Cosway, and Lowry Chua in recog-nition for founding Sensors & Software Inc. The company wasestablished to commercialize ground-penetrating radar tech-nology developed by A-Cubed, Inc., a research and develop-ment entity. With no outside funding and no salaries for theinitial year, the four founders worked together to launch Sen-sors & Software. Today the company employs 50 people, hasproducts working in 80–90 countries around the world, has a30–40% market share globally for GPR equipment, andapproximately $6 million annual revenue.

Reginald Fessenden Award: Daniel P. Hampson for hisinvention of the parabolic Radon transform. This transformprovided an approximation that is linear in the frequencydomain and highly practical for computer coding. After itspublication, the algorithm was implemented by virtually allthe processing companies in the world. This work has beenwidely cited and has led in the longer term to a number ofdevelopments specifically in the field of Radon transforms andmore generally in seismic signal processing.

J. Clarence Karcher Award: Kristopher A. H. Innanen inrecognition of his work in multiple suppression, particularlysignificant contributions in the areas of multistage/multireso-lution seismic migration, the development of efficient algo-rithms for multiple removal, and development of higher orderimaging capability through the combination of primary pro-cessing and inverse scattering series. He has pioneered theinverse scattering series methodology in the anelastic worldwith the objective of Q compensation without determining orknowing Q. Much of his work has been pivotal in velocityindependent imaging of subsalt, subbasalt, and subkarst areas.

Life Membership: William H. Dragoset for his significant con-tributions of service to the Society and the science of geophysics.He has served as a workshop organizer, on the Executive Com-mittee, on THE LEADING EDGE Editorial Board, as PublicationsCommittee chairman, and with the Research Committee. Inaddition, he has produced a number of technical publicationson ocean bottom sensors, multiples, and marine acquisition,including a “Best Paper” honorable mention. His most recentcontribution was a comprehensive historical review for theSEG’s 75th anniversary special publication.

Life Membership: Robert R. Stewart in recognition of hismeritorious voluntary service to the Society, including theinaugural SEG Distinguished Educator, (a program that laidthe groundwork for the SEG Distinguished Instructor Pro-gram), as a long-time instructor with the SEG’s ContinuingEducation Program, and as associate editor for signal process-ing in GEOPHYSICS.

Special Commendation Award: L. C. (Lee) Lawyer, RhondaG. Boone, Michael H. B. Golding, Thomas K. Fulton, and D.G. (Gene) Womack for their service to our profession, ourSociety, and the public in their roles as volunteers in design,development, and execution of programs associated withSEG’s 75th anniversary. The celebration included sectioninvolvement, an anniversary luncheon, a special publication,and a DVD.

The individuals accepting this award represent the leadersof the efforts, but they do not stand alone. They symbolize thehard work of a large number of very dedicated SEG membersand other volunteers who have provided a living collection ofour history, accomplishments, and character.

Distinguished Achievement Award: Compagnie Générale deGéophysique (CGG) for its contributions to the science ofexploration geophysics over the past 75 years. Founded in1931 by Conrad Schlumberger, CGG has remained indepen-dent and has contributed to the advancement of geophysics.Historically CGG has been a leader in land-based multicom-ponent seismic, time-lapse acquisition and processing, con-verted-wave applications, portable crews, land and marinetelemetry, VSP acquisition, depth migration, noise attenua-tion, and ocean bottom and conventional marine acquisition.CGG currently operates through two business sectors: Sercel,a leading international supplier of land and marine seismicacquisition systems, and CGG Services, which offers onshoreand offshore seismic acquisition, seismic data processing, andreservoir management.

Distinguished Achievement Award: The Geological Surveyof Canada (GSC) for its five decades of global leadership in thedevelopment of regional-scale geophysical techniques andmining geophysical exploration equipment and methods. Thisis in no small way a result of the part played by many dedicat-ed present and past workers in exploration geophysics at GSC.The introduction and development of airborne, surface, andborehole geophysical measurements have benefited geophysi-cal techniques such as electromagnetics, induced polarization,magnetics, seismic, electrical, radiometric, and radar. In geo-physics, GSC has been more innovative and entrepreneurialthan most government organizations.

Best Paper in GEOPHYSICS 2005Theory of true-amplitude one-way wave equations and true-amplitude common-shot migrationYu Zhang, Guanquan Zhang, and Norman Bleistein


Honorable Mention (GEOPHYSICS)Full-resolution 3D GPR imagingMark Grasmueck, Ralf Weger, and Heinrich Horstmeyer

Best Paper in THE LEADING EDGE 2005The first 3D/4-C ocean bottom seismic surveys in the Caspi-an Sea: Acquisition design and processing strategyJack Bouska and Rodney Johnston

Honorable Mention (TLE)Structural interpretation of the deepwater Gunashli Field,facilitated by 4-C OBS seismic dataDominic M. Manley, Sean F. Mohammed, Nigel D. Robinson,and Rowland W. Thomas

4D time-lapse monitoring of Chirag FieldNigel Robinson, Alan Ford, John Howie, Dominic Manley, Mar-tin Riviere, Simon Stewart, and Rowland Thomas

Developing the long-term seismic strategy for Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, South Caspian Sea, AzerbaijanJohn M. Howie, Nigel Robinson, Martin Riviere, Thomas Lyon,and Dominic Manley

Best Paper Presented at the 2005 Annual MeetingReconstruction of sparsely sampled data using a high-resolu-tion version of the focal transformD. J. Verschuur and A. J. Berkhout

Honorable Mention (Best Paper)Azeri 4-C time-lapse design using 3D 4-C OBS imaging deci-mation testsJack Bouska, John Howie, Bertram Nolte, Rodney Johnston,Richard Alexandre, and Richard Walters

Best Poster Paper Presented at the 2005 Annual MeetingEstimating polarization attributes with an adaptive covariancemethod in the wavelet domainMamadou S. Diallo, Mikhail Kulesh, Matthias Holschneider,Kristina Kurennaya, and Frank Scherbaum

Honorable Mention (Best Poster Paper)Solving an imaging problem in Kuwait Oil Company’sMinagish Field using single-sensor acquisition and processingJonathan Anderson, Andrew Smart, Ayman Shabrawi, Adel El-Emam, and Ghassan Rached

Best Student Paper Presented at 2005 Annual MeetingAutomatic detection of UXO magnetic anomalies usingextended Euler deconvolutionKristofer Davis, Yaoguo Li, and Misac Nabighian

Award of Merit (Best Student Paper)Multicomponent georadar imaging that corrects for total-fieldradiationRita Streich and Jan van der Kruk

Best Student Poster Paper Presented at 2005 AnnualMeetingPlane-wave attenuation anisotropy in orthorhombic mediaYaping Zhu and Ilya Tsvankin

Award of Merit (Best Student Poster Paper)Mapping geology and structure using multispectral and hyper-spectral data and evaluating topographic correction methods:Case study, Salmon River Mountains of east-central IdahoYardenia Martinez, Shuhab Khan, Paul Link, and Nancy Glenn

On behalf of the Honors and Awards Committee, I con-gratulate the distinguished recipients and thank them for theircontributions. The Honors and Awards process succeeds byreceiving nominations from individual SEG members, SEGcommittees, and SEG sections and associated societies. Wethank all those who submitted nominations for the 2006awards and who provided supporting letters and other docu-mentation. Future Honors and Awards committees will retainnominations for consideration of those who were not selectedfor consideration.

The Honors and Awards Committee comprises the past fiveSEG presidents: Sally G. Zinke, Walt S. Lynn, Mike Bahorich,Peter M. Duncan, and Craig J. Beasley. I thank my colleaguesfor their diligent and thoughtful efforts in researching and con-sidering the nominations for SEG’s awards—a process that hasconsumed many hours of their time in 2005–2006.

Chairing this committee concludes my presidential obliga-tions to SEG, and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity tohave served SEG during the past seven years.

InterpretationW. Verney Green, chairman

The Interpretation Committee (IC) promotes best prac-tices, new methods, and technologies to improve interpreta-tion quality. This is done by encouraging SEG members topublish their case histories and share practices at conventionsand via continuing education. The IC represents the largestsegment of our SEG membership and wants to be the sound-ing board for what interpreters want, a critical conduit for pro-viding what they need, and the catalyst for making our profes-sion more rewarding.

The committee is truly an integrated committee. Memberscome from many different areas (exploration, development,onshore, offshore, international, academic, etc.) and use dif-ferent skills (seismic, potential methods, stratigraphy, structur-al, etc.), but the common objective is to integrate the bestinformation available in the most effective way to add maxi-mum value to our business objectives.

The SEG committee works especially closely with theAAPG Geophysical Integration Committee. Many membersserve on both committees.

Most importantly, we try to keep an open-door policy, andare always looking for enthusiastic members that will champi-


on a good cause through to completion. We look forward toyour participation.

The IC met two times in the last year (see summaries below).These meetings give us a chance to get an update on projects,share ideas, and coordinate project planning. The main meetingthis year will be at the 2006 SEG Annual Meeting in NewOrleans. We invite the AAPG Geophysical Interpretation Com-mittee and any SEG members with enthusiasm for interpretationto attend. Please send a request to [email protected],to ensure there is enough space. The meeting will be at 8 a.m.,Monday, October 2.

Major current projects:

1) “How Inaccurate is My Interpretation? A Workshop onUncertainty,” Alistair Brown, Verney Green, and BillKeach are coordinators. The workshop will be held Friday,October 6, at the Annual Meeting.

2) We are again coordinating the “Best of Case Histories.”This session, at the Annual Meeting, contains invitedpapers from Alaska, Canada, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, WestAfrica, the North Sea, and Southeast Asia.

3) Reservoir Geophysics 2 is in editing stages.4) We are hoping to publish a compilation of articles in the

Geophysical Corner.5) “Pitfalls in Interpretation” compilation.

2005 Interpretation Committee Meeting; October 11,Houston

Approximately 25 members attended the annual conven-tion meeting. Verney Green took over as chairman and BillKeach became vice chairman. We discussed the question “IsSEG doing the most it can to help the interpretation commu-nity?” Dave Johnston gave an update on Reservoir Geophysics 2.The pitfalls series is in need of more help to gather a series ofarticles. Wayne Pennington has set up a Web site with linksto other Web pages where data are available: http://www.geo.mtu.edu/spot/SeismicData/. To continue the “Best of Ses-sions” at future meetings, a champion is required for a fewyears and coordination with AAPG must be maintained.There was debate about merging the SEG IC and AAPG GIC.Members suggested that we find a common project to worktogether as a first step.

2006 AAPG GIC, April 9, HoustonAt the AAPG GIC meeting in Houston, discussion topics

included: a special publication consisting of Geophysical Cor-ner papers, and holding a Houston 3D symposium.

Our new 2007 committee chairman will be Bill Keach, andwe will be voting on our new 2007 vice chairman at the Annu-al Meeting in New Orleans. It has been my pleasure to servewith the SEG Interpretation Committee these last two years(2004–2006). Keep up the good work!

Joint MeetingsKlaas Koster

This committee initially reviewed the desirability of a jointannual meeting with SPE and/or AAPG. It became rapidlyclear that there was considerable energy around organizingjoint workshops, but that a joint annual meeting was, for avariety of reasons, not attractive in the near term. At its Janu-ary meeting, the Joint Meetings Committee reviewed a list ofsuggested topics for joint SPE/SEG/AAPG workshops. SEG’ssuggestions came from our Research Committee, the D&PForum, and from our committee.

The decision was made to initially propose three intersoci-ety workshops:

• “Data Fusion: Combining Geological, Geophysical, andEngineering Data”—spring 2007—organized by SEG

• “Mature Field Studies: Adding Value Through Integra-tion”—fall 2007—organized by AAPG as part of the Hed-berg symposia

• “Pore Pressure Prediction”—spring 2008—organized bySPE

Meetings Review and PlanningKlaas Koster, chairman

Last year, the committee proposed a global strategy for meet-ings at levels 4 and 5. This year the committee is concentratingon lower level meetings and other events, such as DISC and dis-tinguished lectures. The committee asked the business office staffto prepare a geographic overview of SEG events in the precedingthree years. The goal was to identify regions where SEG has hadno recent presence so they could be actively targeted for an SEGevent. A three-year period between events is considered the max-imum before local geophysicists would no longer considerregional events an integral benefit of Society membership. Analy-sis of a preliminary overview suggests that SEG needs to proac-tively support events in the African region. If this is confirmed onthe final overview, the committee will engage with the GlobalAffairs Committee to identify SEG members residing in Africawho could be encouraged to organize a local event. Aid and sup-port to the members would be arranged to ensure that unfamil-iarity with organizing an SEG event does not form an obstacle.

The committee also reviewed 11 requests for support for localmeetings at levels 1–3 in the first half of the year alone. Thesemeetings span the globe with requests from Australia, Bolivia,Brazil, Canada, China, France, Former Soviet Union, Japan,Turkey, and Venezuela.

MembershipRoy E. Clark Jr.

SEG membership as of June 30, 2006, was at a record 23 975,a net increase of 1283 from last year. The current number


includes 41 corporate members which continue to provide greatsupport for our Society. The membership count has increasedsteadily since 1995, when it hit a local low of 14 070. Its increasereflects the growing health of our Society in meeting the needs ofexploration geophysicists around the world.

The continuing globalization of our Society is becomingever more pronounced, with the ratio of non-U.S. versus U.S.members reaching 58%/42% on June 30. Our Society encour-ages all exploration geophysicists to join, whatever their geo-graphic or economic backgrounds. SEG plans meetings, cours-es, and activities worldwide to serve the needs of the globalcommunity.

This report includes several figures to illustrate the state ofmembership in our Society. Figure 1 shows the growth ofmembership from 1930 to the present. In 1930, there wereonly 46 members.

Figure 2 shows the increasing role of global membershipsince 1985. We now have more non-U.S.-based members(58%) than U.S.-based members (42%).

Figure 3 shows the population of our various membershipclasses, comparing figures from last year with this year.Increases occurred in all membership categories except global.The decrease in global may be in part due to more affordableactive and associate rates in SEG global countries.

Figure 4 is a pie chart of membership categories for the cur-rent year. Note that the largest membership category is nowassociate (35%), with active dropping to (33%). Many associ-

ates would qualify for active if they would apply. There hasbeen much discussion and many proposals made in this areaincluding trying to simplify the process to upgrade. One resultis that benefits of active membership will be promoted andactive members recognized at Society events.

Figure 5 shows membership by category from 1980 untilthe present and illustrates that although global membershiphas decreased slightly, the numbers in active, associate, andstudent have increased.

Our sincere thanks go to Apache Corporation for its con-tinuing support and sponsorship of the Global MembershipProgram and to Halliburton for its continuing support andfunding of the Student Membership Program.

This year’s “Play Your Cards Right” Member-Get-a-Mem-ber Campaign encouraged current members to recruit newmembers, with prizes for those successfully recruiting the mostcandidates in various categories and time periods. The2005–2006 “Play your Cards Right” Member-Get-a-MemberCampaign has generated 1527 new members recruited by 445SEG members during the first three quarters of the campaign.Final campaign numbers and winners will be posted on theSEG membership site in early October. The 2006–2007 cam-paign will kick off at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Our thanks go out to the SEG business office staff whomanage the Membership programs throughout the year anddo a great job of responding to the many comments and ques-tions from members.

Figure 1. Total SEG Membership as of June 30, 1930–2006 (includes corporate members).


Figure 2. Globalization of membership as of June 30, 2006 (does not include corporate members).

Figure 3. Membership report: Fiscal years 2004–2006 (does not include corporate members [41] in totals).

Figure 4. Fiscal year 2006 membership.


Mining and GeothermalMary M. Poulton, chairmanMichael W. Zang, vice chairman

In the last year, the main activity of the Mining and Geot-hermal Committee (M&G) was planning for SEG’s 76thAnnual Meeting in October. Continuing a tradition started in1996, the committee targets every second year for a strongmining community turnout at the Annual Meeting, now col-loquially termed a “mining summit.”

Other events the committee was involved with during theyear included:

• List server. The committee’s list server, kindly hosted byGeosoft, continues to provide a useful forum for our glob-al community. You can send an e-mail to [email protected] with the text “subscribe segmin” in thebody of the text. You will receive a confirmation withinstructions for using the list and for unsubscribing. If youdo not receive a confirmation and welcome message by theend of that business day, please send a message to [email protected] requesting to be added to thelist. More than 170 people are signed up on the list server.

• Web site. Some content and communications have beenplaced on the SEG eCommunities pages, but most inter-action with the community still takes place via the list serv-er.

• Committee meetings and session planning. The com-mittee met twice in the past 12 months; first in 2005 at the75th SEG Annual Meeting in Houston and then at theProspectors and Developers annual meeting in March inToronto. The primary topic of discussion was the status ofplans for the mining program for New Orleans in 2006.Papers will be solicited in honor of Doug Oldenburg atone of the M&G sessions in New Orleans. The lunch

speaker, Mike Doggett, was selected. Two workshops willbe held, one on uranium exploration, and one on SQUIDtechnology.

• Awards. We will give best paper awards specifically forM&G sessions at the 2006 meeting. The HohmannAward will be presented at the M&G luncheon in NewOrleans. The Geological Survey of Canada will receive theDistinguished Achievement Award by SEG.

• Publications. Several senior members (Ken Zonge, MisacNabighian, Harry Siegel, and Norm Patterson) are writingan article for THE LEADING EDGE. Pat Killeen is writing ameta-summary of 40 years of the Geological Survey’s tech-nology reviews for THE LEADING EDGE. We hope to pro-mote both articles in New Orleans.

• Succession plans. The committee is pleased to announcethat effective with the 2006 committee meeting, MichaelZang will assume the role of committee chairman, andRichard Smith will become the vice chairman.

• Future plans. Discussion is taking place on how to stim-ulate the next technological advance in mining geophysicsand how to work with the Society of Economic Geologists.

• Safety documentation. Discussion continues on trying tocompile best safety practices.

Committee on NominationsCraig J. Beasley, chairman

It has been a pleasure to serve this year as chairman of theCommittee on Nominations which is comprised of SEG’s threemost recent past presidents and four active members, each repre-senting an SEG section or associated society. The immediate pastpresident serves as chairman. Each year, two of the four repre-sentatives of a section or associated society representatives arereplaced by representatives of other eligible sections through adrawing conducted by the Tellers Committee. This year’s mem-

Figure 5. Membership by classification.


bers include past presidents Craig J. Beasley (chairman), Peter M.Duncan, and Mike Bahorich. Other members are RodolfoMarines (Associacíon of Mexicana de Geofísicos de Explo-ración), Tracy Stark (Dallas Geophysical Society), Aldo L. Ves-naver (Saudi Aramco), and David Zinzer (Potomac GeophysicalSociety). Bahorich, Marines, and Zinzer will retire from the com-mittee this year.

The committee met briefly at the 2005 SEG Annual Meet-ing in Houston. The remainder of its deliberations were con-ducted by e-mail and telephone conference. The geographicaldiversity of the committee, reflecting that of the Society,makes such meeting at a distance a necessity.

The committee submitted the following slate of candidatesfor election by the membership to the 2006–2007 ExecutiveCommittee:

President-elect Fred AminzadehGérard C. Herman

First vice president Roy E. Clark Jr.Alan K. Faichney

Second vice president Michael H. PowersJames W. Rector

Vice president Shane P. CoperudePanos G. Kelamis

Secretary-treasurer Brad A. BirkeloErnest S. Siraki

No candidates were nominated by petition for this election.I would like to thank my fellow committee members for

the hard work, time, and energy that they put into selectingthis slate of candidates.

SEG OnlineSusan Mastoris Peebler, chairman

This year marks a major transition for the former OnlineGoverning Board (OGB) Committee. As background, execu-tive committees for the last several years have recognized theincreasing importance of SEG’s Web site as an invaluablesource to educate our global workforce on new technologies inreal time. Although the digital reference library remains themost popular use of seg.org today, new tools can be incorpo-rated to allow members around the world to view a DISC lec-ture, Annual Meeting presentation, or take a Continuing Edu-cation course—instantaneously, or at a time of their conve-nience. Interactive tutorials with links to increasingly deepertechnical explanations will pioneer online education and allowgeophysicists to stay abreast of new technologies—at their ownpace.

To achieve this, however, requires a complete redesign ofthe underlying architecture and extensive planning to under-

stand how members will use the site, both in terms of efficientworkflows and a streamlined user interface.

To that end, the previous OGB has been reorganized intotwo separate committees:

1) SEG Online Committee: Focused entirely on Web pagecontent and redesign.

2) Publications Policy Committee: Focused on member pub-lication benefits, pricing, commerciality, and intersocietyissues.

Members from both committees will work on overlappingissues, such as considering a common Web portal to accessintersociety publications, or debating which architecture willenable members to best share algorithms to foster an environ-ment of innovation.

SEG Online status report as of June 2006:

• The committee met with SEG staff in Tulsa to review theSEG Online Five-Year Plan, and the list of 37 potentialprojects. Under the guidance of cochairman Kevin Sher-wood, the committee enlisted the professional help of out-side consultants to scope the work requirements for eachproject and to provide a basic template for redesign.

• Further, Art Schrader engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers(PWC) to provide an audit of the SEG IT staff skills,determine which efforts could be outsourced, and helpbuild a business plan, with project requirements, estimat-ed costs, and a timeline for completion.

• Results of these studies will be presented to the SEGOnline Committee for feedback. The committee will meetquarterly to review updates after that time.

• In addition, and at the suggestion of PWC, an SEGOnline steering committee was formed which will serve asthe committee directly responsible for the operationalaspects of implementing the program. Their mission is toensure the deliverables meet the objectives of all stake-holders. They will work directly with the project managerand program team, incorporating input and guidancefrom the SEG Online Committee as well as other com-mittees, as needed, who have a vested interest in the out-come of the design.

Project ReviewIvan de Araújo Simões-Filho, chairman

It was an honor to succeed Leon Thomsen, SEG president-elect, as chairperson of the SEG Project Review Committee.This committee has the task of recommending, to the SEGExecutive Committee, which projects they should recommendfor funding to the SEG Foundation Board.

Nineteen projects were submitted this year, for funding up to$10 000 each, totaling a $155 000 budget (SEGF had initiallyallocated a $55 000 budget). Many of these submissions wereincomplete but I decided not to disqualify them for purely


bureaucratic reasons, as this would considerably reduce the num-ber of grants. These projects were distributed for review amongthe members of the committee who did not have a conflict ofinterest (for instance, had not submitted a proposal or were notmembers of an institution which submitted a proposal), but withthe recommendation of giving more weight in the evaluations tothose proposals which provided complete information.

During a first round of reviews, each reviewer had seven pro-jects to evaluate, and 10 points to distribute among the projects.Each project was reviewed by two to four reviewers and the scoresobtained by each project were normalized accordingly. Threeprojects were eliminated after the first round, and the remainingprojects were reviewed by two to three reviewers, following thesame procedures as in the first round. The committee then rec-ommended funding for the top six projects and extended thebudget to contemplate three other projects which had merit to befunded. The SEGF Board reviewed the committee’s recommen-dations and approved a $65 000 expenditure for Projects ofMerit in 2006. They awarded grants to nine top-ranked projects:Stanford University SEG Student Chapter; Duke University/KNUST (Ghana); University of Oklahoma; Nnamdi AzikiweUniversity Geophysical Society (Nigeria); Colorado School ofMines; Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (India); Univer-sity of Colorado, Boulder; San Diego State University; and thefall AAPG/SEG Student Expo.

For next year we recommend notifying more potentiallyinterested institutions and putting special emphasis on the needfor a complete application in order to avoid disqualifications.We also intend to make a broader use of the eCommunities,where all documents and discussions are posted, together withthe committee’s ranking and recommendations.

Finally, I would like to thank the members of the commit-tee who generously offered their valuable time and providedtheir reviews within the tight deadlines. They are Azra N.Tutuncu, David R. Zinzer, Ferdinand K. Aniwa, Hermes Mal-cotti, Klaas Koster, Marian Morris, Samir Abdelmoaty, andStephen Bannister.

PublicationsSatinder Chopra, chairman

The Publications Committee is responsible for solicitingand working with the SEG Publications staff to produce allpublications other than GEOPHYSICS and THE LEADING EDGE.The committee’s objective is to provide exploration geophysi-cists with the technical geophysical information to keep cur-rent with ideas and techniques necessary in their jobs. Thisreport summarizes books recently published and those that areto be published in the near future.

Reference publications issued in fiscal year 2006 (July 1,2005 to July 1, 2006):

• Introduction to Petroleum Seismology, by Luc T. Ikelle andLasse Amundsen

• Multiple Attenuation, edited by Arthur B. Weglein and

William H. Dragoset• Near-Surface Geophysics, edited by Dwain K. Butler• Seismic Attribute Mapping of Structure and Stratigraphy, by

Kurt J. Marfurt and Satinder Chopra (DISC book)• Seismic Data Processing with Seismic Un*x: A 2D Seismic

Data Processing Primer, by David Forel, Thomas Benz, andWayne D. Pennington

• Expanded Abstracts Historical Series on DVD-ROM(1982–2005)

• GEOROM XII, DVD-ROM archive of GEOPHYSICS

(1936–2005) and THE LEADING EDGE (1982–2005)• CREWES Research Collection 2006 (published by

CREWES; SEG consignment sales)

Reference publications expected by 2006 SEG AnnualMeeting in New Orleans:

• 3D Seismic Imaging, by Biondo L. Biondi• Expanded Abstracts Historical Series on DVD-ROM

(1982–2006)

Other works in advanced stages of production.

• Classics of Elastic Wave Theory, edited by Michael A. Pelissier,Henning Hoeber, Norbert van de Coevering, and Ian F.Jones

• Seismic Attributes for Prospect Identification and ReservoirCharacterization, by Satinder Chopra and Kurt J. Marfurt

In addition to the above publications, due to demand, thefollowing five popular SEG books were reprinted during thepast fiscal year.

• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Geophysics, fourth edi-tion, by Robert E. Sheriff

• Fundamentals of Geophysical Interpretation, by Laurence R.Lines and Rachel T. Newrick

• Seismic Data Analysis: Processing, Inversion, and Interpreta-tion of Seismic Data, by Öz Yilmaz

• Seismic Amplitude Interpretation, by Fred J. Hilterman• 3D Seismic Survey Design, by Gijs J. O. Vermeer

The Publications Committee also recommended the publi-cation of a Spanish translation of the Encyclopedic Dictionaryof Applied Geophysics, fourth edition, by Robert E. Sheriff. Thispublication has been approved by the SEG Executive Com-mittee, and work on this will begin soon.

The Publications Committee consists of several dedicatedindividuals who generously donate their time and effort. Thesecommittee members, along with editors, book authors, andthe SEG Publications staff allow the publication process towork efficiently. The series editors are: Cynthia Menant Berli-er, Slide Sets; Sergio Chávez-Pérez, Translations Committeechairman; Michael R. Cooper, Investigations in Geophysics;Mike Pelissier, Geophysics Reprints; Lawrence M. Gochioco,Continuing Education Course Notes; David Fitterman, Geo-

physical Monographs; Steve Hill, Geophysical Developments;and Gene Scherrer, Geophysical References.

Publications PolicyStephen J. Hill, chairman

The SEG Publications Policy Board was created in 2006 toaddress a range of policy issues that fall outside the focus of anyof the current SEG publications-related committees or involvemore than one such committee. It focuses on strategic issuessuch as member publications benefits, intersociety publishinginitiatives, publication pricing policies, and questions of com-mercialism and conflicts of interest in publications. The boardrecommends action to the Executive Committee as necessary.

The Publications Policy Board consists of eight members.Four members are automatic appointments: 1) chairman ofthe TLE Editorial Board (Ali Tura); 2) chairman of the SEGOnline Committee (Susan Mastoris Peebler); 3) chairman ofthe Publications Committee (Satinder Chopra); and 4) chair-man of the Translations Committee (Sergio Chávez-Pérez). Afifth member is one of the assistant editors of GEOPHYSICS (thisyear it is Johan Robertsson) selected annually by the editor(Yonghe Sun). The president has appointed the other threemembers (Joe Dellinger, Mike Schoenberger, and me) forfour-year terms, although initially the term lengths are for two,three, and four years in length so that no two “at-large” mem-bers leave service to the committee simultaneously.

The president selects one of these three “at-large” membersto serve as chairman for a two-year term within the member’sfour-year term, and Terry Young selected me to serve as thecommittee’s first chairman. The other two “at-large” membersare eligible to ascend to chair during their four-year terms. Thepresident shall have the option of extending the term of achairman or an “at-large” member by one year at the time theextension would begin. The editor serves on the board in anex-officio capacity.

At the time annual reports were due, the committee hadnot held its first meeting. It will meet at least once per year andmore often as necessary.

ResearchArthur C. H. Cheng, chairman

The main focus of the Research Committee (RC) is theorganization of the Summer Research Workshop, in coopera-tion with the EAGE Research Committee, and workshops atthe Annual Meeting.

In 2005, the SEG/EAGE Summer Research Workshop,“Multicomponent Seismic Technology,” hosted by EAGE,September 5–8 in Pau, France, was a very successful meeting.

The 2006 SEG/EAGE Summer Research Workshop,“Subsalt Exploration and Development: Imaging, Interpreta-tion and Drilling. What Have We Learned?” was held July10–13, in Snowbird, Utah. The chairman of the organizing

committee was Biondo Biondi. The workshop was fully sub-scribed.

The RC sponsored a second workshop, “Hydrogeo-physics,” on July 31–August 2 in Vancouver, Canada. Thisworkshop, chaired by Rosemary Knight, was also fully sub-scribed.

The RC is cosponsoring the joint SPG/SEG Workshop“Reservoir Geophysics: Data Acquisition, Processing andInterpretation in Mature Oil Provinces,” October 27–29,2006, in Kunming, China.

For this year’s Annual Meeting postconvention workshops,the committee picked five topics during our January meeting:They are:

• Modern acoustic logs: What are we measuring?• Integration of seismic and electromagnetic measurements• Stress effects on velocities• The value of borehole seismic to reservoir characterization• Geophysics of heavy oil

The new modeling initiative started by the modeling sub-committee, SEG Advanced Modeling Program (SEAM), is onschedule to start later in the year. We will operate this as awhollyowned subsidiary of SEG. We have a number of signedcontracts, and we are confident that we can reach our objectiveof having at least 15 members.

EAGE will be hosting the joint SEG/EAGE SummerResearch Workshop in 2007. Title, organizers, location, anddate have yet to be determined. SEG will be hosting an addi-tional SRW. The title of the workshop will be “Noise.” ChrisKrohn, Necati Gulunay, and Shuki Ronen are the organizers.The location and date have not been determined.

ReviewsDavid C. Bartel, chairman

The Reviews Committee had a change in leadership inNovember 2005. I want to thank Bill Green for his many yearsof service as Reviews Committee chairman and am glad he iscontinuing as a reviewer and resource. We operate differentlythan most of the other SEG committees. We operate almostsolely by e-mail to give notice of items for review and to col-lect finished reviews. The reviews are published in THE LEAD-ING EDGE and essentially give us a monthly presence to theSEG membership.

The committee continued in its well-established form.Besides technical books of interest to SEG members to keepthem current with the literature related to their professionalactivities, we also review books of general interest to geoscien-tists. We are a global committee with members around theworld, representing all aspects of the geophysics profession.No matter the time zone, it seems that an e-mail indicatingnew books available for review gets a swift response.

For the reporting period (June 2005–May 2006), the visi-ble effects of the committee’s work were as follows: 32 book



reviews appeared in print, by 14 authors from six countries. Ofthe 32 reviews, four had opinions contributed by more thanone reviewer. Submitted reviews appear very quickly in THE

LEADING EDGE, sometimes just the next month. We have hada couple of months without the Reviews column, not owing toa lack of reviews available for publication, but because there isso much information to pack into one issue.

Most of the books available for review come directly frompublishers soliciting a review. Specific books are sometimesrequested from publishers as well. The SEG PublicationsDepartment also furnishes a list of new publications as they arereleased. The total number of books received (42) has gonedown from the 63 books last year but is on par with2003–2004 (49).

I would like to thank Merrily Sanzalone of the SEG Publi-cations Department for all her help in handling the logisticalside of the review process and for her efforts in obtainingreview copies of new books. Thanks also to Dean Clark for thequick transitions from e-mailed reviews to finished product inTHE LEADING EDGE. Finally, thanks to all the contributors tothe Reviews column. Without them, the committee would notaccomplish much.

Any member who would like further information or wouldlike to participate is welcome to contact me via e-mail: [email protected].

ScholarshipKaren K. Dittert, chairman

The scholarship program of SEG Foundation seeks to findand recognize the most qualified geophysics students withinSEG’s collegiate community. Through scholarships, we arerewarding academic achievements of students while providingrecognition for our Society, sponsors, and organizations. Inaddition, we are able to honor, through memorial scholar-ships, geophysicists who have been important in our lives. In2006, the SEG Foundation awarded the largest scholarshiptotal in SEG’s history, $271 450 to 147 outstanding candi-dates whose interests cover all aspects of geophysics.

Scholars. The SEG Scholarship Committee met on March 31to review and finalize selections more than 450 new applica-tions and 77 renewal applications. After careful considerationof the applicants and the wishes of our sponsors, the commit-tee approved 147 awards, with values ranging from $500 to$14 000. Most awards are for $1000 (48), $1500 (16), $2000(30), and $3000 (11).

During recent years, it has become increasingly clear thatthe great challenge for the SEG scholarship program is toensure that the number of global awards keeps pace with theglobal nature of SEG membership. The 2006–2007 scholar-ship program made great strides toward achieving that objec-tive. The 2006–2007 SEG scholars are citizens of 24 differentcountries studying in 13 countries around the globe. Eighty-four of the 147 recipients (57%) are citizens of countries other

than the United States, a figure which is well aligned withSEG’s membership because almost 59% of SEG’s memberslive outside the United States. Fifty of the 147 recipients(34%) study in universities outside the United States, morethan twice the number in 2005–2006. This achievement islargely due to endowed scholarship donors who have relaxedthe restrictions on use of their funds, to our sponsored schol-arship donors, and to SEG members and general donors whogive to the SEG scholarship program.

Sponsors. The cornerstone of our program is the generosity ofour contributors, who include individuals, corporations, andSEG sections. Seventy percent ($190 600) of our scholarshipfunds are endowed, which provides much needed continuityfrom year to year. The remaining $80 850 was from yearlycontributions and carry-overs from the previous year.

Sponsorship Number AmountIndividuals 40 $102 800Corporations 71 92 200Individual/corporate 4 12 000

joint sponsorshipSEG sections 16 28 600Memorial scholarships 16 35 850

Total 147 $271 450

Our appreciation is extended to those individuals who con-tribute personally as well as those who influence their corpora-tions and SEG sections to continue to contribute generously tothe scholarship program. The fiscal soundness of this programis a reflection of the tremendous effort put forth by the Foun-dation Trustee Associates in securing scholarship contribu-tions from a myriad of contributors. The committee looks for-ward to upcoming years as SEG and the SEG Foundation con-tinue to increase the availability of scholarship funds throughthe Advancing Geophysics Today and Inspiring Geoscientists forTomorrow program.

Committee. The Scholarship Committee consists of eightmembers who each serve for eight years. Every year, manyhours are spent reviewing and assessing the applications ofnumerous students in preparation for the committee’s annualspring award meeting—an awesome task which must be com-pleted in a short period of time. In addition to selecting therecipients, each committee member is assigned a group ofscholarship students to monitor and mentor. This provides adirect link for our students to SEG.

Many thanks to the members of the SEG ScholarshipCommittee: Gokay Bozkurt, Alex D. Bridge, Steven L. Roche,Martin Stupel, Wenjie Dong, Robert E. Van Nieuwenhuise,and Catherine Thibault for their hard work and dedication.Brian Young, Katie Burk, and Peter Pangman from SEG haveall become integral to the success of the scholarship program,and I am grateful for their efforts and expertise. In addition, Iwould like to thank the Foundation’s liaisons, Rod Cottrelland Gary Servos, for their continued support of the program.


SEG Foundation Scholarship Sponsors for the 2005–2006 Academic Year

AGIP $1000ARCO $2000Born Memorial, Ted $1000Butler, John R. $1000ChevronTexaco E&P $2000Cordsen, Andreas $800Dallas Geophysical Society $4000Dallas Geophysical Society -

Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial $7000Denver Geophysical Society $9000Excel Geophysical Services $1000ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company $13 250Forrest, Michael $2000Geophysical Society of Alaska $1000Geophysical Society of Houston $1000Geophysical Society of Houston -

Carlton-Farren Award $5000Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City $2000Geophysical Society of Tulsa $2000Gregg, Mark E. - Kiwi Energy Ltd. $1000Harrison, Jim and Ruth $2000Hewitt, Jene and Marvin $1000Hilterman, Fred $1000Hohmann Memorial, G. W. $4000Hron Memorial, Frantisek $2000Jack, Ian - BP Amoco Scholarship $5000KEGS Ontario $1000

KEGS - Phillip Hallof Memorial $1000LaCoste, Lucien Memorial $10 000Landmark Graphics $13 000Lockhart, Richard and Rolande $1000Mazza Memorial, Thomas $1000McBride Memorial, Barbara $2000McBurney Memorial, Charles G. $4000Permian Basin Geophysical Society $2000Schlumberger $2000SEG 75th Anniversary Scholarship -

sponsored by Vicki Messer $5000SEG Endowed Scholarship $1000SEG Foundation $31 450Shell E&P $2000Sheriff, Margaret S. $12 000Sheriff, Robert E. $14 000Smith, Charlie and Jean $16 000Thomsen/BP North America $2400Thomsen/BP United Kingdom $900Veritas DGC $2000Ward, Shirley A. and Stanley H. $19 000WesternGeco $5000WesternGeco - Carl Savit $5000White Memorial, J. E. $850Worthing, David - SEG $20 000Wrolstad Memorial, Keith $1000

Ludmila Adam Colorado School of Mines David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipOluwatosin Caleb Akinpelu University of Toronto GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith ScholarshipChelsea Allison Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith ScholarshipMehmet Serkan Arca University of Arizona ChevronTexaco E&P ScholarshipJoaquin Aristimuno Carleton College SEG Foundation General ScholarshipOladotun Awosemo Obafemi Awolowo University Landmark Graphics ScholarshipReeshidev Bansal University of Texas at Austin Dallas Geophysical Society ScholarshipBanks Beasley Colorado School of Mines Mark E. Gregg/Kiwi Energy Ltd. ScholarshipJyoti Behura Colorado School of Mines SEG 75th Anniversary Scholarship,

sponsored by Vicki MesserMario Bencomo University of Texas at El Paso SEG Foundation General ScholarshipEdward Bertrand University of Alberta Frantisek Hron Memorial ScholarshipNedra Bonal Alexander University of Texas at Austin SEG Foundation General ScholarshipShamik Bose University of Oklahoma Aubra Tilley ScholarshipHoa Quang Bui Texas A&M University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith ScholarshipBenjamin Byerly University of Oregon Keith Wrolstad Memorial ScholarshipKatrina Byerly University of South Carolina ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipXiling Cai China University of Geosciences SEG Foundation General ScholarshipJun Cao University of California, Santa Cruz WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardNicholas (Seth) Carpenter Oregon State University Veritas DGC ScholarshipJohn Ceron University of South Carolina Geophysical Society of Houston ScholarshipGeoffrey Chambers Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith ScholarshipHui Chang University of Texas at Dallas Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City ScholarshipShuang-quan Chen China University of Petroleum, Beijing WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardKevin Christie University of Wisconsin-Madison Ted Born Memorial ScholarshipMargarita Corzo Heriot-Watt University Ian Jack/BP Amoco ScholarshipTiffany Cox Carleton College SEG Foundation General ScholarshipMilos Dragan Cvetkovic University of Houston Thomsen/BP North America ScholarshipAaron Davis Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology SEG Foundation General Scholarship

(RMIT University)Amy Day-Lewis Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith ScholarshipEric Dew University of Louisiana, Lafayette Thomas Mazza Memorial ScholarshipJicai Ding Institute of Geology and Geophysics, SEG Foundation General Scholarship

Chinese Academy of SciencesBrianne Douthit Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society Scholarship

SEG Foundation Scholarship Recipients for the 2005–2006 Academic YearName University Award


Ben Drenth University of Texas at El Paso Landmark Graphics ScholarshipXiang Du University of Calgary SEG Foundation General ScholarshipInmaculada Dura-Gomez University of South Carolina WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardJeff Durand University of Alberta ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipLauren Edgar Dartmouth College David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipPaul Edigbue Federal University of Technology, Akure AGIP ScholarshipAmobi Ekwe University of Nigeria Veritas DGC ScholarshipRobert Eslick University of Kansas ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipRobert Eso University of British Columbia Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward ScholarshipJohn Evangelatos University of New Brunswick SEG Foundation General ScholarshipBelinda Ferrero-Marine University of Oklahoma Charles G. McBurney Memorial ScholarshipMelvin Fillerup University of South Carolina David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipAntje Franke Technische Universität of Hohmann Memorial Scholarship

Bergakademie FreibergShelby Frost Winona State University SEG Foundation General ScholarshipJourdan Fuhrmann Colorado State University WesternGeco ScholarshipToshiko Furukawa University of Utah David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipBonnie Gillan University of Montana SEG Foundation General ScholarshipCarmen Gomez Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith ScholarshipCory Grady Colorado School of Mines Fred Hilterman ScholarshipDerek Grimm Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society ScholarshipLianghui Guo China University of Geosciences SEG Foundation General ScholarshipNathan Hancock Colorado School of Mines Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward ScholarshipBenjamin Haugen University of Colorado Denver Geophysical Society ScholarshipTyler Hayes University of Western Ontario Lucien LaCoste ScholarshipDesmond Heyliger IV University of Central Arkansas SEG Foundation General ScholarshipAndrew Hinnell University of Arizona ARCO ScholarshipEmily Hinz University of Texas at Dallas Gary Garner Memorial ScholarshipNeil Hodgson Heriot-Watt University Thomsen/BP United KingdomChad Hogan University of Calgary SEG Foundation General ScholarshipR. Chadwick Holmes Columbia University SEG Foundation General ScholarshipShuo Hou University of Texas at Austin SEG Foundation General ScholarshipShari Houston New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipJerad Hughes Colorado School of Mines Landmark Graphics ScholarshipDiana Husmann Massachusetts Institute of Technology ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipAleksandar Jeremic University of Houston Landmark Graphics ScholarshipBai Jie Uppsala University SEG Foundation General ScholarshipMerrick Johnston Dartmouth College Geophysical Society of Alaska ScholarshipSayed Hesammoddin Kazemeini Uppsala University SEG Foundation General ScholarshipDanil Knyazev Institut Français du Pétrole ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipJohn Korbin New Mexico Tech L. Decker Dawson and C. Newton Page/

Permian Basin Geophysical Society ScholarshipAshley Krakowka University of Manitoba SEG Endowed ScholarshipNicholas Kunstek Montana Tech Landmark Graphics ScholarshipMuhammed Kurniawan Institut Teknologi Bandung Richard and Rolande Lockharte ScholarshipGrant Lethbridge Memorial University of Newfoundland David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipXinfu Li Institute of Geology and Geophysics, SEG Foundation General Scholarship

Chinese Academy of SciencesYandong Li Tsinghua University SEG Foundation General ScholarshipArianna Lisi University of Houston DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial ScholarshipGuofeng Liu China University of Geosciences WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardAndrew Lynch University of Kentucky SEG Foundation General ScholarshipWentao Ma China University of Geosciences WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardChristian Marine University of Oklahoma Aubra Tilley ScholarshipVirginie Maris University of Utah Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward ScholarshipMilena Marjanovic University of Belgrade WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardStephanie Mason University of Rochester Excel Geophysical Services ScholarshipDavid McCowan Ohio University David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipAlison Meininger Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society ScholarshipDaniel Merchant Montana Tech G. W. Hohmann Memorial ScholarshipThomas Mikesell Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society ScholarshipBrandon Milliard University of Montana David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipLi Minfeng China University of Geosciences David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipSoo-Kyung Miong University of British Columbia SEG Foundation General ScholarshipPeyman Moghaddam University of British Columbia Michael Forrest ScholarshipChristopher Monk Texas A&M University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship

Name University Award


Dana Mucuta University of South Carolina WesternGeco/Carl Savit AwardScott Robin Napier University of British Columbia Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward ScholarshipStephen Nei Loyola University Chicago WesternGeco ScholarshipThang Nguyen University of Houston Margaret S. Sheriff ScholarshipMarcela Novo Pontificia Universidade Catolica SEG Foundation General Scholarship

do Rio de JaneiroCaroline O'Hara University of Texas at Austin DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial ScholarshipGonca Okay Dalhousie University Jene and Marvin Hewitt ScholarshipMeshach Omudu University of Port Harcourt SEG Foundation General ScholarshipMargarita Pavlova University of Sydney ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipGabriel Perez University of Houston Geophysical Society of Houston ScholarshipAdetokunbo Peter Federal University of Technology, Akure David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipNurfiana Rachmawati Gadjah Mada University Michael Forrest ScholarshipJoshua Richardson Michigan Technological University Schlumberger ScholarshipCatherine Robin University of Toronto SEG Foundation General ScholarshipNorelis Rodriguez University of Oklahoma Aubra Tilley ScholarshipJoseph Romani Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society ScholarshipStephen Rose Washington State University WesternGeco ScholarshipEva-Maria Rumpfhuber University of Texas at El Paso Dallas Geophysical Society ScholarshipSergey Samsonov University of Western Ontario SEG Foundation General ScholarshipRafael Sanguinetti University of Houston SEG Foundation General ScholarshipWasiu Sanni Polytechnic Ibadan Jene and Marvin Hewitt ScholarshipKathryn Sechrist University of Georgia David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipKim Senger University of Otago Shell E&P ScholarshipSusumu Shibata Oklahoma State University Geophysical Society of Tulsa ScholarshipJeffrey Shoffner University of Nevada-Reno SEG Foundation General ScholarshipJeffrey Shragge Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith ScholarshipNicole Siegel Lynchburg College SEG Foundation General ScholarshipJanae Singer Montana Tech WesternGeco ScholarshipSteven Sloan University of Kansas Andreas Cordsen ScholarshipSandor Sule University of Saskatchewan SEG Foundation General ScholarshipAndrei Swidinsky University of Toronto KEGS/Phillip Hallof Memorial ScholarshipTiffany Tchakirides Cornell University Barbara McBride Memorial ScholarshipErin Michelle Temple University of Colorado Landmark Graphics ScholarshipMayo Thompson Colorado School of Mines David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipUpendra Tiwari University of Texas at Dallas DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial ScholarshipDileep Tiwary University of Oklahoma Charles G. McBurney Memorial ScholarshipAzor Ude University of Nigeria AGIP ScholarshipCharles Ugbor University of Nigeria SEG Foundation General ScholarshipAhamefula Utom Ebonyi State University Abakaliki ChevronTexaco E&P ScholarshipBryce Wagner III University of Texas at Austin ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company ScholarshipKathryn Watts Louisiana State University Landmark Graphics ScholarshipCy Webster Montana Tech David Worthington/SEG ScholarshipKaren Weitemeyer University of California, San Diego Landmark Graphics ScholarshipDavid Wilson Colorado School of Mines Jim and Ruth Harrison ScholarshipAnne Wintzer Yale University SEG Foundation General ScholarshipXiaoxia Xu Colorado School of Mines WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardShu Kwan Yeung Colorado School of Mines L. Decker Dawson and C. Newton Page/

Permian Basin Geophysical Society ScholarshipJianghua Yuan Graduate School of the Chinese Academy Richard and Rolande Lockharte Scholarship

of SciencesJohn Zhang University of Calgary Schlumberger ScholarshipRui Zhang University of Houston GSH/Robert E. Sheriff ScholarshipYingsong Zhang Tsinghua University WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori AwardBo Zhao University of Houston DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial Scholarship

Name University Award

Student Sections/Academic LiaisonKathleen J. Aikin, chairmanMatthias G. Imhof, vice chairman

In 2005–2006, the Student Section/Academic LiaisonCommittee (SS/ALC) was actively involved in a number ofnew initiatives, as well as continuing to grow our student sec-tion population. We have continued to encourage cooperationbetween the sections via sister sections, and we enhanced theAnomaly by encouraging students and SEG members to con-tribute articles.

Our new SEG committee liaison, Jenny Cole, has been awonderful addition to the committee, working tirelessly withthe students and the committee in our endeavors. One of hergreatest achievements of the year was the hugely successfulStudent Reception at the 2005 SEG Annual Meeting. Thetheme was “Don’t Gamble on Your Professionalism” (mockcasino tables were set up for students and guests). The eventwas so successful that the students have overwhelminglyrequested the same form of entertainment for this year’s recep-tion in New Orleans.

We continued our coordination and support of theSEG/AAPG Student Expo in Houston. This year’s event willinclude field trips and a special day-long workshop hosted bySchlumberger. SS/ALC Chairman Kay Aikin has becomemore involved in the Student Expo Committee and looks for-ward to serving on the committee for the next few years.

This group is also active in organizing the career-planningworkshops at both SEG and AAPG. Aikin and Cole attendedthe AAPG career-planning workshop in April, and we lookforward to another successful workshop at the SEG in Octo-ber. Cole also helped coordinate our second career-planningworkshop at the 2005 Annual Meeting. The event was wellattended by more than 100 students. The speakers were WaltLynn, SEG past president; Mike Bahorich, SEG past presi-dent; Thomas Dobecki, 2005 president of the Near-SurfaceGeophysics Section of SEG; and Marco Vignali, a recent grad-uate now working with Chesapeake Energy Corporation.

We have increased our membership by 16 sections thisyear, up from 13 sections in 2004. We have 155 student sec-tions in 35 countries. Our quarterly newsletter, the Anomaly,is our main avenue of communication with the student sec-tions, and we welcome contributions from all sources. Colehas done an excellent job generating the Anomaly every quar-ter, and the feedback has been very positive.

Matthias Imhof continues to support the committee in hisrole as vice chairman, providing guidance and assistance espe-cially through his roles on other committees. We are lookingforward to his leadership as chairman next year. Michael Dealgraciously volunteered as the SS/ALC representative on theSEG Travel Grant Committee, and we are pleased to have himrepresent us.

Finally, this year we asked the Executive Committee if wecould pursue an idea presented by Peter Duncan for a geo-

physical quiz contest for the student sections. The studentshave reacted very positively to this concept, and we are in theprocess of implementing such a program—hopefully with apilot program at the SEG Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Technical StandardsTed Mariner, chairman

A progress review of the SEG-D and SPS format revisionswas held at the SEG Technical Standards Committee meetingat the 75th Anniversary SEG Annual Meeting in Houston. Asignificant effort had been made by all the contributors during2005–2006, and the SEG-D Revision 2.1 and associated SPSRevision 2.1 formats are now completed and posted on theSEG Web site. Thanks to all the companies who have con-tributed to this effort either by permitting staff to spend timeor by contributing financially via contract resources and use offacilities.

Jill Lewis of Troika International, who has been one of thedriving forces behind this format revision, took on the role ofdeputy chairperson of the SEG Technical Standards Commit-tee.

Previously at the Denver meeting Mike Norris raised thetopic of marine electromagnetic profiling and the need for anexchange format for the data. During the year, it would appearthat the industry had adopted SEG-Y as the de-facto standard;however, those attending the Houston meeting felt that itshould perhaps be renamed to avoid future confusion.

In May, a initial meeting was held to continue the SEG-Drevision process, the intent being to produce a SEG-D Revi-sion 3.0 which would address many of the issues of new acqui-sition technologies. A meeting was held at EAGE in Vienna tocontinue this process and was well attended. There were pre-sentations on the SEG-D Revision 3.0 work to date from JillLewis and Rune Hagelund.

Electronic copies of the minutes of the meetings in Hous-ton and at the EAGE in Vienna and other SEG-D Revisionmeetings can be obtained from the committee chairman.

TellersDaniel J. Piazzola, chairman

Survey & Ballot Systems, Inc. (SBS) was contracted to con-duct the SEG election again this year. SBS designed and dis-tributed both an online Web ballot and a paper ballot to eachvoting SEG member. All votes were received, tabulated, andverified by SBS and results were submitted to the SEG busi-ness office. The SEG Tellers Committee verified the countprovided by SBS.

Official paper ballots were mailed on June 15 to 7499active members eligible to vote in this year’s election. In addi-tion to a paper ballot, 6862 members were also sent an e-mailfrom SBS with personalized login information and specificinstructions on how to vote electronically.



The annual election had a participation rate of 31.3%.2354 ballots were received on or before July 31. Of those bal-lots, 1513 were received via Web voting, and 841 paper ballotswere returned by mail. A total of eight members duplicatedvotes by using both the paper and Web method of voting. Ofthe eight duplicate votes, only the Web votes were counted asvalid, giving a total of 2346 valid ballots for this election. Thisfigure does not include 43 ballot envelopes that were deemedinvalid; 36 members failed to sign their return envelope andseven envelopes contained no ballot.

The election results are as follows:

2006–2007 SEG Executive CommitteePresident-elect Fred AminzadehFirst vice president Roy E. Clark Jr.Second vice president James W. RectorVice president Panos KelamisSecretary-treasurer Brad BirkeloEditor Yonghe Sun will complete his

two-year term as editor

District RepresentativesDistrict #3 David W. Bell, Michael A. Celata,

and Luc T. IkelleDistrict #5 Mike HallDistrict #6 Paulo JohannDistrict #8 Dieter RamckeDistrict #9 Samir AbdelmoatyDistrict #11 Guo Yueliang

THE LEADING EDGE Editorial BoardAli Tura, chairman

THE LEADING EDGE Editorial Board has continued dissem-ination of articles and information of interest to the SEGmembership. TLE is still viewed as a top quality publicationthat is highly valued by our members.

The technical topics covered in TLE as special sections in2005 and 2006 were: multiple attenuation, offshore technolo-gy, carbonates, migration, rocks under stress, magnetic gra-diometry, attenuation and spectral decomposition, gashydrates, hydrogeophysics, electromagnetics, reservoir surveil-lance, CO2 sequestration, and geohazards. Regions that werethe focus of special sections in 2005 and 2006 were: WestAfrica, Middle East, Caspian Sea, Latin America, India, andChina. Additionally, the TLE Editorial Board and staff pro-duced a publication, that was applauded by the membership,in honor of SEG’s 75th anniversary. As customary, the edito-rial board recommended the best paper in TLE for 2006 to theHonors and Awards Committee. Given the quality of the tech-nical papers in TLE, this decision is usually a difficult task butis also a highly enjoyed activity by the board.

The SEG president and Annual Meeting chairman havenow joined the editorial board chairman in organizing thekickoff forum at the Annual Meeting. As a result, the TLE

Forum has now been renamed the SEG Forum. The SEGForum for 2006 Annual Meeting in New Orleans is beingfinalized.

The SEG Foundation has recently launched a Major GiftsCampaign. TLE is devoted to facilitating this activity so theSEG Foundation can reach its fund-raising goals. TLE will bepublishing articles about the SEG Foundation program, allo-cating a special section, and may feature articles on some of thedonors.

The board is considering initiating a regular page in TLEthat will give our members information on academic consortiaand their activities. The board feels that this will be fruitful forboth academic institutions and our members that may beinterested in following up on the latest R&D developments inour industry.

The board is expecting several changes due to memberscompleting their tenure. As usual, we attempt to strike a goodbalance on the board in terms of industry and academic repre-sentation, and also making sure that the board has the techni-cal expertise in a wide range of geophysical topics. SatinderChopra recently joined the TLE Editorial Board replacingJohn Eastwood. Jeff Deere will be taking the place of BillDragoset, and Colin Sayers will be taking the place of AliTura. Rebecca Latimer and Don Herron have agreed to servean additional year on the TLE board to preserve continuity. Ipersonally thank Eastwood and Dragoset for their dedicationto TLE. The TLE board chairman for next year will be DonHerron. It is my opinion that Herron’s significant experiencewith TLE and his leadership skills will ensure another success-ful year for TLE.

A third dimension the board has been considering forfuture members is to establish a good mix of global represen-tation. In this direction we are looking at new board membersoutside of North America. The board agrees that this will inparticular benefit TLE special issues with a geographic region-al focus and help in the desire for SEG to become a global soci-ety. Satinder Chopra has already demonstrated the value ofhaving a global member on the board, and we are looking tohave another global member to replace Don Herron when hecompletes his tenure.

Since the start, the success of TLE lies with its dedicatedTulsa business office staff; those who are primarily workingwith the board are: Dean Clark, Sylvie Dale, Jennifer Cobb,Mel Buckner, Ian Danziger, Ted Bakamjian, Kathy Gamble,Merrily Sanzalone, Jim Lawnick, and Mary Fleming. For theboard and SEG business office it was a loss when one of ourmost talented and experienced staff, Dolores Proubasta,resigned for personal reasons. SEG staff and leadership havesuccessfully handled this transition.

On the financial health of TLE, recent advertisement datahave shown that TLE is ahead of budget. Advertisement salesincreased by 5.5% in 2003–2004 and by 10% in 2004–2005.The October 2005 TLE had 68 paid ads, 10 more than theprevious high. The high quality of technical and business pub-lications in TLE has helped revenues in addition to the gener-al health of the industry and energy markets.

TranslationsSergio Chávez-Pérez, chairman

The Translations Committee has expanded the scope of itswork to include fostering translations of SEG books, like RobertSheriff’s geophysical dictionary, to other languages. This becameour main activity during the past year and has involved closework with local societies to sponsor and/or maintain translationsof these books. In particular, Altan Necioglu has almost finishedtranslating Sheriff’s dictionary into Turkish. The Brazilian Geo-physical Society is very interested in doing the Portuguese trans-lation, and SEG will undertake to publish a Spanish translationitself. SEG’s Executive Committee recently approved publishingthe Spanish translation.

We had close contact with the Global Affairs Committee(GAC), and we intend to share our interest and struggle with

“the art of failure” (as Michael Burianyk (GAC’s Canadianregional coordinator refers to the translation process).

There are still differences of opinion about how much wereally need translations of SEG material into other languages,but the need keeps arising not only in books, but in TLE arti-cles and short course materials as well.

We recommended SEG endorsement for the Spanish edi-tion of a book on archeological exploration methods, present-ed by José Carcione and a group of experts in Argentina. It willbe published in Argentina in 2006.

Finally, we confirmed our support for “bridge” publica-tions such as multilingual dictionaries. For instance, there isdialog concerning SEG involvement with an English-French-Russian dictionary on field geophysics, prepared by the StateFederal Unitary Enterprise, All-Russian Research Institute ofExploration Geophysics, VNIIGeofizika, and Closed-JointStock Company “Geodar.”


34

eGY 2007-2008Ralph W. Baird, chairman

The purpose of the ad hoc committee is to recommend tothe SEG Executive Committee the role that SEG should playand how to participate in activities related to the 2007–2008Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY) and what activities to planto honor the 50-year anniversary of the International Geo-physical Year (IGY). The committee may plan the secondInternational Geophysical Year (IGY-2) activities independentof those planned by eGY, International Polar Year (IPY),International Year of the Plant Earth (IYPE), and Internation-al Heliophysical Year (IHY).

The central objective of an eGY is to bring the managementof geoscientific information worldwide into the 21st centurythrough an e-Science approach and the development of virtu-al observatories. The challenge in 1957–1958 was to acquireand make available to the world community the observationaldata required to build a comprehensive understanding of theearth and its processes. That challenge remains and is yet morepressing because of the growing demands we place on our nat-ural resources and environment.

The SEG Executive Committee passed the following resolu-tion: “SEG, noting the approach of the 50-year anniversary in2007 of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which wasoutstandingly successful in advancing our knowledge of the earthand geospace through the provision of comprehensive geoscien-tific observational data, noting the vast increase in observationaldata since the IGY, much of them available in near real-time, andthe limitations on progress posed by the ever-growing problemsof data storage, maintenance, and access, noting the unprece-dented potential of modern information management method-ologies, based on the Internet, to overcome these limitationsthrough sharing of information, software, and hardware, andsupports the adoption of 2007 as the eGY—to be used as a focusfor providing ready access to geoscientific data and processingcapability using the electronic means now at our disposal.”

Committee members are: Dave K. Agarwal, Ralph W.Baird, Arthur C. H. Cheng, David Forel, Tom K. Fulton,Robert A. Greenwald, Jack D. Hall, Gabriel Perez, Jeff M.Rayner, Scott C. Sechrist, Brian R. Spies, and executive com-mittee member David J. Monk.

The following are the recommendations to the SEG Exec-utive Committee by the eGY 2007-2008 ad hoc committee:

• IGY Gold History Program. As a part of the InternationalGeophysical Year 50th anniversary, the committee recom-

mends that SEG join the American Geophysical Union,European Geosciences Union, and the InternationalUnion of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) as host orga-nizations and offer a certificate of recognition to membersof the IGY Gold Club. To facilitate this recommendation,the committee requests that the president of SEG send aletter to the organizer of the IGY Gold Program request-ing that SEG and SEG’s logo be added to the host organi-zations. Additional follow-up and publicity will followthrough THE LEADING EDGE. SEG members can qualifyfor a prestigious certificate of participation in the IGY.

• In July 2007, create the eGY workshop to start off (kick-off) the 2007-2008 eGY. Consider this topic as a jointworkshop proposal to the joint workshop committee.

• U.S. Postage Stamp commemorating the 50th Anniversaryof the IGY. The committee requests a letter from the pres-ident of SEG to the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizens’ StampAdvisory Committee (CSAC) stating that SEG requeststhat the United States create such a stamp to be publishedin 2008.

• Create a technical session at the 2007 SEG Annual Meet-ing titled “The Electronic Geophysical Year.”

• Suggest that the theme or umbrella slogan of the 2007and/or 2008 SEG Annual Meeting be named “ElectronicGeophysical Year.”

• Associate the following existing SEG initiatives to be eGYinitiatives/activities. The SEG.org Global Project, the Vir-tual Geoscience Center, the Humanitarian Applications ofGeophysics Initiative and the Numerical Modeling Con-sortium Initiative.

• SEG to prepare a resolution endorsing data stewardship bycreating a committee to establish guidelines for data stew-ardship. The AAPG guidelines are recommended in lieu ofa new committee.

• Identify an event of great visibility for October 4, 2007, incommemoration of the successful launch of the Russiansatellite Sputnik. Formalize an advertising campaign titled,“Where Will You Be on October 4, 2007?” to attract SEGmembership to this noteworthy event. Sputnik was actual-ly launched on October 5, Russian time.

• Establish a direct communication from SEG and eGYEducation/Public Outreach (E/PO) to the American Geo-logical Institute’s (AGI) E/PO group in Washington, D.C.The E/PO programs should be coordinated and expandedby combining the resources of selected geophysical andgeological associations.

• Begin a notification process through the SEG GlobalAffairs Committee to include announcements at local soci-

Report of the Ad Hoc Committee Chairman


ety meetings of the existence and purpose of the eGY andhow SEG members shall benefit from eGY. All initiativesby United States’ associations are recommended to beduplicated by each international association/SEG affiliate.

• The committee shall research and write a history of theSEG and IGY to act as a documentation of the historicalsignificance of participation by SEG members in the leg-endary IGY. This manuscript shall be provided to the edi-tor of SEG’s primary journals.

• Notify the SEG Exhibitors Committee that the 2007 and2008 Annual Meetings shall have a booth or booths dedi-cated to the activities of the eGY, IPY, IHY, and IYPE asthey relate to the IGY-2. Historical data shall be exhibitedabout IGY 1957–1958. The committee shall invite repre-sentatives from the four groups to present materials atthis/these booth/booths.

36

AGI Government Affairs ProgramWayne D. Pennington, representativeto the Advisory Committee

The American Geological Institute (AGI) is a society whosemembers are other societies, not individuals. SEG is one of 43member societies in AGI, and our support of AGI is based onour U.S.-based membership. A separate report is provided onthe overall activities of AGI. This report concentrates on itsGovernment Affairs Program. SEG supports AGI through itsU.S.-based membership and influences its Government AffairsProgram through its representation on the Advisory Commit-tee for this program. See www.agiweb.org/gap/, where thereis a huge amount of information. If you are interested in find-ing out more about earth sciences in the United States andgovernment policy relating to them, browse this site in detail.

AGI promotes lobbying, in the sense of educating govern-ment officials about the science and application of knowledgein public planning. SEG itself does not “lobby” or take posi-tion statements on political issues, but AGI provides educationto lawmakers and promotes the use of sound science in publicpolicy, and it does so actively. It publishes position statementsand provides testimony to the United States Congress onissues of importance to the earth-science community. It hasconducted a number of information sessions to which law-makers and their staff members (in Washington D.C.) areinvited (and encouraged with free food); these have beenremarkably successfully, partly due to uncanny timing forevents of interest, such as hurricanes.

AGI maintains a close watch on the activities of the U.S.Congress and other branches of the federal government andissues alerts on topics that members may want to be informedof quickly (mostly legislative action). You can subscribe tothese alerts, monthly reviews, and special updates as membersof SEG by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

AGI Member Society Council Wayne D. Pennington, representative

The American Geological Institute (AGI) is a society whosemembers are other societies, not individuals. SEG is one of 43member societies in AGI, and our support of AGI is based onour U.S.-based membership. In addition to publishing themonthly journal Geotimes, an excellent general-interest, earth-science publication, AGI performs a number of functions to

support the earth-science community in the United States(described on its Web site, www.agiweb.org). Representativesfrom the member societies oversee these activities. These rep-resentatives meet twice a year (usually in association withmeetings of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists(AAPG) and the Geological Society of America (GSA). Specialadvisory committees, such as the Government Affairs Programand the Environmental Geoscience Program, oversee a fewspecific functions of AGI. (I serve as the SEG representative tothe Member Society Council and the Government Affairs Pro-gram.) AGI is active in special areas, including outreach pro-motion of Earth Science Week, curriculum guides for K-12,the Image Bank (an online collection of earth-science photos),operation of GeoRef (the electronic database of publication ref-erences), and government affairs (see separate report).

In many ways, AGI complements activities conductedwithin some of its member societies, including SEG. Someissues of major concern to many of AGI’s member societies,forming the basis of discussion among the societies’ represen-tatives, include the “open-access” policy of publication beingencouraged by several funding agencies; the apparent redun-dancy (and the inefficiencies caused by that redundancy) ofmany functions of some of the member societies; the threat offunding cuts for research in all sciences, but particularly geo-sciences, in the United States; problems in science educationin the United States, at precollege and college levels; and chal-lenges associated with internationalization of many U.S.-basedmember societies.

API Central Committee for TelecommunicationsClifford H. Ray, representative

This year I attended the fall meeting of the API Telecommu-nications Committee meeting—October 4–5, 2005, in Wash-ington, D.C., and the spring meeting in Houston, Texas, onApril 4–5, 2006. Several radio spectrum issues before the Feder-al Communications Commission (FCC) were reviewed at thesemeetings. Items that may be of interest to SEG members are:

1) The issue concerning the impact of communication tow-ers on migratory birds is still under review by the Com-mission to determine whether further action is warranted.

2) Last year’s report noted that API’s pleadings were success-ful in preventing FCC from adopting a proposal to allowunlicensed operation in the band 3650-3700 MHz. How-ever, in June 2005, eight parties filed Petitions for recon-

Reports of the Representatives

sideration of FCC’s 3.6 GHz rules, some calling for exclu-sive licensing through auctions. API, along with more than150 other parties, filed an Opposition/Comments regard-ing the Petitions. API is opposing the use of auctions forthis spectrum. Thus far, FCC has not begun issuing licens-es and has not responded to the Petitions or Opposi-tion/Comments.

3) FCC adopted a Report and Order (Order) in October2004 governing the operation of access broadband overpower-line (BPL) systems. Pursuant to the order, BPL sys-tems will be subject to the existing radiated emission lim-its set forth in Part 15 of FCC’s rules for carrier currentsystems used as unintentional radiators and some addi-tional emission restrictions in certain frequency bands andgeographic areas to protect the federal government andcertain other radio operations. An additional requirementinstructs BPL operators to provide information to a data-base manager within 30 days of initiating new service. InFebruary 2005, API further filed a Petition for Reconsid-eration of the Order requesting, among other things, thatprior notice of 30 days be made to the public for evalua-tion before any new or modified BPL deployments to safe-guard licensed radio operators in spectrum bands forwhich interference could occur. Advocates for amateurradio operators have also raised interference concerns andhave made various challenges to the BPL rules. FCC’s staffis actively working on this matter but has not indicatedwhen it will give a response to the Petitions.

4) The issue that pertains to a Notice of Proposed Rulemak-ing (NPRM), adopted by FCC on May 13, 2004, to allowunlicensed devices to operate in unused broadcast TVspectrum is still under consideration before FCC. NPRMseeks to create two general categories of unlicensed broad-band devices: (1) lower-power “personal/portable” unli-censed devices, such as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) laptopcomputer cards or wireless in-home local area networks;and (2) higher-power “fixed/access” unlicensed devicesthat can provide commercial services, such as wirelessbroadband. Those operating in the first category would belimited to 100 milliwatts, and those in the second catego-ry would be allowed to operate up to 1 watt. These unli-censed-device reception areas are required to be separatedfrom each TV broadcast metropolitan center by at least134 kilometers. API has urged FCC to prohibit operationsin the 470-512 MHz band in all regions of the country.FCC has delayed moving forward with the matter. TheU.S. Congress, however, may now take up this issue. Twoseparate but similar bills (spurred by Wi-Fi proponents)were introduced in the Senate on February 17, 2006, that,if enacted, could require FCC to adopt rules allowing unli-censed operations on “white space” in certain parts of thebroadcast spectrum bands.

5) As a result of FCC’s proceeding to “reform” the land mobilebands below 512 MHz, many of the former low-power 12.5kHz “offset” channels are being made available for new high-power operations. However, a “freeze” was in effect for sev-

eral years that prohibited the licensing of such new high-power systems in the 460-470 MHz band. FCC imposed thefreeze to allow time for the migration of medical telemetryusers in this band to new spectrum that was allocated fortheir use. The freeze was lifted, as of December 31, 2005,and high-power operations are permitted on former low-power “offset” channels in the 460-470 MHz band.

The API Telecommunication Committee is assisted by alaw firm in Washington, D.C., in its mission to support the oiland gas industry’s effective management and implementationof telecommunication technologies, resources, regulatory, andlegislative effects. Our membership on the committee providesSEG an opportunity to be informed on current regulatory andlegislative matters that may affect the use of radio spectrum forgeophysical purposes. As a nonvoting member, we have anopportunity to attend two meetings each year and hear speak-ers from both the FCC and industry.

International Association of Oil andGas Producers Geodesy Working GroupAlan K. Faichney, representative

Background. In 2002, the then chairman of the SEG Tech-nical Standards Committee was invited to serve as SEG’s rep-resentative on the European Petroleum Survey Group Geo-desy Working Group, to assist with resolving technical andlegal incompatibilities of the two standards bodies. Theprocess was completed in 2004. In 2004, the Technical Stan-dards Committee recommended to the SEG Executive Com-mittee that SEG adopt the EPSG database as the standardmethodology for describing coordinate reference systems andtransformations between them. This was adopted, and the per-manent post of SEG’s liaison was confirmed by both bodies.

In early 2005, by mutual agreement, EPSG members elect-ed to reform as the Survey and Positioning Committee (SPC)of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers(OGP). The merger was approved by the OGP managementcommittee at its January 2005 meeting, and by EPSG shortlyafter. The Geodesy Working Group remains unchanged as asubcommittee of the SPC. The term “EPSG” is retained whenreferring to the data set which is the group’s primary output.

The data set. The EPSG geodetic parameter data set is arepository of parameters required to:

• identify coordinates such that those coordinates describeposition unambiguously. This is through a coordinate ref-erence system (CRS) definition.

• define transformations and conversions that allow coordi-nates to be changed from one CRS to another CRS. Trans-formations and conversions are collectively called coordinateoperations.


Through the past year revisions have continued to refineand extend the data set, which now stands at Version 6.10.2(from 6.7 last year). The data set is free to the public and isdownloadable as both a Microsoft Access database and as a setof SQL scripts from http://www.epsg.org.

A Joint Industry Project (JIP) is in the process of being setup by OGP to provide an online version of the database thatcan be queried remotely. It is anticipated that this will be com-plete in the next year.

OTC Board of DirectorsJack Caldwell

The 2006 Offshore Technology Conference was held May1–4 at Reliant Center in Houston, Texas. The theme for thisyear’s conference was “New Depths, New Horizons.” Totalattendance was 59 236, the highest number since 1982. Thenumber of companies exhibiting at the conference was 2229,representing 30 countries. There were 246 first-timeexhibitors. The exhibits covered more than 470 000 squarefeet, and there continues to be a waiting list of exhibitors, evenas more space was opened up this year through the use of twoair-conditioned outdoor pavilions.

SEG is a sponsoring organization of the Offshore Technol-ogy Conference. The relationship dates to 1969 when SEGaccepted an invitation to join with AIME and seven otherengineering and scientific societies to establish OTC as aninterdisciplinary meeting on technology related to offshoreresources. As a sponsoring organization, SEG is entitled toappoint one of the 13 members to the OTC Board of Direc-tors. To provide an idea of how interdisciplinary the OTC is,a list of the other 11 sponsoring organizations follows: AAPG;American Institute of Chemical Engineers; American Instituteof Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers; Institute of Electrical and Elec-tronics Engineers—Oceanic Engineering Society; Internation-al Petroleum Technology Institute (formerly ASME-PD);Marine Technology Society; Society for Mining, Metallurgy,and Exploration Inc.; Society of Naval Architects and MarineEngineers; Society of Petroleum Engineers; and The Minerals,Metals and Materials Society.

SEG and its members accrue several benefits through par-ticipation in the Offshore Technology Conference. First, it isa place where one can broaden her/his view of the technologyand technical advances that are required to make the oil andgas industry what it is. Second, besides the big-time hardwarethat’s on view, and being discussed in technical sessions, thereare reservoir engineering technical sessions that are withoutquestion relevant to what most geoscientists are working ontoday. Third, the geoscience sessions have been technicallystrong for years. Fourth, as with almost any well-attendedindustry meeting, it’s a good place to network. Fifth, thismeeting provides about 5% of SEG’s annual income.

On the flip side, SEG and its members help make OTC thesuccess that it is. First there are the members who work on the

Technical Program Committee. This year’s SEG program sub-committee consisted of Gene Sparkman, Ali Tura, Bill Bark-house, Dan Ebrom, Brian Hornby, Jorge Lopez, John Mac-Donald, Guy Purnell, and Larry Scott. They were joined byJoe Reilly and Klaas Koster who will be cochairmen for the2007 subcommittee. Second, these people who have an officialresponsibility in turn arm-twist other members into actuallygiving the papers upon which the suggested technical sessionswere predicated. Third, the local section of SEG, the Geo-physical Society of Houston, supplies volunteers who help staffthe arrangements committee, which handles various necessarychores for the meeting. For his leadership role with respect tothis activity in the recent past, Roy Clark deserves special men-tion. Fourth, numerous unrecognized members do deeds ofconsequence, but of which there is no record. Fifth, the Soci-ety provides a member on the Board of Directors, and theboard works hard to keep the OTC on its mission, and, in fact,trying to improve on its performance of its mission.

This past year, OTC made a $100 000 donation to theAmerican Red Cross for the Katrina relief effort. The OTCBoard has initiated activity to determine what might beOTC’s role in the development of young professionals withinthe industry, and in the encouragement and creation of inter-est by students in grades 8–12 in the earth sciences in general,and the energy industry, in particular. A program for youngprofessionals “The Next Wave” was held on May 4. Thereviews of the program were quite good, but a complaint wasthat it was hanging out there after basically everything else wasbeing shut down. It was concluded by the board that this effortwas a good start, but a program to involve the young profes-sionals throughout the entire conference is needed. I made anintroductory presentation about OTC for the first time since Ijoined the Board of Directors to the Executive Committeeduring its meeting at the Annual Meeting, and by the numberof questions I received, I need to make better, if not more fre-quent, presentations to the Executive Committee.

Please read Gene Sparkman’s report to find out about theTechnical Program at the 2006 OTC. The 2007 OTC will beheld at Reliant Center in Houston, April 30–May 3, and itstheme is “Transforming the Industry.” As your representativeon the OTC Board of Directors, I welcome any comments,suggestions, and/or critiques (positive or negative) that youmay have. My e-mail address is [email protected].

OTC Technical ProgramGene W. Sparkman, chairman

Since its inception in 1969 the Offshore Technology Con-ference has been an example of multiple professional societiesworking together to organize a multiple disciplinary exhibitionand technical program. This year’s conference was sponsoredby 12 professional organizations and two other organizations.A 24-year high 59 236 attendees were able to view an exhibitthat included 2229 companies from more than 30 countries.Companies use this exhibition to introduce new technologies.



Arnis Judzis, this year’s OTC chairman, noted that “offshoreprofessionals got the opportunity to learn from the best mindsin the world at the technical conference.” The technical pro-gram consisted of more than 300 technical presentations at 53technical and panel sessions.

The SEG technical program subcommittee was responsiblefor four of the technical sessions. These included:

• Since time-lapse seismic (4D) continues to be of interest,SEG organized a session with worldwide monitoring casestudies from major oil companies. This session includedstudies from West Africa, offshore Norway, Gulf of Mexi-co, and offshore Brazil. This hot topic for the past 10 yearsis showing positive results, and companies are starting toshare some of their lessons learned.

• An SEG-sponsored session gave insights into some of thelatest “Applications of VSPs to Imaging, Anisotropy, andPressure Prediction.” This session covered improved sub-salt imaging, subsalt elastic velocity prediction, pore pres-sure predictions, subsalt velocity estimates using “virtual”check shots, and anisotropy estimation and evaluation.

• An example of how one ocean bottom survey using nodetechnology was carried out was presented in a full sessionthat described the process from “definition to execution”at the Atlantis Field in the Gulf of Mexico.

• Another SEG-sponsored session presented some of the lat-est technologies in four papers on controlled-source elec-tromagnetic (CSEM). This session was supplemented withtwo papers on resistivity imaging.

Sessions of interest to our members included “The Gulf ofMexico Under Siege: The Effects of Hurricanes Katrina andRita,” “Future of the Gulf of Mexico after Katrina and Rita,”“Decision Making, Ethics, and Professionalism,” “Explorationand Marine Geoscience,” and “Highlights of the IntegratedOcean Drilling Program.”

Being a multidisciplinary conference, the OTC presentedopportunities to expand our business knowledge. Panel ses-sions included:

• “Independent Spirits Driving Offshore Industry”described the increased role that independents are playingin addressing the growing worldwide energy demand.

• “Reflections on an Industry in Change—Past, Present, andFuture” described challenges the offshore oil and gasindustry is facing in the new millennium.

• “Changing Dynamics of Deepwater Ownership” describedhow the number of companies play the ultra-deepwaterfrontier. There has always been a steep learning curve fordeepwater technologies but the growing experiences hasreduced the risks for new players’ venture into the playboth in operator and nonoperator roles.

Of special interest to our members in the “under 35 agegroup” was a special session on “The Next Wave, A programfor young professionals.” It focused on leadership, career

development, involvement in industry associations, and entre-preneurial skills. We understand from some attendees thatthere was a good response for this special program, and itshould be continued next year.

The SEG program subcommittee will continue to seek tooffer results about new technology advancements that will helpour members become better professionals. We also intend tocollaborate with our sister societies for topics that will fosterunderstanding of how we can work more closely together toimprove the recovery of hydrocarbons from our offshore oper-ations.

This year’s SEG program subcommittee consisted of GeneSparkman, Ali Tura, Bill Barkhouse, Dan Ebrom, BrianHornby, Jorge Lopez, John MacDonald, Guy Purnell, andLarry Scott. They were joined by Joe Reilly and Klaas Kosterwho will be leading the 2007 subcommittee.

OTC ArrangementsRoy E. Clark Jr.

The 2006 OTC was held in Houston, Texas, the week ofMay 1–4, 2006. The Arrangements Committee was the respon-sibility of the AIChE. Our group of volunteers assisted AAPG,which was assigned the Student Tour Committee. I cochairedwith Claudia Ludwig (AAPG). This was the first time for mostof our group to lead these tours, and it was an amazing experi-ence.

The Offshore Technology Conference Career Guidance(Student Tour) Committee is responsible for arranging andconducting tours of the OTC technical exhibition for Hous-ton-area high-school students. The purpose of the program isto provide an overview of offshore technology to students withhigh interest and aptitude in math and science. The programseeks to encourage students to consider college and careeropportunities in science and engineering.

We had nearly 200 high-school junior and senior studentsin this year’s program. They came from public, private, andeven home-school programs. I recommend anyone living inHouston with high-school age (or even college-age) children totake them for a day and tour the exhibition.

Next year is an off year for both SEG and AAPG, thoughour volunteers will be assisting other societies on both theArrangements and Student Tour committees. SEG takes overthe Arrangements Committee again in 2008.

OTC Young Professionals EventSverre Brandsberg-Dahl

The “Next Wave,” a program for young professionals, washeld at the 2006 OTC in Houston. This, the first “NextWave,” is especially designed for young professionals (35 andunder), as well as all interested in meeting and interacting withthe next wave of the offshore industry. The main themesfocused on leadership, career development, entrepreneurial


skills, and involvement in industry associations, like SEG. Asdescribed in the official OTC program: “The Next Wave” is aprogram designed to provide career insights for young profes-sionals looking to expand and grow their role within the off-shore E&P industry.”

The program featured two panel sessions with industryleaders who shared success stories and provided advice on lead-ership, career planning, and progression. Panelists were JohnGibson, CEO of Paradigm Geophysical; Joe Bryant, CEO ofCobalt Energy; Blake Ducharme, president of Infinistar Oil-field Services; Marisé Mikulis, Energy Industry manager forMicrosoft Corporation; Janeen Judah, general manager ofReservoir and Production Engineering at Chevron; and ArtSmith, chairman and CEO of J. S. Herold. The speakerswhere each given 20 minutes to address preassigned parts ofthe main theme. Each group of three was followed by a ques-tion and answer session. The audience was further involvedthrough an interactive polling system that provided real-timeanswers from all audience members. Another geophysical“highlight” was that Veritas DGC sponsored the refreshmentbreak.

The organizing committee had one representative fromeach of the member associations of OTC, very much like theOTC Board itself. This being the first year for the program,the Society for Petroleum Engineers staff played a pivotal rolein getting the event prepared.

Some organizations are further along than SEG when itcomes to programs for dedicated young professionals. Maybethis event can help the Society become more active in thisfield. Would a dedicated e-mail list that could be used toinform our younger members of such events in the future be agood starting point? Also, should SEG more actively promotethis event for next year? Maybe the Houston chapter is a nat-ural starting point?

Society of Petroleum EngineersOil and Gas ReservesMatthew J. Milulich

In the spring of 2005, I was appointed SEG’s representativeon the Oil and Gas Reserves Committee (OGRC) of the Soci-ety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). SPE had requested thatSEG provide a representative on the committee. There areabout 20 active members including representatives fromAAPG and the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers(SPEE). The OGRC meets twice a year—in April (Dallas),and in the fall at the SPE annual meeting. There is also “home-work”—reviewing and commenting on documents currentlyunder study and revision by the OGRC. I have attended twomeetings: October 2005 and April 2006. In addition, I attend-ed the Reserves Growth Conference at the USGS office inDenver in October 2005.

The primary tasks of the OGRC are:

1) significant revisions of the document titled “PetroleumResources and Reserves Classification, Definitions, andGuidelines,” along with an accompanying Glossary, and,

2) organizing and implementing an education program aboutthe new guidelines. The main document is currently in itsfifth draft, having for the first time included remarks from asmall group outside the OGRC. It is currently 38 pages long,and the Glossary is 20 pages long. OGRC plans to completeboth documents for presentation to the SPE at the nextannual meeting in September 2006. With SPE acceptanceand endorsement by SPEE, AAPG, and the World Petrole-um Council (WPC), these documents will become the stat-ed position of the SPE on reserves.

SEG was not active in developing these documents untilmy appointment. There is virtually no geophysical content inthese documents, except a reference to geophysical data indetermining hydrocarbon/water contacts, and another to seis-mic data being used in volumetric calculations. However, thedocument does reference the 2001 Supplemental Guidelines,which includes a significant discussion of seismic and geo-physical applications by Jamie Robertson. To my knowledge,over the last year, the OGRC has concentrated on the abovetwo documents and has not been active in revising this 2001document. My participation to date, therefore, has been tolearn, understand, and support the work of the OGRC, and tooffer comments on the two documents.

The second part of the objectives of the OGRC is to developand implement an education program on the new guidelines. Asubcommittee has targeted two groups as priorities: (1) profes-sional technical practitioners, who are reserves estimators, and (2)management of the technical groups, bankers, auditors, and oth-ers who must make decisions based on the reserves and otherusers of reserves information. It is possible, but unlikely, that Iwill be involved in this part of the activity. I did volunteer to helpwith the dissemination of the information contained in theGuidelines to “other” groups such as the media, political interestgroups, other economic groups, and universities, etc., but to date,this last category is not a focus of the education committee. I wastold that an AAPG group has been formed (or is being formed)to address this issue. My name was forwarded to them, but I havenot been in contact with anyone.

Admittedly, my input has been minimal having come solate to the development of the documents. The OGRC is opento input from representatives like myself, and in fact, we aretreated as committee members. OGRC members are commit-ted and dedicated to the objectives of the committee, and theatmosphere of the meetings has been most professional andintellectually stimulating. It has been a pleasure to meet thesepeople and to work with them.

41

Financial Statements

SEG Foundation December 31, 2005 and 2004 (With Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon)


Society of Exploration Geophysicists June 30, 2006 and 2005 (With Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon)


SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Statements of Financial Position

June 30, 2006 and 2005

2006 2005Assets

Current assets: Cash $ 2,089,557 1,667,175 Short-term investments 529,069 1,620,343

Accounts receivable, less allowance for doubtfulaccounts of $1,877 in 2006 and $4,898 in 2005 575,356 766,505

Inventories 587,124 442,314 Prepaid expenses 287,291 207,516

Accrue interest receivable 31,189 27,146Total current assets 4,099,586 4,730,999

Investments 5,783,709 3,639,866

Property, furniture and equipment: Land 489,605 489,605 Building 8,060,750 7,996,124

Furniture, fixtures and equipment 916,786 821,7199,467,141 9,307,448

Less accumulated depreciation 4,208,874 3,817,560Net property, furniture and equipment 5,258,267 5,489,888

Other assets 2,793 2,793

$ 15,144,355 13,863,546

See accompanying notes to financial statements.



Statements of Financial Position (Continued)

June 30, 2006 and 2005

2006 2005

Liabilities and Net Assets

Current liabilities:Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 686,236 295,386 Current portion of capital lease obligation 33,517 33,517

Deferred revenue 2,950,895 3,188,206Total current liabilities 3,670,651 3,517,109

Deferred revenue 51,306 14,850

Capital lease obligation 44,830 71,251

Total liabilities 3,766,787 3,603,210

Unrestricted net assets: Undesignated 11,246,571 10,144,336 Board designated 131,000 116,000

Total net assets 11,377,571 10,260,336

$ 15,144,355 13,863,546



Statements of Activities

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

2006 2005

Revenues:Membership dues $ 1,167,969 1,077,375 Conferences and meetings 5,249,475 4,018,978 Publication sales and advertising 2,388,838 2,091,507

Professional Development 573,676 570,306 Investment income 472,024 375,686 Building lease operations 1,079,030 1,027,190

Other 47,008 216,832Total revenues 10,978,020 9,377,874

Expenses: Membership record services 334,994 349,481 Conferences and meetings 2,441,314 2,075,025 Publications and advertising 2,483,073 2,293,817

Professional Development 805,132 868,104 General and administrative 2,306,927 1,991,844 Building lease operations 910,398 902,014

Special projects 26,497 29,511Total expenses 9,308,335 8,509,796

Increase in net assets before contributions to Foundation 1,669,685 868,078

Contributions to Foundation (552,450) (412,739)

Increase in net assets 1,117,235 455,339

Unrestricted net assets, beginning of year 10,260,336 9,804,997

Unrestricted net assets, end of year $ 11,377,571 10,260,336




Statements of Cash Flows


2006 2005Cash flows from operating activities:

Increase (decrease) in net assets $ 1,117,235 455,339 Adjustments to reconcile increase (decrease)

in net assets to net cash used by operating activities:Depreciation and amortization 391,314 378,029 Net realized/unrealized gain on investments (228,966) (188,893)(Increase) decrease in assets: Accounts receivable 191,151 (300,693) Inventories (144,810) 103,753

Prepaid expenses (79,777) 27,987 Accrued interest receivable (4,043) 1,073

Increase (decrease) in liabilities:Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 390,853 (75,455)

Deferred revenue (200,858) 280,986Net cash provided by operating activities 1,432,099 682,126

Cash flows from investing activities:Purchases of property, furniture and equipment (159,691) (304,545)Purchases of investments (2,192,605) (1,800,934)Proceeds from sale of investments 1,369,000 1,833,000

Net cash used in investing activities (983,296) (272,479)

Cash flows from financing activities – Principal payments on capital lease obligation (26,421) (24,483)

Net cash used by financial activities (26,421) (24,483)

Net increase in cash 422,382 385,164 Cash, beginning of year 1,667,175 1,282,011Cash, end of year $ 2,089,557 1,667,175

Cash paid for interest 7,096 9,034




Notes to the Financial Statements


NOTE 1 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Nature of OperationsThe Society of Exploration Geophysicists (the “Society”), was organized in 1930 as a not-for-profit organization. The objectives of the Society are to promote the science ofresearch, to foster the common scientific interests of geophysicists, and to maintain a high professional standing among its members. The Society accomplishes these objectives by publishing scientific literature, conducting professional development programs and technical meetings, and providing other informational services.

The accompanying financial statements include the financial position, results of activitiesand cash flows of the Society. These financial statements do not include the SEGFoundation (the “Foundation”), a separate not-for-profit organization which receivescontributions for public education and other scientific purposes.

Cash and Cash EquivalentsCash and cash equivalents include cash in banks and all highly liquid investments with an original maturity of three months or less. Cash equivalents exclude money market fundsheld by a brokerage firm.

The Society maintains cash balances at several banks. Accounts at each institution are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation up to $100,000. At June 30, 2006,and 2005, the Society had deposits in excess of the federally insured limit.

Accounts ReceivableAccounts receivable consists of uncollateralized billings for memberships, sponsorships,and exhibit space. Accounts receivable are stated at the amount billed. The carryingamount of accounts receivable is reduced by a valuation allowance that reflectsmanagement’s best estimate of amounts that will not be collected.

InventoriesInventories of publications for resale are valued at the lower of cost, determined by the moving-average method, or market.

InvestmentsInvestments consist of marketable debt and equity securities which are valued at their fairvalues in the statements of financial position. Fair values for investments are based on quoted market prices. Unrealized gains and losses are included in the statements ofactivities.

(continued)





NOTE 1 – SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (CONTINUED)

Property, Furniture & EquipmentProperty, furniture and equipment are carried at cost. Depreciation is computed using thestraight-line method based on the estimated useful lives of the assets. When assets are retired or otherwise disposed of, the cost and related accumulated depreciation are removed from the accounts, and any resulting gain or loss is included in the statement ofactivities. Expenditure for maintenance and repairs are charged to expense as incurred.Major improvements are capitalized. The lives used in computing depreciation are asfollows: building – 50 years; furniture and equipment – 3 to 10 years.

Net AssetsThe Executive Committee of the Society has designated $131,000 of net assets for futurebuilding improvements as of June 30, 2006.

Income TaxesThe Society is a not-for-profit organization under Section 501(c)(6) of the InternalRevenue Code and is subject to income taxes on unrelated business income.

Transactions with FoundationThe Society leases building space and provides administrative services to the Foundation.The Society did not charge the Foundation for rent and administrative services in 2006 or2005. Contributions to the Foundation for these services were as follows:

2006 2005Administrative services $ 233,874 193,778 Rent 92,375 98,187 Major gift campaign 226,201 60,774 Foundation projects - 60,000

$ 552,450 412,739

Accounts payable due to the Foundation was $38,912 at June 30, 2006 and accountsreceivable due from the Foundation was $42,092 at June 30, 2005. The Society chargedthe Foundation $69,824 in 2006 and $32,633 in 2005 for reimbursement of personnel costs related to fundraising activities. Building lease operations revenue includes similaramounts for the in-kind rent contributions in 2006 and 2005. Other revenue includes a similar amount for the in-kind administrative services contribution in 2005.

(continued)





NOTE 1 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (CONTINUED)

Revenue RecognitionMembership dues and publication subscription revenues are recognized ratably over the applicable membership or subscription period. Revenues relating to meetings arerecognized as revenue at the time of the meeting.

Building Lease OperationsThe Society owns the land and building where its administrative offices are located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Office space which is not used by the Society is leased to othercompanies.

Use of EstimatesThe preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principlesgenerally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities,disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reported period. Actual resultscould differ from those estimates.

NOTE 2 – INVESTMENTS

At June 30, 2006 and 2005, investments were as follows:

2006Cost Market

Cash management fund $ 55,287 55,287 Certificate of deposit 1,341,000 1,370,216 Federal agency securities 350,000 337,641 Equity investments 2,251,437 3,329,128 Corporate bonds 1,213,437 1,220,506

$ 6,330,161 6,062,778 Less short-term investments 529,068Long-term investments $ 5,533,710

(continued)





NOTE 2 – INVESTMENTS (CONTINUED)

________2005________Cost Market

Cash management fund $ 447,677 447,677 Certificate of deposit 915,000 903,159 Federal agency securities 100,000 99,563 Equity investments 1,776,437 2,465,709 Corporate bonds 1,295,437 1,344,101

$ 4,534,551 5,260,209 Less short-term investments 1,620,343Long-term investments $ 3,639,866

The Fair valued of fixed income securities at June 30, 2006 by maturity, are shown below:

Due in less than one year $ 473,782 Due after one year through five years 1,840,524 Due after five years through ten years 614,057

$ 2,928,363

Investment income in the accompanying statements of activities consists of the following:

2006 2005Interest income $ 177,947 186,793Gain on investments 228,966 188,893 $ 406,913 375,686

NOTE 3 – PENSION AND SALARY REDUCTION PLANS

The Society sponsors a defined contribution pension plan which does not allow employee contributions. The Society makes contributions to the Plan based upon 4.5% of the employees’ eligible wages.

The Society also sponsors a salary reduction plan. The Society’s contributions to thisplan are computed based on 2% of salaries and a two-for-one matching contribution ofemployees’ contributions, up to a maximum of 4.33% of salaries.

The Society’s expense under these plans was $331,725 in 2006 and $288,764 in 2005.(continued)





NOTE 3 – PENSION AND SALARY REDUCTION PLANS (CONTINUED)

Subsequent to June 30, 2006, the Society amended both benefit plans. As of August 1,2006, the Society will continue to sponsor the defined contribution pension plan forpersons employed as of July 31, 2006 until July 31, 2011. For employees hired August 1,2006 and after, no defined contribution pension plan will be sponsored.

As of August 1, 2006, the Society will continue to sponsor the salary reduction plan forpersons employed as of July 31, 2006 until July 31, 2011. For employees hired August 1,2006 and after, and all employees after July 31, 2011, the Society’s contributions to thisplan are computed based on 6% of salaries and a one-for-one matching contribution ofemployees’ contributions, up to a maximum of 3% of salaries.

NOTE 4 – LEASING ARRANGEMENTS

The Society leases approximately 75% of the office space in its headquarters building to unaffiliated parties under non-cancelable operating leases. The following is a schedule ofminimum future rental revenues from those tenants as of June 30, 2006:

Year Ending June 30, Amount

2007 $ 875,746 2008 404,034 2009 182,508 2010 50,643 2011 5,546

$ 1,518,477

The Society leases phone equipment under a capital lease expiring January 2009. At theinception of the capital lease, the asset and liability under the capital lease are recorded at the lower of the present value of the minimum lease payments or the fair value of theasset. The asset is amortized over its estimated useful life. Phone equipment under thecapital lease (which is included in furniture and equipment) was $71,772, net ofaccumulated depreciation of $67,142 at June 30, 2006.

(continued)





NOTE 4 – LEASING ARRANGEMENTS (CONTINUED)

Minimum future rental payments under capital lease are as follows:

Year Ending June 30, Amount

2007 $ 33,517 2008 33,517 2009 19,552

86,586 Less imputed interest (8,239) Present value of future minimum lease payments 78,347 Current portion 33,517

Long-term capital lease obligation $ 44,830

NOTE 5 – COMMITMENTS

The Society has pledged $1,000,000 to match contributions to the SEG Foundationcampaign - Advancing geophysics today Inspiring geoscientists for tomorrow. Matching funds are for individual contributions received by December 31, 2011 for amounts of$5,000 up to $50,000.

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