PIONEERING SPIRIT WINS UH GEOPHYSICS PROFESSOR
KUDOS AT INTERNATIONAL MEETING
Fred Hilterman’s Innovations and Dedication
Recognized for Advancing Geosciences
HOUSTON, Oct. 8, 2004 – Innovations in seismic ‘sonograms’
and a fierce dedication to growing the geophysics industry have
earned UH Professor Fred J. Hilterman top honors at the largest
gathering of the global geophysical community.
Hilterman, professor of geophysics at the University of Houston,
will be honored as one of three recipients of the 2004 Cecil Green
Enterprise Award at the upcoming Society of Exploration Geophysicists
(SEG) International Exposition and 74th Annual Meeting, held Oct.
10-15 in Denver. Hilterman shares this honor with two of his long-time
research partners and fellow awardees, the late Reg Neale and John
W.C. Sherwood, all three of whom are being recognized for their
creation of the Geophysical Development Corporation (GDC). The awards
ceremony will take place at 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 10, in Ballrooms
Two and Three of the Colorado Convention Center.
“The Enterprise Award was started to honor our members who
risked their personal finances in starting up geophysical companies,”
said Brian Russell, chairman of the SEG Honors and Awards Committee.
“It was renamed for Cecil Green last year to honor one of
the pioneers in our field who started Geophysical Service Inc.”
In 1981, GDC was created by Hilterman, Neale and Sherwood. The company
became a leader in the integration and calibration of petrophysical
and seismic data and was an industrial giant in the field of amplitude
variations with offset (AVO) and other amplitude-related exploration
and development applications. Although the company was sold to Geokinetics
in 1998, Hilterman remained GDC’s vice president of development
until 2003.
“GDC helped oil companies with three things – solving
data processing problems in rough topography, such as sand dunes,
developing a clear image of the structure of the earth and determining
if borehole fluid content was gas, oil or water,” Hilterman
said. “This was done using information taken from wells drilled
in the area and correlating that to the seismic responses.”
While Neale’s area of expertise was used when the surface
of the earth was highly irregular and Sherwood worked on developing
wave propagation solutions to determine the earth’s structure,
Hilterman’s contribution was to use AVO to determine the earth’s
composition and describes it as being similar to a sonogram.
“A sonogram uses amplitude – or loudness – variation
to define the density – or blackness – of an image,”
Hilterman said. “A constant gray tone, which signifies constant
amplitude, means the composition of what you are imaging is all
the same, suggesting the composition is a fluid like water. With
AVO, you are using amplitude to determine the earth’s composition.”
Joining the University of Houston in 1973, Hilterman holds an impressive
array of SEG honors to date. He was SEG Distinguished Lecturer for
2001, as well as past recipient of the SEG Best Paper Award and
Best Presentation Award, the SEG Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal and
the prestigious SEG Honorary Membership Award.
For more information and a photo of Hilterman, visit http://www.geosc.uh.edu/faculty/faculty.php?155622-961-5=fhilterm.
The SEG International Exposition and Annual Meeting is the largest
gathering of the global geophysical community. As the Society’s
biggest technical gathering, hundreds of papers drawing on leading-edge
geophysical work from all around the world are presented. UH faculty
and students from the Department of Geosciences in the College of
Natural Sciences and Mathematics are well represented at this year’s
conference, presenting more than 20 oral and poster presentations
that run the gamut from multicomponent vertical seismic profile
imaging to 3-D seismic attribute analysis for fracture detection.
For more information about the meeting and to access a schedule
of presenters and presentations, visit http://www.SEG.org.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
About the Cullen College of Engineering
UH Cullen College of Engineering has produced five U.S. astronauts,
ten members of the National Academy of Engineering, and degree programs
that have ranked in the top ten nationally. With more than 2,600
students, the college offers accredited undergraduate and graduate
degrees in biomedical, chemical, civil and environmental, electrical
and computer, industrial, and mechanical engineering. It also offers
specialized programs in aerospace, materials, petroleum engineering
and telecommunications.
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