Award from AAPG Recognizes Best Special Publication

Paul Mann, Robert E. Sheriff Endowed Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, received the 2018 Robert H. Dott, Sr. Memorial Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) for a volume he co-edited with Dr. Claudio Bartolini, senior exploration advisor for New Ventures Latin America at Repsol, U.S.A., located in The Woodlands.

The award is given annually by AAPG to honor and reward the authors or editors of the best special publication dealing with petroleum geology. The title of the volume is “Petroleum Geology and Potential of the Colombian Caribbean Margin.” It is the 108th volume of the AAPG Memoir Series.

The memoir contains 27 chapters on various topics and totals a remarkable 764 pages in length. High publication costs were subsidized with generous donations by Repsol, ExxonMobil, Shell and Anadarko, which are all actively exploring both in the onshore and offshore areas of Colombia.

Contributed papers from faculty of the University of Houston’s EAS department accounted for 10 of the 27 chapters and included EAS geology professors Mann, Kevin Burke, Michael Murphy and Peter Bartok. EAS Ph.D. students were first authors or co-authors on seven of the 27 chapters and include Dr. Armando Altamira (now with Mexican Institute of Petroleum, Mexico City); Joan Marie Blanco (graduating December 2017); Rocio Bernal-Olaya (3 chapters; now assistant professor at the University of Bucaramanga in Colombia); Javier Sanchez (now assistant professor at the University of Medellin in Colombia); Luis-Carlos Carvajal (graduated May 2017); and Lucia Torrado (graduating August 2018). Master’s degree students in EAS who were co-authors on papers included Carolina Mejia-Hernandez (now with Dynamic Data Systems, Houston) and Murad Ismael.

All previous winners of the AAPG Robert H. Dott, Sr. Memorial Award since 1945 are listed at: www.aapg.org/about/aapg/overview/honors-and-awards/association/paper-awards/dott

A list of all volumes and books published by the faculty of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences since 1960 is available at: www.uh.edu/nsm/earth-atmospheric/people/faculty/eas-bookshelf