Outreach Committee Launches Ambassadors Program

Formed three (3) years ago, the CSEG Outreach Committee is charged with promoting the science of geophysics on behalf of the society. The role of the Outreach Committee is essentially one of communication. While the CSEG officially stands for the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the society has functioned essentially as a local or Calgary-based society for decades. This is due in large part to the make-up of the membership. Approximately 87% of our members reside in city of Calgary. Of those that live beyond Calgary’s city limits, most would reside in the greater Calgary region of Okotoks, Cochrane and Airdrie. Approximately five percent (5%) of our membership actually lives in a different provincial jurisdiction or foreign country. With seismic data being the predominant technology deployed in the search for hydrocarbons within the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, the society naturally reflects this technological bias. To truly be a national entity, the society needs to expand its horizons regionally, geographically and technically.

In the spring of 2005, the committee created a business plan that categorized its various initiatives and strategically aligned them to its goals and mandate. This culminated in the creation of a business plan for the committee and the identification of numerous potential initiatives. The resultant plan was presented to the CSEG Executive in the fall of 2005. Budgetary approval for 2006 expenditures ensued with the CSEG Executive allocating approximately $20,000 towards Outreach initiatives in 2006.

Specifically, the mandate of the Outreach Committee is to promote awareness and raise the profile of the science of geophysics and the CSEG. The Outreach committee has identified five key goals:

• Enhance our national status and representation
• Raise student awareness of the profession
• Raise awareness of geophysics with the public
• Raise our profile internationally • Coordinate with other organizations as much as possible

The committee will focus upon students, the public, potential new members nationally and foreign nationals as its target markets. One of the vehicles created to facilitate reaching out nationally and internationally is the Ambassadors program.

The role of a CSEG Ambassador is to help promote the science of geophysics in their localized region. Whether it to be to represent the society at a high school careers fair, tap into local pre-existing programs and initiatives, promote new memberships, introduce a DoodleTrain course to an interested person or to facilitate a technical presentation by a Distinguished Lecturer, these types of initiatives and more will be investigated and enacted by our new Ambassadors.

Currently, the Ambassadors Program has established regional representatives in the following Canadian and international cities. Our current Ambassadors are…

J. Douglas Uffen, P. Geoph.
Ambassador Coordinator,
Calgary Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd.

Doug Uffen is a Past-President of the CSEG and a current member of the Outreach committee. He is the creator of the CSEG Ambassadors program. Doug was the CSEG Co-Chairman of the Geo-Triad ’98 convention and an Executive Advisor to the GeoCanada 2000 convention. He received a Meritorious Service award from the society in 1999. Most recently, through the President’s Advisory Council (PAC), comprised of the most recent ten (10) Past Presidents of the society, Doug spearheaded the creation of a Long Range Plan for the CSEG. He also assisted in creating a business plan for the reenergized Outreach committee. He hopes that the Ambassadors program will help to heighten the society’s profile nationally across Canada and internationally on the world stage. Doug has been in the oil and gas industry for 23 years. He is currently a senior partner and Vice-President of Geophysics at Petrel Robertson Consulting Limited of Calgary. Doug is a member of the CSEG, SEG, CSPG, APEGGA, NAPEGG and the Calgary Petroleum Club.

Dr. Doug Schmitt
Edmonton, Alberta
University of Alberta

Douglas Schmitt is a Canada Research Chair in Rock Physics and a Professor of Geophysics at the University of Alberta, Edmonton and he currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Geophysical Research. His group carries out a variety of research related to rock properties in the laboratory on topics ranging from seismic anisotropy to attenuation. His group has also carried out high resolution field seismic investigations related to permafrost and gas hydrates in the Arctic, through unconventional hydrocarbon resources in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin through to borehole seismic studies of meteorite impact structure in Africa. Upcoming projects include the scientific drilling of a deep permafrost wellbore and wellbore seismic studies in a mining district in Finland. Professionally he currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth, as a Review Chairperson for the SPE Journal of Reservoir Engineering and Evaluation, on the Board of Examiners of APEGGA, and as a member of the solid earth NSERC grant selection committee.

Dr. Bernd Milkereit
Toronto, Ontario
University of Toronto

Bernd Milkereit obtained his Ph.D. in Geophysics from Kiel University, Germany (1984). From 1985-96 he was a Research Scientist for the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa working on Crustal Seismic Imaging, Borehole Geophysics and Petrophysics. During the years 1996-2001, he was Professor of Geophysics, Kiel University, Germany, working on Crustal Seismology, marine geophysics, meteorite impact crater studies and seismic wave propagation. Since 2001, Bernd has been Professor, Teck Chair in Exploration Geophysics at the University of Toronto. His general research interests include: - 3D seismic imaging for mineral exploration – Physical properties of gas hydrates, permafrost and massive sulfides – Scientific drilling of meteorite impact craters – Downhole geophysical imaging – 3D visualization of integrated earth models.

Dr. Michael Enachescu, P. Geoph.
St. John’s, Newfoundland
Department of Earth Sciences and Oil and Gas Development Partnership
Memorial University

Michael Enachescu is the Husky Energy Senior Fellow in Exploration Geophysics at Memorial University of Newfoundland, an Associate Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, Pan-Atlantic Petroleum Systems Consortium (PPSC) and Oil and Gas Development Partnership (OGDP) and an advisor to Palo Alto Investors group (PAI) and to several oil companies, seismic contractors and scientific panels. He worked in resource exploration and geophysical research in Europe and after 1981 as a petroleum explorationist in Calgary. He has been involved with major exploration drilling programs in the Grand Banks, Scotian Shelf and Slope, Labrador Sea, Arctic, Beaufort Sea first with Suncor Resources, Trillium/Mosbacher and from 1984 to 2003 with Husky Energy. Michael was a member of the regional mapping, discovery and delineation teams and a contributor to the Development Plan Applications for Terra Nova and White Rose fields, offshore Newfoundland. Michael was a member of the Scientific Committee of LITHOPROBE, a member of the Site Survey Panel of ODP and IODP (1994-2003) and a volunteer with CSEG (2nd VP, Technical Chair GeoCanada 2000 convention and repeatedly annual meeting session chair) and with many other professional societies and charity organizations. Since at Memorial (fall 2003), Michael is teaching Atlantic Geology, Rift Tectonics, Marine Seismic and Seismic Interpretation courses. Michael has extensively published on the structural setting and petroleum geology of Atlantic Canada and received the 1999 CSEG Meritorious Award. Michael was the 2005 CSEG Distinguished Lecturer. He is a member of CSEG, SEG, EAEG, CGU, AAPG, CSPG, RGS, and a P. Geoph. with APEGGA.

Chris D. Jauer, P. Geoph.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Geological Survey of Canada – Atlantic, Bedford Institute of Oceanography

Chris Jauer is a member with over twenty-four years standing as a CSEG member and a current member of the Outreach committee. He is an occasional speaker at various public schools and universities in Nova Scotia on earth science topics that usually involve geophysics and petroleum geology. Previous to his current life as an East Coast researcher, Chris was employed at Hudson’s Bay Oil and Gas, Dome Petroleum, Husky Oil, Petro-Canada and Crestar Energy with some time spent in the wonderful world of geophysical consulting.

His current areas of interest are in the petroleum systems and seismic expressions of some of the lesser known basins of the Grand Banks, up to the northern end of the Labrador Shelf and Davis Strait region offshore Nunavut.

Chris is a member of the CSEG, SEG, APEGGA and the Shearwater Yacht Club.

David Timko
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Fugro Geoscience GmbH

David Timko has a B.Sc. in Pure Mathematics and and M.Sc. in Statistics and Applied Probability from the University of Alberta. He has been a member of the CSEG since joining the oil and gas industry 25 years ago. Most of his career has been spent on exploration and development projects in western Canada with a brief interlude in Houston. In 2003 he won Best Geophysical Paper at the combined CSEG/CSPG convention. David hopes that the Ambassadors program will help bring attention to the CSEG and the different roles that geophysics can play in hydrocarbon exploration and development. He is currently the Technical Services Manager for Fugro Geoscience GmbH based in Dubai, U.A.E.

Dr. Constantine Tsingas
London, England
Kelman Technologies Inc.

Constantine has more than 22 years of experience in the Oil & Gas Exploration and Development sector with 10 of them working in the Middle East region. His previous employers were Seiscom Delta (1983-84), Western Geophysical (1984-86) and Saudi Aramco (1990-97) based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where he participated in various multi-disciplinary reservoir characterization teams promoting Geophysical solutions for oil & deep gas exploration plays. Following his employment with Saudi Aramco’s Geophysical R&D Department, he joined PGS Onshore in Dubai, UAE. During this assignment he played instrumental roles in establishing PGS’ first massive land crew in Saudi Arabia and in conducting the first land Vertical Array survey in Oman with PDO/Shell. He then spent 4 years with PGS Data Processing as the Global Marketing Manager of Geophysical Technology in London, UK. Presently, he is the VP for the EAME region for Kelman Technologies Inc.

He holds a Bsc in Physics from University of Athens, Greece, a Msc in Applied Geophysics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada and a PhD in Applied Geophysics from University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He is a member of SEG, CSEG, EAGE, SPE and SEE.

The Outreach Committee wishes to establish additional representation in other parts of Canada and abroad. Lavdosh Bubeqi is the newly appointed CSEG Ambassador in Tripoli, Libya. Erick Adams is the Ambassador for Quebec City, Quebec.

If you are interested in participating in this program or wish to receive more information, please contact Doug Uffen at Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd (403-218- 1627) or contact him by e-mail at either duffen@petrelrob.com or duffen@shaw.ca.