Survey geologists honored at national professional society meeting

LAWRENCE -- Five scientists at the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas, recently were honored for scientific or public service contributions by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, an international professional society.

The five were recognized at the society's annual meeting in Houston on March 11. The survey, located on KU's west campus, was the only organization with multiple awardees at the meeting.

Survey director M. Lee Allison received the society's public service award for his activities in public policy. Those activities included mitigating geologic hazards during his tenure as state geologist of Utah, speaking out on the evolution controversy in Kansas in 1999, and involvement in geologic investigations of natural gas explosions in Hutchinson in January 2001. Allison was director of the Utah Geological Survey before coming to Kansas in July 1999.

Lawrence Skelton, head of the Survey's Wichita Well Sample Library, also received the society's public service award for his work in public programs explaining geology to the public. Skelton is the author of "Wichita's Building Blocks: A Guide to Building Stones and Geological Features." He has managed the Well Sample Library since 1981.

Survey geologists Martin Dubois, Alan Byrnes and W. Lynn Watney were honored for the best technical poster presentation at last year's meeting in Denver. The scientists' poster was titled "Field Development and Renewed Reservoir Characterization for CO2 Flooding of the Hall-Gurney Field, Central Kansas." It described a project in which carbon dioxide, produced from a newly constructed ethanol plant, will be used to produce additional oil from an older field south of Russell.