Wiki award winners
Each year the SEG Wiki holds a competition to recognize outstanding member, student member, and Student Chapter contributions to the SEG Wiki. For more information on how you can be honored for your contributions to the wiki and the SEG, check out the wiki awards.
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2017 award winners
Please join us in congratulating the 2017 SEG Wiki Champions: Jorge Luis Ñustes Andrade, Hector Alfonso, Raul Cova, Reinaldo Michelena, and Sven Treitel.
- Jorge Luis Ñustes Andrade – Geosciences student from Colombia
- Hector Alfonso – Senior Geophysicist Adviser M.Sc. at Ecopetrol; chair of the Latin American Committee
- Raul Cova – Geophysicist, PhD, University of Calgary; 2015 Student Wiki Champion
- Reinaldo Michelena – Geophysical Technology Advisor at iReservoir.com; chair of the Translations Committee
- Sven Treitel – published over 40 papers and co-author of two books; recipient of SEG's Reginald Fessenden award and Honorary Membership
An initiative to translate Robert Sheriff's Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Geophysics to Spanish began in early 2017. More than 50 Spanish-speaking geophysicists from around the world joined the project. As of 23 August 2017, volunteers have contributed 21,355 edits resulting in 3,226 words – 48% of the total book. Four team leaders – Hector Alfonso, Raul Cova, Reinaldo Michelena, and Sven Treitel – and one team member – Jorge Luis Ñustes Andrade – have contributed significantly to the project.
The four team leaders have led their group of volunteers to contribute over 70% of the total edits to date. Jorge has led all volunteers from the start of the project, contributing 1,787 edits by himself! On behalf of the SEG and all the volunteers on this project, thank you to Jorge, Hector, Raul, Reinaldo, and Sven for leading the way in making a Spanish version of Robert Sheriff’s Encyclopedic Dictionary a reality!
2016 award winners
Dr. Laura Guertin
Dr. Laura Guertin of Penn State University at Brandywine won the 2016 Wiki Champion award for her classroom collaboration with the SEG Wiki. Dr. Guertin began working with the SEG in summer 2015. She aimed to include technology in her curriculum using the SEG Wiki as the springboard. The collaboration started with two summer interns and has blossomed into an ongoing, full-class partnership. Guertin created assignments to improve geoscience content on the SEG Wiki by making her students the authors. She merged her university’s mission of service learning and engaged scholarship with the SEG’s mission to advance geophysics around the world to launch courses that advance her students’ overall understanding of the science while preparing them to write for a real world audience.
Three courses have been completed. The efforts of Guertin and her students has resulted in over 100 new articles to the SEG Wiki. She has presented her work with the wiki at scientific conferences, including the Northeastern Geological Society of America Annual Meeting and the AGU Fall Meeting.
2015 award winners
In 2015 the SEG proudly awarded the first Student and Student Chapter Wiki Champions, in addition to crowning the 2015 Wiki Champion. John W. Stockwell, Jr. retained the award for his continued commitment to preserving the history of exploration geophysics through biographies posted in the wiki. Raul Cova, geophysicist, Ph.D. candidate, at the University of Calgary won the 2015 Student Wiki Champion and the Student Geoscientific Society Berlin & Potsdam won the 2015 Student Chapter Wiki Champion award.
- SEG Wiki Champion: John W. Stockwell, Jr.
- Student Champion: Raul Cova
- Student Chapter Champion: Student Geoscientific Society Berlin & Potsdam
John Stockwell and Evert Slob
Raul Cova accepting the award
Ramona Niemann accepting the award on behalf of the Student Chapter
Student Champion: Raul Cova
Cova’s contributions to the SEG Wiki include improving equations, references, and figures within Robert Sheriff’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Geophysics and launching biographical and project articles related to the University of Calgary. Much like Stockwell, the contributions of Cova advance the people and science of applied geophysics.
Student Chapter Champion: Student Geoscientific Society Berlin & Potsdam
Lennart Brϋning, president of the Geoscientific Society Berlin & Potsdam at that time, and his peers launched comprehensive student chapter pages complete with information about conferences, field camps, and awards of the chapter. One of the Student Chapter goals were to catalog lessons learned while conducting geophysical surveys so other geoscientists can read what they learned to improve their own project designs. Learn more at the Student Geoscientific Society Berlin & Potsdam's page.
Prizes
Wiki award honorees will receive:
- Free Annual Meeting registration for the winning student and Student Chapter representative (or, $100)
- Featured article in The Leading Edge for all honorees
- Free SEG eBook of choice
- An SEG Wiki trophy
- Invitation to attend SEG’s annual Editors’ Dinner, a who’s who of accomplished authors and researchers in the Society.
2014 SEG Wiki Champion
As of October 15, 2014, there have been 19,253 edits to the SEG Wiki since it launched. John W. Stockwell, Jr. 2014 SEG Wiki Champion, has contributed more than 5,000 of those edits, making John responsible for over a quarter of all edits to the wiki. In 2014 alone, John contributed over 3,500 edits. That’s well over 3,000 more than the second-leading SEG member contributor. Even a modest estimate of John’s time spent contributing to the wiki puts his service in the 100s of hours for 2014 alone.
John received a Presidential Award at the 2014 Annual Meeting during the Editors' Dinner for his tireless work with SEG Wiki.
- "As with any human endeavor, exploration geophysics is really about the people. We have technological advances, scientific discoveries, and industry game changers, but we should never forget that these developments are made by our colleagues, friends, and teachers. The SEG attempts to recognize the important contributors to our discipline through awards, but these awards mean very little if nobody knows about the recipients. I have pulled from the dusty journals biographies and images of those who founded and nourished our discipline from its infancy to the present era. The threads of these lives lead to those who are revolutionizing exploration geophysics today. Last semester, at Colorado School of Mines, I instituted a 'Geophysicist of the Day' program, where I would occasionally broadcast a short email about one or more geophysicists, referring students and faculty to relevant SEG Wiki pages for more information. The program is so popular that I will continue it next semester.” - John W. Stockwell, Jr.
