Gustavo Carstens
SEG Life Membership Award 2022
SEG awards Life Membership this year to Gustavo Carstens for his exceptional service to the Society. While at Western Geophysical, Carstens started to expand his activities with SEG and in the region. He was a founding member of the Asociacion Argentina de Geologos y Geofisicos Petroleros (AAGGP) when it became an affiliated society of SEG in 1994, and he served on its board of directors for 18 years. From the AAGGP, he expanded his focus to the whole of Latin America where he participated in the formation of the Union Latinoamericana de Geofisicos, which promoted interaction and intercommunication between its member societies. Carstens became a critically active member of SEG’s International Affairs Committee (later named the Global Affairs Committee). He was among the SEG leaders to truly expand SEG’s footprint beyond North America to the remainder of the world as well as to diversify the Society’s membership, including the establishment of Global Membership. He has participated in many SEG committees — including Health, Safety, Security, and Environment, Global Affairs, and Membership (chair, 2010–2011) — as well as the SEG Council (chair, 2018–2021). Carstens has been a member of the SEG Board of Directors in two separate roles — as a Director at Large and as Chair of the Council.
Biography Citation for the Life Membership Award
by Sven Treitel
Gustavo Carstens and I first met during the 1980s at an SEG convention. At that first occasion, I was impressed with his interest in attracting students to our chosen profession, even while he had only himself recently graduated in 1979 with a degree in geophysics from the University of La Plata in Argentina. At that time, SEG was only weakly represented by geophysicists from Latin America, and while their numbers could be even larger than they are today, Gustavo must be credited to be one of our main movers and shakers to attract a considerable number of Latin American geophysicists to become themselves active members in our Society. Having myself grown up in Argentina, I had been acutely aware of the fact that if it had not been for some of our Mexican colleagues, our Latin American ranks would have been even thinner.
After graduation, Gustavo was first employed by Horizon Exploration Ltd. and later by Western Geophysical, both in Buenos Aires. Except for these two stints working for others, Gustavo has had an amazingly successful career as an independent consultant, one which has taken him all over Latin America and the Middle East. Early on, Gustavo took an active interest in professional affairs. He first helped found the Asociación Argentina de Geólogos y Geofísicos Petroleros in his own backyard and then quickly realized the importance of fomenting the promotion of contacts between other similar Latin American professional societies in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela. Gustavo helped found the Union of Latin American Geophysicsts (ULG), was very active in it, and served as its last president until the ULG’s dissolution in 2001. Throughout, he did truly outstanding work, for which he deserves much credit.
About the time that Gustavo was busy with local societies, he also commenced an equally distinguished and long record of service to SEG. He joined the Global Affairs Committee in 1995, and later the Membership Committee in 1996. In 2015, he was elected to the SEG Board of Directors for a three-year term as a director at large, and in 2018 he became chair of the SEG Council for another three years. Still more recently, Gustavo was one of the founding members of SEG’s Latin American Regional Advisory Committee, which has become one of the key SEG groups charged with the responsibility of extending the services our Society can provide to members and students throughout Latin America. This will be done by an even closer collaboration with local societies on the continent and by creating an environment in which students from this region can learn and better interact with SEG members. The hope is of course that these students will eventually join SEG. In all these activities Gustavo is bound to play a key role.
Gustavo’s record of distinguished service to SEG is exceptional. His passion for working with students all over Latin America is legendary. Starting in 2009, he has managed Challenge Bowls in Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil. His act is truly a hard one to follow.
In conclusion, I can surely do no better than to quote the last lines from Gustavo’s nomination for SEG Life Membership written by George Buzan: “Gustavo doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to the Society and its activities; he walks the walk as well. He doesn’t walk alone; he invites those around him to share the journey of growing the Society and making it relevant on the global stage.”