Chair's Corner - June 2019



Chair's Corner - June 2019

“Recognition is the greatest motivator.” – GERARD C. EAKEDALE


Scholarship Program Updates

As some of you might be aware, we have been awarding 12 annual scholarships for the past few years, including nine petroleum engineering scholarships and three for other disciplines. This year, the board of directors agreed on increasing this number to 14 by adding two more scholarships to the “other disciplines” category. This decision was made based on our strong financial performance and the continued growth of our section. Considering that our industry features professionals from various disciplines, it was logical to boost this segment of our scholarship program.

This year’s scholarship applicant pool was much higher than the previous year. I would like to congratulate the Education Committee, led by Dr. Mohammad Tabatabaei, for all their hard work in identifying and selecting the best candidates for these scholarships.

Awards Banquet

Toward the end of every fiscal year, the SPE-GCS hosts the section’s annual awards banquet where our scholarship winners and the recipients of the section and regional awards are recognized. This year’s event took place at the HESS club on May 23, 2019, and Dr. Mukul Sharma from The University of Texas gave the keynote lecture. Considering the overwhelming success of our section year after year, there is a strong need to recognize highly impactful and deserving individuals. With this in mind, we increased the number of section awards to 30 this year. I would like to congratulate the award winners for their extraordinary efforts in the quest for excellence.

Young Professionals

A huge part of the section’s success is due to the strong performance of the Young Professionals Committee (YP). With around 40 professionals, this committee has been successful in putting together a total of close to 60 events every year, including technical, social and community outreach events. 

On June 20, 2019, the YP army will host the 16th annual Roughneck Camp, with the theme “Pumpjacks, Pipelines, Projects – Understanding the Big Picture of Energy.”

This one-day conference empowers young professionals, interns and students with the knowledge to choose and plan appropriate career paths as they become valuable contributing members to their companies. This event features highly renowned speakers in the lineup and will provide a brief technical overview of the industry and networking opportunities. More details can be found at https://www.spegcs.org/events/4100/

All the best!