About the Award
The Runge Award recognizes professional and scientific excellence in the student papers presented before the RMS-AAPG annual meeting, with particular emphasis on creative thinking toward new ideas in exploration. Established in 1975, the award is made to the student presenting the best paper as judged by a committee established for evaluation of papers at each meeting. The qualifications of the author or authors is defined as follows:
- The paper was prepared during the author’s enrollment in a college or university.
- The abstract was submitted to the Section during enrollment or no later than one year following the end of the last semester of enrollment of the author.
- If more than one author participated on the paper, all authors must meet the above qualifications. The award is an engraved plaque which is presented to the recipient at the next meeting of the RMS-AAPG. The award is provided by John S. Runge, petroleum geologist, Casper, Wyoming.
Previous Winners
2023
Ghoulem Ifrene – University of North Dakota
“Advancing our Understanding of Non-linear Flow Behavior in X-Crossing Fractures through 3D Printing Technology”
Ghoulem Ifrene is a petrophysicist and is currently a PhD student in petroleum engineering at the University of North Dakota. He holds a Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering and a Master’s in Applied Geophysics. His research focuses on numerical and experimental simulations of coupled geomechanics and fluid flow in X-crossing rough fractures.
2022
“Insights into Mudstone Sedimentology, Organic Richness, and Anoxia at the Opening of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway: The Lower Cretaceous Skull Creek Formation, Colorado”
Patrick M. Sullivan and Stephen Sonnenberg
Patrick is pursuing his PhD from the Colorado School of Mines with a focus on the sedimentology, geochronology, and reservoir properties of the Wall Creek-Turner system in the Powder River Basin. His work on the Skull Creek Formation, highlighted in his winning poster, was recently published in the May volume of the AAPG Bulletin.
2021
The Steve Champlin Memorial Best Poster Award is not awarded for meetings held in conjunction with the ACE AAPG meeting.
2020
The 2020 RMS-AAPG Annual Meeting was cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic.
2019
won the Runge Award for the best student presentation with his paper titled, “Sedimentology and Reservoir Potential of Allochthonous Upper Desert Creek Carbonates, Southern Margin of the Aneth Complex (Middle Pennsylvanian), Paradox Basin, Utah”. His co-authors for the paper include Scott Ritter and Bob Lindsay with Brigham Young University and Peter Neilsen with the Utah Geological Survey. Perfili is a student at Brigham Young University and plans to graduate in December 2020. The Runge Award is sponsored by the Wyoming Geological Association in memory of John S. Runge. It was established in 1975 and recognizes professional and scientific excellence in student papers. The qualifications required of the primary author and/or presenter are as follows: 1) the paper was prepared during enrollment in a college or university and 2) the abstract was submitted to the Section during enrollment or no later than one year following the end of the last semester of enrollment.
2018
Nathan La Fontaine, for the best student presentation at the 2017 RMS-AAPG Meeting in Billings, MT, titled: Quantifying architectural controls on reservoir behavior in the Turonian Wall Creek Member of the Frontier Formation in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming: Nathan La Fontaine, Michael Hofmann. Nathan is pursuing a M.S. from the University of Montana. His research is on the Wall Creek Member of the Frontier Formation in the Powder River Basin. Part of this study includes collaboration with the Montana Tech Petroleum Engineering group to quantify the relative control on effective permeability induced by multi-scale stratigraphic heterogeneities in a deltaic setting.
2017
Ben Dellenbach for the best student presentation at the 2016 RMS-AAPG Meeting in Las Vegas, NV: “An outcrop to subsurface stratigraphic analysis of the Niobrara Formation, Sand Wash Basin, Colorado.”
2016
Elena C. Finley and Stephen A. Sonnenberg for the presentation titled, Permian Salt Dissolution in Silo Field, Laramie County, Wyoming. This award, sponsored by the Wyoming Geological Association (WGA), recognizes professional and scientific excellence in student papers presented at the annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, with particular emphasis on creative thinking toward new ideas in exploration. It was established in 1975 by John S. Runge, a petroleum geologist in Casper, Wyoming. Ms. Finley presented their oral paper at the 2014 annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. Ms. Finley completed her MS in Geology from the Colorado School of Mines and her BS in Geology from the University of Wyoming. Her graduate studies focused on characterizing both the Niobrara Formation and the Permian salt edge at Silo Field using a 3-D seismic survey. She has been published in the American Oil and Gas Reporter. Ms. Finley is currently employed at Encana Corporation in Denver.
2015
Runge Award is not awarded for meetings held in conjunction with the ACE AAPG meeting.
2014
Elena C. Finley and Stephen A. Sonnenberg, both of Colorado School of Mines, for the presentation Permian Salt Dissolution in Silo Field, Laramie County, Wyoming.
2013
2013 award presented in 2014 to John L. McFadden by WGA President Julie Lemaster. John L. McFadden Jr.,University of Colorado at Boulder; John L McFadden, Jr.*, Rex D. Cole, Matthew J. Pranter, Reservoir-scale Facies and Stratigraphic Architecture of the Middle and Upper Williams Fork Formation, Upper Philadelphia Creek, Douglas Creek Arch, Colorado
2012
Alyssa Franklin, Colorado School of Mines; Alyssa Franklin & Stephen Sonnenberg, “Bakken and Three Forks petroleum development, production and potential, western Williston Basin, northeastern Montana”.
(2012 Award presented in 2013 to Alyssa Franklin, by RMSAAPG President Michael Vandenberg)
2010
Sophie Hancock, Department of Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO for the presentation: In Situ Recovery: Hydrologic Aspects of Producing a Deposit with a Fault System
2008
Sara M. Smaltz, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO and Eric A. Erslev, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO for the presentation: Structural controls on detachment folds associated with foreland arches: Beaver Creek Anticline, Wyoming
2007
Daniel JK Ross University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC and co-author R. Marc Bustin for the paper titled Evaluating the Shale Gas Resource Potential in Western Canada
2006
Hanna Ross, M. D. Zoback: Sub-Hydrostatic Pore Pressure in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana, and Implications for Re-injection of Coalbed Methane Produced Water