About the Award
The Wyoming Geological Association sponsors the Steve Champlin Memorial Best Poster Award, which is presented to the poster author receiving the highest score at the annual Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists annual meeting. This award was created to encourage poster authors to strive for excellence in their presentations and to foster the one-on-one discussions of geology for which Steve Champlin was well know. First created in 1986, it is hoped that this award will carry on Steve’s spirit of friendly cooperation for the exploration of our natural resources.
All divisions of the RMS-AAPG, EMD, DEG, and SEPM are eligible for this award, and a plaque will be presented to the winner or to the senior author in case of multiple authors. The only restriction is that the display and the oral presentation must not be part of a professional presentation that is for sale or is part of a sales presentation. The award is for scientific endeavor, and for the courage to display a new concept before your peers and to defend that concept under their scrutiny.
Previous Winners
2023
“Basin analysis & reservoir characterization for subsurface geologic CO2 sequestration associated with a direct reduced iron plant, Iron co., Utah”
Eugene Szymanski (primary author) and Mike Vanden Berg (presenter)
Dr. Eugene Szymanski is a Senior Geologist in the Utah Geological Survey’s Energy and Minerals Program, and a licensed Professional Geologist in Utah. He has 14+ years of professional experience in basin analysis, landscape evolution, chronostratigraphy, and source-to-sink analysis of modern and ancient depositional systems. As a specialist in geo-/thermochronological techniques, he applies these methods to energy and mineral resource assessment. Prior to joining the UGS in 2021, Eugene worked at Chevron USA where he conducted global exploration, strategic geologic research, and applied technology development. He works synergistically with many academic groups and analytical laboratories and enjoys serving on Geological Society of America committees while also holding an Adjunct Faculty appointment at The University of Kansas.
2022
“Geologic Characterization of the Newly Acquired State 16-2 Cane Creek Research Core, Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation, Northern Paradox Basin, Southeastern Utah”
Michael D. Vanden Berg, Elliot Jagniecki, Raul Ochoa, Lauren P. Birgenheier, Eugene Szymanski, Gregor Maxwell, Dave List, Eric Edelman, Rich Esser, and Katie Cummings
Michael D. Vanden Berg is the Energy and Minerals Program Manager at the Utah Geological Society. Mike specializes in research on lacustrine systems, petroleum geology, and microbial carbonates, as well as mineral resource evaluation and energy statistics.
2021
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
Brian Toelle won the Steve Champlin Memorial Award for the best poster presentation with his presentation titled, “Potential Shale-Oil Reservoirs in the Eastern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming.” Co-authors of the paper include Marcin Pankau, Ranie Lynds and Pejman Tahmnasebi. Toelle is Professor of Practice at the University of Wyoming, Department of Petroleum Engineering. The Steve Champlin award was created in 1986 by the Wyoming Geological Association to encourage excellence in poster presentations, one-on-one discussions of geology and friendly cooperation for the exploration of natural resources for which Steve Champlin was well know. All divisions of the RMS-AAPG, EMD, DEG, and SEPM are eligible for this award. The award is for scientific endeavor, and for the courage to display a new concept before your peers and to defend that concept under their scrutiny.
2018
Justin P. Ahern, poster titled: Paleoenvironments of the Mississippian Heath Formation (Big Snowy Trough, central Montana) and their relevance to understanding Late Paleozoic paleoenvironmental change and low-accommodation, unconventional petroleum systems: Justin P. Ahern, Christopher R. Fielding. Justin is a PhD candidate at the University of Lincoln-Nebraska. His area of research is the sedimentologic and stratigraphic investigation of the Heath Formation in central Montana and the Manning Canyon Formation in Utah with respect to paleoenvironmental change.
2017
Jingqi Xu for the best poster presentation at the 2016 RMS-AAPG Meeting in Las Vegas, NV: “A petrographic analysis of the Lower Bakken Shale and Pronghorn Member of the Bakken Formation, Williston Basin.”
2016
Kevin H. Smith, Richard J. Bottjer, Robert A. Sterling, Henry C. Nowak, and Daniel R. Wheat for the presentation titled, “Reservoir Characteristics of the Codell Sandstone Tight Oil Play, Northern DJ Basin, Wyoming and Colorado: Extension of Wattenberg into the Oil Window.” This award, sponsored by the Wyoming Geological Association (WGA), recognizes the author of the best poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. The award was created in 1986 to encourage poster authors to strive for excellence in their presentations and to foster the one-on-one discussions of geology for which Steve Champlin was well known. It is hoped that this award will carry on Steve’s spirit of friendly cooperation for the exploration of our natural resources. Mr. Smith presented their poster at the 2014 annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. Mr. Smith owns Garnet Ridge Resources and currently consults for Bayswater Exploration and Production. While at Cirque Resources, where he evaluated tight oil plays in the Rockies, he designed the winning Codell poster in collaboration with colleagues. This work evolved into another poster and a short course, and these materials have become key references for the Codell play. Prior to working in the Denver area, Mr. Smith worked for Oso Energy in Durango focusing on CBM and tight gas sands in Rockies, Illinois and Appalachian basins. His BS is from the University of Alabama and MS is from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
2015
Steve Champlin Memorial Award is not awarded for meetings held in conjunction with the ACE AAPG meeting.
2014
Kevin H. Smith, Richard J. Bottjer, Robert A. Sterling, all of Cirque Resources, Henry C. Nowak, and Daniel R. Wheat, both of Noble Energy, for the poster Reservoir Characteristics of the Codell Sandstone Tight Oil Play, Northern DJ Basin, Wyoming and Colorado: Extension of Wattenberg into the Oil Window.
2013
2013 award presented in 2014 to S. Robert Bereskin by WGA President Julie Lemaster. S. Robert Bereskin, Bereskin and Associates Inc; S. Robert Bereskin, Thomas C. Chidsey, Craig D. Morgan, John McLennan, “Hydrocarbon Potential of the Chainman Shale, Western Utah”
2012
Edmund ‘Gus’ Gustason, Enerplus Resources, and Matthew Prather, University of Colorado, Boulder; “Integrated characterization and modeling of reservoir lithofacies and reserves of the Sussex Sandstone, House Creek North area, Power River Basin, Wyoming”.
(2012 Award presented in 2013 to Edmund “Gus” Gustason, by RMSAAPG President Michael Vandenberg)
2010
Larry Rasmussen, Tom Smith, Lynn Canter, Mark Sonnenfeld, and John Forster, Whiting Oil & Gas, Corporation, Denver, CO for the poster title: Analysis of a Long Cane Creek Horizontal: New Insight into an Unconventional Tight Oil Resource Play, Paradox Basin, Utah
2008
Mike J. Mullen, Halliburton Energy Services, Denver, CO and Milt Enderlin, Gearhart Company, Forth Worth, TX for the poster title: Is that Frac job really breaking new rock?
2007
Donna S. Anderson and co-author Mary M. Carr, both of Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO for poster titled 3-D Architecture of Crevasse Splay and Point-bar Bodies: From Outcrop to Geologic Model
2006
Quentin German, Nichola Sommer, Matthew Pranter, Rex D. Cole: Analysis of Fluvial Sand-Body Characteristics and Dimensions in a High Net-to-Gross System, Upper Williams Fork Formation, Main and Plateau Creek Canyons, Piceance Basin, Colorado