Jackson School Announces Joseph C. Walter Jr. Excellence Awards, 2006-07

May 18, 2007
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The Joseph C. Walter Jr. Excellence Award is the most prestigious internal award in the Jackson School of Geosciences. It carries a cash award of $2,000. This award was provided for in an endowment created by Mr. J. C. Walter, Jr. and approved by the Board of Regents in 1977. It was originally titled the Houston Oil and Gas Corporation Excellence Award and was designed to provide annual awards to faculty "in recognition of outstanding service and special contributions to teaching and research programs."

With the creation of the Jackson School of Geosciences, and with the thorough endorsement of Mr. J. C. Walter III, the award has been renamed the Joseph C. Walter Jr. Excellence Award and is now extended school-wide. Walter awards are made based on demonstrated excellence in any or all of the areas of the School—research, teaching, service, professional activity, and administration. We have three recipients this year.

The 2007 Recipients

Shirley Dutton – Bureau of Economic Geology

Shirley is internationally known for her work on sandstone diagenesis and reservoir quality. Her contributions have a great deal of breadth, from fan deltas to deep-water sandstones, organic geochemistry, basin analysis, resource assessment, and the origin of salt dome cap rock.

She has received three A.I. Levorsen Memorial Awards for the quality of her research. Her publications span key journals such as the AAPG Bulletin and the Geological Society of London, but she also directs her efforts toward outreach, regional societies, and corporations. She is currently PI on a $1.5 million consortium investigating deep reservoir quality in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shirley represents the Bureau with distinction – name an important JSG activity - from leadership searches to the appointments committee and there is Shirley. She was Senior Technical Advisor to the Director of the Bureau in 2003-2004. Her service to the profession is equally noteworthy – from program chair to AAPG delegate, to associate editor, to service in three societies and we find Shirley sharing her time and wisdom to enable the geosciences. She has mentored 36 Research Assistants in their professional development.

Her nomination letter included the following words all in the same paragraph – “instinctive, unafraid to voice opposing points of view, level-headed, good judgment, unfailingly responsible, non-self-centered, acts for the good of the university. Those words don’t always go together, but together they represent a significant compliment. I am pleased to honor Shirley with the Joseph C. Walter, Jr. award for 30 years of excellence.

Mrinal Sen – Institute for Geophysics

Mrinal is widely known as an authority on two subjects: seismic anisotropy and inverse theory. His work is important in basic and applied research topics, and his nomination cites both the development of highly practical computer programs and methods to cutting-edge research with diverse implications.

Mrinal is an author or coauthor of about 100 UTIG contributions, including 7 in Geophysical Prospecting, 6 in Geophysical Journal International, 5 in Geophysical Research Letters, 4 in Geophysics, and 3 in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Even before joining the UT faculty, Mrinal worked closely with students; indeed, 37 of his UTIG publications have students as first authors. He has been the supervisor/co-supervisor of 13 students who received Ph. D. degrees and 4 who received M. Sc. Degrees.

That is a great record – but what has he done lately? Mrinal’s record shows an astounding 29 publications with publication dates of 2005, 2006, and 2007. In 2006, he published his second full-length book (Seismic Inversion, published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers). Meanwhile, he serves as an associate editor for Geophysics, the Journal of Seismic Exploration, and Computational Seismology and Geodynamics. During this same period he taught a half-dozen or so industry short courses. And he currently supervises/co-supervises 8 UT graduate students. Clearly, Mrinal richly deserves the Joseph C. Walter, Jr. award.

Liang Yang – Department of Geological Sciences

Can someone with primary interests in the exchanges of momentum, energy, water, carbon dioxide and other materials between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface find happiness and true success in a department of geological sciences?

Probably only if you are dedicated, talented and gifted as a scientist. And, I say that even if your department has a sense of vision and commitment to the broader future of the geosciences. But here is Liang with 60 peer-reviewed articles and with a strong record of funding from EPA, NASA, and NOAA. The breadth of his publications are noteworthy from remote sensing, to land surface modeling to snow studies to flood modeling.

Perhaps many of you don’t recognize how competitive NASA earth sciences and NOAA atmospheric sciences funding is today. NASA has lost about a third of its Earth Sciences budget. Many funded proposals are having after-the-fact budget cuts. So, when Liang went forth for a new NASA interdisciplinary team proposal and a new NOAA proposal, my first reaction was this is a great deal of work with a very low probability. Only the truly excellent will survive. It is noteworthy to see that both were funded. NASA funded his project entitled “Using Satellite Data and Fully Coupled Regional Hydrologic, Ecological and Atmospheric Models to Study Complex Coastal Environmental Processes,” at the requested 1.2 million dollars.

Finally, stop by on Wednesday afternoon and get a sense of how vibrant Liang’s research group truly is. You will witness a collection of post-doctoral fellows and graduate students deeply engaged in research scholarship. Liang, I am honored to provide you with the Joseph C. Walter, Jr. award.

For more information about the Jackson School contact J.B. Bird at jbird@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623.