Peter R. Vail, the recipient of this year's Hedberg Award in Energy, will be honored on Wednesday, April 27, 2005, for his numerous and significant contributions to research in the energy industry, and for his longtime commitment to education and academic research. Dr. Vail had a long and distinguished career at Exxon where he directed a team that formulated and established sequence stratigraphy as a new paradigm for exploration. After leaving Exxon he joined the faculty at Rice University where he has mentored students and maintained a productive research career.

Dr. Vail is currently W. Maurice Ewing Professor emeritus at Rice University. His research has involved the documentation of the distribution of depositional sequences on a global scale in outcrop and the subsurface, determining their cause, and defining the relation of depositional systems and rock types to sea level and tectonic variations. These studies have enabled paleogeographic reconstructions and resource evaluations. In addition, Vail is involved in the development of interactive computer interpretative procedures and basin fill simulation studies to improve the ease and accuracy of the resulting interpretations. The Institute for the Study of Earth and Man is pleased to honor Peter Vail with the Hollis D. Hedberg Award this year.

See: “Award Banquet”