Doug Oldenburg and UBC-GIF recipients of the 2017 SEG Distinguished Achievement Award

The award is given “from time to time to a company, institution, or other organization for a specific technical contribution or contributions that have … substantially advanced the science of exploration geophysics”. With 27,000 members from 128 countries, SEG is the world’s largest society dedicated to applied geophysics. Doug and UBC-GIF were given the award for their innovation and continuing development of computerized inversion methodologies to solve applied problems for the mineral, geotechnical and environmental industries, and to make that research available to universities and industry. In doing so, they have been spectacularly successful, having developed 16 software programs that are licensed through UBC. The extent of these licenses is truly amazing – 350 academic licenses (no charge), 152 commercial licenses and 7 commercial government licenses. To complement their developments, Doug and UBC-GIF have implemented an OUTREACH program that includes case history studies to demonstrate applicability, a web site for tutorial/information on geophysical inversion for both non-specialists and specialists, and a CD ROM “book” about their inversion techniques and how to apply them. For more information about UBC-GIF, see https://gif.eos.ubc.ca/. EOAS, the Faculty of Science and UBC congratulate Doug and UBC-GIF on the SEG award and the accomplishments it represents.