SPE Awards FAQs

Peer recognition is an important aspect of every professional organization. SPE members make many outstanding and significant technical, professional, and service contributions to the petroleum industry. The SPE Awards Program recognizes these contributions to the worldwide oil and gas industry and to the petroleum engineering profession and exceptional service to the society and to the greater community.

The SPE Awards Program is nominator-driven. A member cannot submit their own nomination. Members can nominate their colleagues to recognize their professional, technical and service accomplishments. The nominations are collected by SPE staff. Other colleagues can submit 3 letters of recommendation. The 3 letters of recommendation and the SPE member record is attached and the nomination packet is presented to award committees made up of SPE members. The best candidate is selected from among the nominations submitted as the recipient of the award.

There are 21 international awards in 3 categories:

• Membership Designations:
  • Honorary Member
  • Distinguished Member
• Technical Awards:
  • Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal
  • John Franklin Carll Award
  • Lester C. Uren Award
  • Cedric K. Ferguson Medal
  • Completions Optimization and Technology Award
  • Drilling Engineering Award
  • Formation Evaluation Award
  • Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Social Responsibility Award
  • Management and Information Award
  • Production and Operations Award
  • Projects, Facilities and Construction Award
  • Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award
• Professional and Service Awards:
  • Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal
  • DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal
  • Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty
  • Distinguished Service Award
  • Public Service Award
  • Robert Earll McConnell Award
  • Young Member Outstanding Service Award

There are 12 Regional awards in 2 categories:

Regional Technical Awards:

• Regional Completions Optimization and Technology Award
• Regional Drilling Engineering
• Regional Formation Evaluation
• Regional Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility
• Regional Management and Information
• Regional Production and Operations
• Regional Projects, Facilities, and Construction
• Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics

Regional Professional and Service Awards:

• Regional Service Award
• Regional Outstanding Young Member
• Regional Distinguished Corporate Support Awards
• Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award

There are distinctly different SPE staff contacts, requirements, procedures, nomination forms, and deadlines for each of these SPE award programs:

SPE Regional awards:

• Award committees appointed by the SPE Regional Directors select SPE Regional award recipients.
• Nominations are accepted for SPE members within each region. Nominators do not have to be in the same region.
• Submit Regional nominations to the appropriate Regional Director, or to SPE staff at sections@spe.org .
• The deadline to submit SPE Regional Award nominations is typically 15 February; the Regional Director may extend the deadline.
• Regional technical award winners are automatically considered for the equivalent SPE international award in the year following their selection, assuming the candidate meets the international criteria. Regional Directors will also select one Regional Young Member and one Regional Service winner per region to forward for international consideration. A regional representative must submit an international award nomination form for each advancing candidate.
• Regional awards are presented at an appropriate Region or section meeting.

SPE international awards:

• Award committees appointed by the SPE President-elect and approved by the SPE Board of Directors select SPE international award recipients.
• Nominations are accepted directly from the SPE membership and from SPE Regions. It is not necessary for a candidate to have received a Regional award to be considered for an SPE international award.
• Submit international award nominations to SPE staff at awards@spe.org.
• The deadline to submit SPE international award nominations is February 15. There are no extensions.
• The SPE Board of Directors must approve all SPE international award recipients.
• SPE international awards are generally presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.

SPE international award committees consist of six or more geographically diverse SPE members serving 3-year terms. The SPE President-elect annually appoints two committee members to each award committee. These appointments are subject to the approval of the SPE Board of Directors. Committee members have an interest in the discipline of the award, and are distributed geographically as widely as possible.

International award recipients are presented with a certificate, plaque, or medal commemorating their achievement. They receive complimentary registration for the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) and tickets to the event at which the award will be presented in front of their professional peers – either the Annual Awards Banquet or President’s Luncheon.

International award recipients will be announced after the SPE Board of Directors approves them at the June Board meeting. The list of international and Regional award recipients will be posted on SPE.org and published in the Journal of Petroleum Technology.

SPE members ordinarily residing in a country embargoed by the United States government are not eligible to participate in the SPE awards program. Click here for more information.

Questions regarding SPE international awards may be directed to:

awards@spe.org
Tom Whipple
SPE Professional Development Manager +1.972.952.9452 or
Cynthia Thompson
SPE Technical Activities Administrator
+1.972.952.9370

Questions regarding SPE Regional awards may be directed to:

sections@spe.org
Andrea Holovach
SPE Regions and Sections Manager
+1.972.952.9311 or
Caroline Seifert
SPE Sections Assistant
+1.972.952.9457

Select an award from the complete list and follow directions on the page.

Select an award from the complete list and follow directions on the page.

No. The SPE Awards Program is for professional members. Candidates for awards requiring membership must be professional members in good standing. The Ferguson Medal is the only SPE award that can be presented to a student member of SPE.

Yes, most Regional awards move into international consideration in the following year.

• Regional Directors select one Outstanding Young Member Award winner from their Region to be a candidate for the SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award, or if over the age of 35, the Distinguished Service Award.
• Regional technical awards become candidates for the corresponding international technical award.
• Regional Directors select one Regional Service winner from their region to be a candidates for the SPE Distinguished Service Award.

Regional winners are automatically placed into consideration for the equivalent international in the year following their regional win. However, they must be submitted on current international nomination form by a representative of the region. Up to 3 letters of recommendation can be submitted directly to awards@spe.org. International Award committees expect levels of documentation in Regional nominations equal to direct international nominations. International award committees may choose not to review nominations that lack sufficient documentation.

Yes. However, it is recommended that you carefully review the award requirements and the scope of the candidate’s significant achievement, and then nominate the candidate for the more appropriate award.

SPE staff must receive all international award nominations and letters of recommendation by 15 February. There are no extensions.

The deadline to submit SPE Regional award nominations is typically 15 February. The Regional Director may adjust the deadline.

SPE international award nomination materials are confidential. The nominator can have access to the nomination form and support letter they provided. Nominators cannot have access to the other nomination forms or support letters in the packet. Nominees cannot have access to the nomination packet. SPE staff will not release information about the nomination packet.

• International award nominations can be emailed to awards@spe.org
• Regional award nominations can be emailed to sections@spe.org

No, it is not necessary to nominate candidates for the Ferguson Medal. All peer reviewed papers published in SPE technical journals with authors or coauthors who are SPE members under the age of 36 at the time of peer approval are automatically considered candidates for the Ferguson medal.

No. It is not necessary for a candidate to have received a Regional award to be considered for an SPE international award.

1. A nomination form complete with all requested information
2. A concise statement summarizing the candidate’s accomplishments that support the award requirements
3. Specific examples discussing the candidate’s work that support the award requirements
4. Individually composed letters of recommendation from colleagues in support of the nomination that include specific examples that support the award requirements.

Concise, well-written nominations help award committees judge effectively. A good nomination contains brief yet complete support for the candidate accompanied by 3 personal letters from respected colleagues familiar with the candidates work.
Award committee may reject a nomination with:

• incomplete nomination forms
• insufficient detail
• reference to attachments
• lack of specific examples that support the award requirements
• lists of every published document

All but three international awards require the candidate to be an SPE member in good standing. The three exceptions that do not require SPE membership are:

• Honorary Member
• Anthony F Lucas Gold Medal
• John Franklin Carll Award

In the case of the Cedric K. Ferguson Medal, the candidate author must be an SPE professional member in good standing at both the time of peer approval and when the award is presented.

• A Young Member Outstanding Service Award candidate must be an SPE professional member in good standing under the age of 36 during the year the award will be presented.
• The Ferguson Medal is presented to an author under the age of 36 during the year the award is presented, and who is a member in good standing both at the time of peer approval and when the award is presented.
• The Lester C. Uren Award requires the candidate to have been under 45 years of age when the work being recognized by the award was completed.

There are no other age requirements for SPE international awards.

• Members of the SPE Board of Directors are not eligible for international awards for the duration of and for 2 years after the expiration of their term of service, with the exception of the SPE president, who automatically becomes a Distinguished Member upon the completion of his or her term.
• International award committee members are not eligible for the award they are judging for the duration of and for 2 years after the expiration of their term of service.

Once nominated, an international candidate remains on the active consideration list for 3 years unless they receive the award or they no longer meet the award criteria. For example, a candidate for the SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award may become too old for consideration during the 3-year cycle. In that case, the candidate may be nominated for the SPE Distinguished Service Award.

The 3-year active consideration cycle begins the year a candidate is first nominated for the international award. A nomination currently on the active consideration list can be updated each year by sending current material to awards@spe.org. After a nomination expires at the end of the 3-year cycle, the candidate can be renominated for the same international award if they still meet the award criteria.

An individual may receive each international award only once, with one exception. The Cedric K. Ferguson Certificate, which is presented to coauthors of papers selected for the Ferguson Medal who are professional members in good standing over the age of 35, can be received more than once.