Nomination Deadlines

International Awards
15 February

Regional Awards
1 March

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John Franklin Carll Award for Distinguished Professionals

The John Franklin Carll Award for Distinguished Professionals recognizes distinguished contribution in the application of engineering principles to petroleum development and recovery. Recipients, displaying significant achievement in the advancement of the petroleum engineering profession may also be recognized.

About John Franklin Carll

John Franklin Carll was a geologist born in1828 who developed many of the subsurface geological methods still in use today. More than a century ago, he expressed the principles of petroleum engineering and geology that established much of the framework for the development of petroleum engineering technology. As an assistant on the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, Carll compiled seven reports on oil and gas surveys that are models of conscientious investigation and scientific description. Included in the reports were discussions of oil well rigs and tools as well as a statement of necessity for drillers to keep their own records.

In 1875, Carll published strip logs from nine Pennsylvania wells, and he used them for correlation purposes in much the same manner as they are employed today. His work also confirmed the theory that oil sands lie in lens-shaped masses, not in continuous belts, and that oil does not occur in underground pools or lakes, but in pores of sandstone. Carll’s invention of the static pressure sand pump, a removable pump chamber, and an adjustable sleeve for piston rods were of significance to the petroleum industry. Present day geologists often refer to Carll’s reports for data on the early oil industry.

The John Franklin Carll Award for Distinguished Professionals, established in 1956, recognizes contributions of technical application and professionalism in petroleum development and recovery. The Carll Award may be given to a nonmember of the Society.

View past recipients.

Eligibility Requirements

The conditions of eligibility are as follows:

  • The candidate chosen for the award need not be a member of SPE.
     
  • Deceased members may not be nominated for SPE Awards. If a previously nominated candidate dies after 1 January in the year of presentation, and if duly selected for the award, the presentation shall be made posthumously in accordance with special procedures to be prescribed by the SPE Board of Directors. Posthumous award presentations are otherwise prohibited.
     
  • Past recipients of the award are ineligible to receive it a second time.
     
  • No person shall be awarded the Carll Award solely on the basis of the technical achievement for which he or she received an SPE technical award which includes the SPE Completions Optimization and Technology Award, Drilling Engineering Award (formerly Drilling and Completions Award); Management and Information Award (formerly Economics and Evaluation Award); Management Award, Data Science and Engineering Analytics Award, Health, Safety, and Environment Award (formerly Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Social Responsibility Award), Formation Evaluation Award; Production and Operations Award (formerly Production Award), Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award (formerly Reservoir Engineering Award) or the Sustainability and Stewardship in the Oil and Gas Industry Award. However, that the recipient of such awards shall not preclude a candidate's receiving the Carll Award and may, in fact, be included in a candidate's dossier to augment other achievements in, or contributions to, petroleum engineering.
     
  • The winner of the Carll Award shall be ineligible for the Lucas Medal or Uren Award for a period of five years.  If nominated for the other awards, nominators will be informed as to the ineligibility of the candidate.  Additionally, the nominators will be required to resubmit the nominations with updated materials covering the intervening five years.
     
  • No recipient of the SPE Honorary Member Award shall be eligible to receive the award.
     
  • No officer or member of the International Board of Directors of the Society shall be eligible to receive the Award during and for a period of 24 months after the expiration of his or her term of service on the Board.
     
  • No member of the award selection committee shall be eligible to receive the Award while serving as a member of the award committee and for a period of 24 months after the expiration of his or her term of service on the committee.
     
  • The award may only be presented to an individual for truly outstanding achievement.
     
  • Self-nominated candidates are not eligible.


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