Robert Earll McConnell Award

The Robert Earll McConnell Award was established by AIME in 1968 to recognize beneficial service to mankind by engineers through significant contributions that tend to advance a nation’s standard of living or replenish its natural resource base. Such significant contribution may be represented by any of the following:

• Discovery of a major source of mineral supply
• Development of an engineering process to extend present minerals supplies 
• Other outstanding engineering contributions that enhance the standard of living. 

Eligibility Requirements

The conditions of eligibility are as follows:

• There are no limitations regarding membership in the Society of Petroleum Engineers, or otherwise. All other factors being equal, it is suggested that preference be given to professional members of the Society.

• 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.

• The winner of the Robert Earll McConnell Award shall be ineligible for the Carll 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 AIME Major Award winner is eligible to be nominated for another AIME Major award until nine years shall have elapsed, and the nomination support package shall conspicuously reference work in a new field or significant new accomplishments in the field for which the original award was made. Thus recipients of the Anthony F. Lucas Medal or the Robert Earll McConnell Award are not eligible to be a candidate for the Charles F. Rand Memorial Medal for a period of nine years. The winner of the Robert Earll McConnell Award shall be ineligible for the Anthony F. Lucas Medal and the Charles F. Rand Memorial Medal for a period of nine years.

• No officer or member of the International Board of Directors of the Society shall be eligible to receive any award while serving on the Board. In addition, he or she will not be eligible to receive any award during the calendar year in which his or her term ends, and for a period of two full calendar years following 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 in which they are judging, and for a period of two full calendar years following the expiration of his or her term of service on the committee.

• No recipient of SPE Honorary Membership shall be eligible to receive the award.

• The award may only be presented to an individual for truly outstanding achievement.

• Past recipients of the award are ineligible to receive it a second time.

• Self nominated candidates are not eligible.

Submit a Nomination