| 1930 |
On March
11, twenty-nine men and one woman met in Houston at the
University Club to found the Society of Economic Geophysicists.
Donald C. Barton was elected the first president. On 20
May, a constitution and bylaws were adopted, and two papers
were published in mimeograph form. |
 |
| 1931 |
The group's
name was changed to Society of Petroleum Geophysicists
(SPG), and the first convention was held in conjunction
with AAPG. |
|
| 1932 |
SPG became
the "Division of Geophysics of the AAPG." The Society
continued to meet with AAPG through 1955. |
|
| 1936 |
The first
issue of Geophysics published. |
|
| 1937 |
Once again
the name of the organization was changed, this time to
Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Accepted as an Affiliated
Society by AAPG |
|
| 1939 |
Patents
section first appeared in Geophysics. |
|
| 1940 |
First Cumulative
Index published. Membership: 892. |
|
| 1946 |
Constitution
amended to permit establishment of Local Sections. |
|
| 1948 |
Council
created and met in Denver. First Local Sections chartered.
Student Sections formed. Best Paper Award first presented. |
|
| 1950 |
First Distinguished
Lecture Tour organized. Membership: 2566. |
|
| 1951 |
EAGE organized.
Back issues of Geophysics
available on microcards. |
|
| 1952 |
SEG Crest
adopted. |
|
| 1953 |
Geophysical
Prospecting appeared as a quarterly. |
|
| 1954 |
Executive
Committee voted to separate the Annual Meeting from the
AAPG. First Associate Editors appointed to assist the
Editor of Geophysics. |
|
| 1955 |
SEG held
its last joint meeting with AAPG, then celebrated its
twenty-fifth anniversary with a separate meeting in Denver. |
|
| 1956 |
The first
Yearbook was published,
and SEG's scholarship program was initiated with $12 125
distributed to thirteen students. |
|
| 1960 |
A silver
anniversary issue of Geophysics
published listing "classic" papers of the first twenty-five
years of the journal, which were selected by a panel of
judges. Membership: 5724. |
|
| 1961 |
The SEG
Medal Award (later renamed in honor of Reginald Fessenden)
was created. |
|
| 1965 |
When the
SEG staff moved into the Society's new building in June,
there were 5837 members. |
|
| 1968 |
SEG accepted
an invitation from the Society of Petroleum Engineers
to become a cosponsor of the Offshore Technology Conference.
R. E. Sheriff published in Geophysics,
the "Glossary of terms used in Exploration Geophysics,"
the precursor of his Encyclopedic
Dictionary. Sheriff received the Virgil Kauffman
Gold Medal in recognition of the glossary. |
|
| 1969 |
Emeritus
Membership was established in 1970. Membership: 7306. |
|
| 1971 |
The fiftieth
anniversary of the reflection seismograph was observed
at the Midwestern Meeting in Oklahoma City with the dedication
of a monument near the site of the tests of that technique. |
|
| 1972 |
The first
book published jointly with AAPG, Stratigraphic
Oil and Gas Fields-Classification, Exploration Methods,
and Case Histories, appeared. It was to be twenty-five
years before the second joint publication effort by the
two societies. |
|
| 1973 |
Sheriff
produced SEG's all time best-seller, Encyclopedic
Dictionary of Exploration Geophysics.
The addition of three new student sections brought the
total to twenty-eight. |
|
| 1978 |
The Maurice
Ewing Medal Award was established as SEG's highest award. |
|
| 1979 |
Geophysics
began monthly publication, and fifteen Continuing Education
courses were offered. |
|
| 1980 |
In the 50th
anniversary year of the Society, when the total membership
was 14 172, there were 12 319 registered at the Annual
Meeting. Eleven of the original thirty founders of SEG
attended and were honored at that meeting. That attendance
record has not been broken. |
|
| 1981 |
A record
$4 billion was spent on geophysical acquisition and processing
in 1981. More than 100 000 attended the OTC that year. |
|
| 1982 |
Geophysics,
The Leading Edge of Exploration, debuted
in June. The SEG scholarship program passed the million-dollar
mark with awards of $130 800. Expanded abstracts were
required for all papers presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting. |
|
| 1984 |
The Geophysical
Resource Center was completed and occupied. It was dedicated
the following year. |
|
| 1985 |
Two special
issues were published to commemorate the fiftieth year
of publication of Geophysics.
A new film about geophysical exploration, Seeing
the Unseen: Geophysics and the Search for Energy and
Minerals,
was produced. The First Annual Gulf Coast Exploration
and Development Meeting was held, and the first joint
meeting of the China Petroleum Society and SEG took
place in Beijing. SEG's membership of 19 559 was
the highest total to that point, and would remain the
record for 10 years. |
|
| 1986 |
Shell Companies
Foundation donated $100 000 for books and periodicals
to the SEG Library in the Geophysical Resource Center,
and the building was named the Cecil and Ida Green Tower. |
|
| 1987 |
Seismic
Data Processing, Özdogan Yílmaz's best
seller, was available at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
This was to become the second all-time revenue producer
behind Sheriff's dictionary. The SEG Foundation was reorganized. |
|
| 1988 |
An agreement
with AAPG, SPE, and SPWLA led to the formation of an Intersocietal
Coordinating Committee. The first EAEG-SEG joint research
workshop under a new agreement to hold alternating workshops
every other year and the first ASEG-SEG joint meeting
were held. |
|
| 1989 |
Initiation
of the SEG Foundation Trustee Associates. |
|
| 1990 |
A 15-tape
set video short course, given by Oz Yílmaz and
based on his Seismic Data Processing, was produced by
Western Geophysical and offered to SEG to market. Membership:
14 964. |
|
| 1991 |
Attendance
at the 61st Annual Meeting in Houston was 10 670. The
Executive Committee adopted a policy of holding a midyear
meeting annually in a venue outside North America. |
|
| 1992 |
Successful
meeting held in Moscow. Record income of just under $7
million for the year. |
|
| 1993 |
GEOROM,
a set of CD-ROMs containing fifty-seven volumes of Geophysics
- 1936-1992 - fully searchable, was produced. The mortgage
on SEG's building, the Geophysical Resource Center, was
retired. |
|
| 1994 |
A nine-year
decline in membership was interrupted when gains were
shown in each category of membership. GEOROM
was expanded to include selected articles from The
Leading Edge plus Sheriff's
Dictionary, The Cumulative Index, and Expanded
Abstracts from the Annual Meeting. An SEG Home Page, hosted
by Stanford University and maintained by volunteers led
by Brian Spies, was established. |
|
| 1995 |
A CD-ROM
of the Expanded Abstracts of that meeting was offered
at the Annual Meeting in Houston. |
|
| 1996 |
The donation
of a Sun Netra Webserver to SEG by Sun Microsystems allowed
the Web site to be moved to the Business Office, enabling
the entire Internet operations to be done in-house. |
|
| 1997 |
The Distinguished
Instructor program was inaugurated, wherein a selected
individual presents a short course in various sites around
the globe. The first instructor is Ian Jack. A constitutional
amendment was approved which increased the membership
of the Nominations Committee from the historical three
most recent past-presidents by four members to be selected
by a prescribed method from the Sections and Associated
Societies. |
|
| 1998 |
An all-time
record of 1457 booths were sold for the Annual Meeting
in New Orleans. The SEG Museum was reorganized by the
addition of a Virtual Museum and Traveling Museum to the
existing museum in Tulsa. The Distinguished Educator program
was launched and Robert R. Stewart of the University of
Calgary was chosen as the first honoree. A new logo was
adopted by the Council to reflect the Society's increasingly
international nature. |
|
| 1999 |
Despite
a turbulent year in the petroleum industry, the Annual
Meeting in Houston drew 11 103 attendees, and there were
1276 booth sales--second-highest total ever. Also, paid
membership grew to nearly 16 000, the highest total since
1987. A major redesign of the SEG Web site was completed,
and an equipment donation from Sun Microsystems helped
prepare SEG for a bold digital future. |
|
| 2000 |
SEG Annual
Meeting returns to Calgary for the first time since 1977.
This is only the third time the meeting has been held
outside the United States. Sally Zinke becomes the first
woman to hold the office of SEG President. The increasing
percentage of members residing outside the U.S. causes
the International Affairs Committee to be radically restructured
and renamed the Global Affairs Committee. Membership:
16 894. |
|
| 2001 |
The SEG
Executive Committee authors a strategic vision of the
future of geophysics and SEG’s role in it. While
SEG's Annual Meeting is under way in San Antonio, the
terrorist attacks of September 11 take place. The meeting
proceeds with only minor disruptions. Mary L. Fleming,
director of programs at the American Statistical Association,
is selected executive director in December. |
|
| 2002 |
The
fourth edition of SEG's all-time best-selling book,
retitled
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied
Geophysics to
reflect the increasingly diverse employment of the
membership, is published. Attendance at the Annual Meeting
is disappointing, probably because of the
out-of-the-mainstream venue (Salt Lake City) and the
travel restrictions imposed after the terrorist attacks
a year earlier. However, the meeting has one of the all-time
magical moments of any SEG convention—the
multimedia presentation of Robert Ballard, discoverer
of the
Titanic, which wows hundreds of junior high students
and experienced geoscientists. |
|
| 2003 |
SEG membership
exceeds 20 000 for the first time, and a majority of
members lives outside the United States. |
|
| 2004 |
To address income disparity among geophysicists around the world, the Council approved a three-tiered dues structure that allows Active membership at all three levels. Membership approaches 23 000. |
|
| 2005 |
SEG marked its 75th anniversary with celebrations at section meetings throughout the world, a special publication, retrospective journal articles, a video about geophysics and the Society, an extra distinguished lecture, historical photos on the SEG Web site, and special exhibits at the Annual Meeting in Houston. Membership surpassed 25 000 late in the year. |
|
| 2006 |
SEG held a highly successful Annual Meeting in New Orleans barely a year after Hurrican Katrina devastated the city. Membership exceeded 27 000 late in the year. |
