President Reilly names 2026 Presidential Award recipients

President Joe Reilly has selected four individuals to receive the 2026 SEG Presidential Award. Established in 2008, this award is conferred at the discretion of the SEG President to honor individuals who have provided exceptional service to the Society. This year’s honorees are Debbie Mitchell, Joakim Blanch, Brad Wallet, and Vladimir Kazei.

Debbie Mitchell has served as a senior event planner at SEG for the past four years as part of the Joint Events Team. In that role, she has become an essential force behind SEG’s meetings and workshops, managing a broad and complex portfolio of partnered events while also supporting the Meetings Review and Planning Committee and coordinating event requests from partners, members, and other stakeholders across the Society.

Debbie joined SEG following her retirement from NASA, where, in her words, she felt “overworked and unappreciated.” Fortunately for SEG, what she described as simply wanting to “help out” has translated into extraordinary service to our members and volunteers.

Debbie has played a central role in the successful execution of SEG’s workshops and events, particularly in North America, where she has been instrumental in the strong revitalization of our technical workshop program. Her ability to manage the countless logistical details—from venue negotiations and vendor coordination to attendee experience and on-site execution—allows our volunteer organizers and technical leaders to focus on delivering exceptional content.

What distinguishes Debbie is not simply her professionalism and organizational skill, but the care she brings to every interaction. Organizers, speakers, and attendees consistently praise her responsiveness, attention to detail, and willingness to go well beyond expectations to ensure every event succeeds and every participant feels welcomed and valued.

SEG is extraordinarily fortunate to have Debbie in this role. Her dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to serving our members have had a direct and lasting impact on the Society’s success. This Presidential Award is a fitting recognition of the appreciation felt by SEG’s Board leadership, staff colleagues, volunteers, and—most importantly—the members she serves every day.

Joakim Blanch, Editor-in-Chief of Geophysics; Brad Wallet, Editor-in-Chief of Interpretation; and Vladimir Kazei, Editorial Board Chair of The Leading Edgeare highly deserving recipients of SEG Presidential Awards in recognition of their exceptional leadership of their editorial teams and the extraordinary amount of volunteer time they devote to ensuring that SEG continues to publish high-quality, peer-reviewed technical content. Their commitment is not simply administrative, but reflects a deep personal investment in the scientific integrity, relevance, and reputation of SEG’s publications.

Geophysics, SEG’s flagship journal, has been in continuous publication since 1936 and is now in its 91st volume year. Its editorial operation is truly global, with 85 volunteer editors—42% based in North America, 31% in Asia, 18% in Europe, 6% in the Middle East/North Africa, and 4% in South America—supported by more than 2,000 volunteer reviewers worldwide. Joakim Blanch has been a dedicated contributor to this effort for two decades, joining the editorial team as an Associate Editor in 2005, becoming Assistant Editor in 2019, serving as Senior Assistant Editor in 2024–2025, and assuming the Editor-in-Chief role last August. Even as he transitions to his Past Editor role this August, he remains committed to strengthening the journal through the recruitment and mentoring of future associate editors.

Interpretation, jointly published by SEG and AAPG since 2014, has built a strong reputation as a practical, application-focused journal serving the broader geoscience community. Its 40-member volunteer editorial team is also internationally distributed, with the majority based in North America and Asia. Brad Wallet has been a steady and thoughtful leader for the journal since its earliest years, joining as an Associate Editor in 2014, becoming Deputy Editor in 2021, and beginning his three-year term as Editor-in-Chief in 2024. His long-standing commitment has helped provide continuity, quality, and strategic direction during an important period of growth.

The Leading Edge, first published in 1982, remains one of SEG’s most visible and valued member benefits, connecting technical excellence with practical industry relevance. Vladimir Kazei joined the Editorial Board in 2023 and stepped into the role of Editorial Board Chair at IMAGE 2025. Working alongside a nine-member volunteer editorial board drawn from industry, academia, and government, he has helped shape the publication’s editorial vision while also directly supporting the peer-review and publication process. His energy and leadership have been instrumental in maintaining TLE’s strong engagement with the profession.

The strength of SEG’s publications is reflected in their performance metrics, but those numbers only tell part of the story. Geophysics achieved its highest-ever h5-median of 88, further reinforcing its standing as one of the premier journals in applied geophysics. Interpretation maintained a solid impact factor of 1.0 and a CiteScore of 2.3, while The Leading Edge reported an h5-index of 25 and h5-median of 36—clear indicators of continued relevance and impact across the geophysics community.

What makes the contributions of these editors especially noteworthy is that this success came during a period of significant operational transition. Over the past year, SEG migrated its peer-review process to a new platform, requiring editors, reviewers, and authors alike to adapt to unfamiliar workflows, evolving support structures, and inevitable system challenges. Throughout this transition, these editors demonstrated remarkable patience, flexibility, and persistence, while consistently advocating for improvements that would better serve the community.

Behind every successful journal is a tremendous amount of largely unseen volunteer effort. Joakim, Brad, and Vladimir have each given generously of their time, judgment, and leadership to ensure SEG’s publications remain trusted, relevant, and globally respected. Their contributions—and those of the editorial teams they lead—have strengthened SEG’s publications program in lasting ways and positioned it for continued leadership in applied geophysics publishing.

Presidential Awards will be presented alongside SEG’s established awards during the SEG 2026 Honors and Awards Ceremony on 18 August 2026 at IMAGE 2026. Recipients for all of SEG’s awards can be found on the SEG website.