In this issue:

• San Antonio 2006
• Schedule
• New Members
• Corporation & Board
• In Memory
• Grants-in-Aid
• Fund Raising Survey
• Contributions

Newsletter PDF
(4 pages, 1.1 Mb)

AAPG Foundation
P.O. Box 979
Tulsa, OK 74101-0979

918.560-2644
Fax: 918.560-2642

Grants-in-Aid Program

By Peter MacKenzie and Rebecca Griffin

2005 Grants-in-Aid recipient Vincent Halsey, University of Dalhousie, is congratulated by Rebecca Griffin, Foundation administrative coordinator.

The AAPG Grants-in-Aid program, entering its 50th year of existence, has awarded more than $2.7 million in grants to help fund 2,162 graduate research projects of aspiring petroleum geologists.

Many of you have helped make the Grants-in-Aid Program successful with your generous contributions -- and several of you benefited from the program as students as well.

Every year, these grants help to fund solid fieldwork -- both basic and innovative.

Every year we hear from Grants-in-Aid program awardees grateful for the gifts that have enabled them to extend their fieldwork, and in some cases to even conduct their fieldwork.

In one sense, the individual awards made are not particularly significant; $2,000 doesn’t go very far today. In actuality, however, for many awardees it makes the difference between “do” and “do not.”

The impact on a students’ research success is an important result of the GIA program.

This is our real legacy. Our success is founded on the shoulders of those who have contributed to the body of scientific knowledge.

* * *

Quantifying the assistance to individuals is easy:

• The student makes proposals.
• We recognize the cream with grants.
• Research is conducted.

We can slice and dice the annual statistics in many interesting ways.

Quantifying the impact of the material contributed to the body of scientific knowledge is somewhat dicier.A sense of this contribution, however, should be able to be gained by a retrospective of the body of research funded in part by the AAPG Foundation.

The petroleum geologist will continue to be relevant. We recognize this not simply with altruism, but rather a sense from our innate bearing of common sense. To support and legitimatize this basic knowledge we hope to periodically share GIA-funded success stories with the Trustees and AAPG membership.

* * *

None of these successes could be harnessed without the generosity of the Foundation Trustees and other contributors to the Foundation.

To all of you who have helped support this valuable program, our heartfelt thanks. Our legacy is yours.