BRIAN SCHULTE

CHIEF EDITOR, CSEG RECORDER, SCHIEFER RESERVOIR, BSCHULTE@SCHIEFER-RESERVOIR.COM

In July 2017, Nicole Willson, former Chief Editor of the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG) RECORDER, approached me about myself replacing her as the Chief Editor of the CSEG RECORDER. I committed to Nicole to do it for just two years, but I have done it for almost six years now. It has been challenging at times, especially during Covid and the lockdowns, but it was always important to me that the committee collaborated and worked together.

Serving as the Chief Editor has been a privilege, rewarding and a career highlight. While I enjoyed my role, after more than five years with the CSEG RECORDER, I have decided to step down in mid-May of this year.

Over the years, these are the things that I have contributed to and learned by being part of the CSEG recorder:


  • Being a member of the CSEG can help you advance your career, enhance your qualifications, and expand your networks. The wonderful thing about CSEG is you can meet industry experts, CEOs, specialists, prominent researchers, or national and local authorities. It offers the opportunity to collaborate with a mentor who can encourage and support you in advancing your career.

  • The CSEG Mentorship program has helped many students. I have mentored many students over the years and was very pleased that a mentee/protégé of mine named Penny Pan has won the Mentee of the Year. I believe that the best mentorship programs support getting to know each other and finding reasons to work together by providing opportunities up front to do this. The CSEG mentorship program does this (Theus, 2023).

  • Each year, I would support my protégé to go on the Geophysical Industry Field Trip (GIFT) to meet others from across Canada because I believe in this program. For students, GIFT brings geoscience students from all over the country to Alberta for a multi-day crash course in industry geophysics. In the past it has included live demos of modern seismic acquisition equipment, industry software training sessions, workshops on seismic processing and interpretation, and a guided geological hike in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

  • One of the things I appreciate is the CSEG Foundation, a registered charitable arm of the CSEG with the mission to encourage and support scientific, educational, and charitable activities that benefit geophysicists through soliciting contributions aimed at promoting the development of geophysical knowledge, education and public awareness.

  • The CSEG encourages professional development and social networking through their monthly technical luncheons, where individuals from different companies gather to listen to a speaker. I presented at the CSEG luncheon in September 2006 on “An example of a fully integrated Reservoir Characterization project utilizing well data, fluid substitutions, elastic modelling, production history, seismic and AVO attributes.” Although it can be quite daunting to present and hear people eat their lunch, it is one of the best opportunities to network before and after this event.

  • The one thing I emphasize in the CSEG RECORDER is practicing psychological safety: inclusion safety, where people feel safe to belong to a team, learner safety, where members can learn through asking questions, contributor safety, where members feel safe to contribute their own ideas without fear or embarrassment, and challenger safety, where members can question others’ ideas or suggest significant changes to ideas, plans or ways of working (Psychsafety Co., 2021). I believe that it is important that we practise these points in our community, in volunteer organizations and at work to foster a positive environment.

  • In my role as a Chief Editor of CSEG RECORDER, I was given a chance to chair sessions alongside leaders in the industry through GeoConvention. It is a great place to meet other professionals from around the world. The organizations that make up the GeoConvention are the Canadian Energy Geoscience Association (CEGA), formerly the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and Canadian Well Logging Society, and the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG).

  • Through the CSEG, I have been able to have open talks about technology with industry leaders such as John Duhault (we even taught a course together), Satinder Chopra, Lee Hunt, David Gray, David Emery, David Eaton, Draga Talinga, Evan Brown and even have co-authored with some of these people or have cited their work to support my ideas.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the many colleagues who have served with the CSEG RECORDER over the years. They include Elizabeth Atkinson, Satinder Chopra, Steve Jensen, Oliver Kuhn, Bonnie & Lawrence Luft (The Printman), Kristy Manchul, Ruth Peach, Jason Schweigert, Draga Talinga, Omid Aghaei, Neda Boroumand, Elias Carciente, Fernando Cerda, Penny Colton, Mike Doyle, Andy Dyke, Denise Freeland, Elwyn Galloway, Rod Garland, David Gray, Ashley Gray, Marie Hong, Rob Holt, Marian Lee, Sean Lovric, Paige Mamar, Kristy Manchul, Katie Mclean, Alyssa Middleton, Misha Mustaqeem, Mostafa Naghizadeh, Matteo Niccoli, German Rodriguez Pradilla, Jim Racett, Janis Rose, Stephanie Ross, Albert Scutt, Carmen Swalwell, Fereidoon Vasheghani, Andy Williams, Nicole Willson, Victoria Yung and probably many others.

The success of each journal is largely because of the editorial committee that gave their time and effort to ensure that every article, journal, and interview is presented in a quality that best reflects our authors and aligns with the mission and values of the CSEG RECORDER. The success of each publication would not have been possible without the support and dedication of all of you.

As I leave my role as Chief Editor of CSEG RECORDER, I will continue my advanced studies as an older adult MBA student, which I hope will serve as an inspiration that learning never ceases as life never stops teaching. It was interesting to know that the world’s oldest graduate, Shigemi Hirata, was 96 years old. It took him 11 years to get a degree (Oldest Graduate, 2016). “Learn continually. There’s always “one more thing” to learn.”

Aside from my studies, I will be active in the industry through consultation, publication and speaker engagements. Currently, I am authoring papers on predictive analytics, co-chairing with Evan Brown “The Bridging the Gap” session in this year’s GeoConvention on May 15 to 17, and also working on a prospect in Texas which is exciting because it is AVO supported with the amplitudes tying stratigraphy.

I’m truly thankful and humbled to be the Chief Editor of the CSEG RECORDER. Although I have enjoyed this role for so many years, I know that every good run has an end. I’m very pleased to turn over my role as Chief Editor to Nilanjan Ganguly.

References

Oldest graduate. (2016, March 19). Guinness World Records. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-graduate/

Psychsafety Co. (2021, June 15). The Four Stages of Psychological Safety. https://psychsafety.co.uk/the-four-stages-of-psychological-safety/

Theus, D. (2023, March 12). Mentee vs. Protégé: Is there a Difference? – InPower Coaching. https://inpowercoaching.com/mentee/#:~:text=The%20best%20mentors%20should%20try%20to%20guide%20them,implies%20more%20respect%20and%20possibility%20for%20mutual%20benefit