Chairperson's message for April 2005
View from the chair. . .
Dear fellow SPE member,
With close to 150 people in attendance, our 50th Anniversary Celebration on March 9, 2005, was a huge success. This reception and dinner event was held at the Long Beach Petroleum Club. Eve Sprunt, 2006 SPE President, opened the evening’s program by recognizing the Anniversary Honor Roll members (Ms. Sprunt’s comments appear elsewhere in this newsletter). Ed Mayer presented a brief history of our Section, and John Yu discussed the LASPE scholarship program.
The evening’s two featured speakers were Dr. Iraj Ershaghi, Professor of Petroleum Engineering at USC, and Mr. Richard J. Stegemeier, former Chairman and CEO, Unocal Corporation. In his talk titled “Metamorphoses of Oil and Technologies”, Dr. Ershaghi reflected on the evolution of technology in the oil as well as other industries. Mr. Stegemeier, in his talk titled “Fossil Fuel, The Servant of Mankind”, discussed the important role fossil fuels have played, and will continue to play, in modern society. Summaries of Dr. Ershaghi’s and Mr. Stegemeier’s talks, as well as Mr. Mayer’s historical review, will be posted on the Section’s website (www.laspe.org) as they become available.
Our Section is thankful to the many organizations that sponsored this Anniversary Celebration. We also thank the Anniversary Arrangements Committee, who worked very hard to make this event a success; their names appear elsewhere in this newsletter. In addition, we thank Idania Takimoto, Maria Valenzuela, and Frank Valenz of the USC Petroleum Engineering Program, for their valuable help with this event.
Ershaghi and Finken Receive Awards at 2005 SPE Western Region Meeting
The 2005 SPE Western Region Meeting was held on March 30-April 1 in Irvine, California. This meeting, co-hosted by the LA Basin and the San Joaquin Valley Sections, had a comprehensive technical program, a widely participated student paper contest, and extensive exhibits.At this meeting, two members from our Section received the 2005 Western Region Service Awards. Dr. Iraj Ershaghi was recognized “for tireless and selfless dedication to the goals of SPE and for continuous support of students, industry members and companies in Los Angeles and throughout California”. Richard Finken, LASPE Secretary and former Chairperson, was recognized “for his quality time and effort that have greatly improved the functionalities of the Section during his time as the Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair of the Section”. Congratulations to both on their well-deserved awards.
John Yu moves to Bakersfield; Rod Kane new Scholarship Chair
John Yu, LASPE Director and Vice Chairperson, and longtime Chair of the Scholarship Committee, recently moved to Bakersfield. John was a great champion of students deserving our scholarships, and under his leadership, the Section developed new guidelines for scholarship awards. We are thankful to John for his dedicated service, and wish him success in his new job.
Rod Kane, LASPE Director, is the new Chair of the Scholarship Committee.Sincerely,
Raj Upadhyay
2004-2005 LASPE Chairperson
upadhyayraj@hotmail.com