Matt Hall and Evan Bianco - 2017
Special Commendation Award Recipients Matt Hall and Evan Bianco
Matt Hall and Evan Bianco have a history of enacting change within our industry. In 2011, they conceived a project ‘52 Things You Should Know About Geophysics'. Since that first project finished in 2012, they have expanded to Geology, Palaeontology and most recently Rock Physics. Matt and Evan have also tirelessly engaged the geoscience industry with blogs on topics from Q to Hooke's Law, GeoComputing to commentary on professional events such as the Calgary GeoConventions, AAPG, SEG, and EAGE conventions. Conceived from one of their Hackathons in Denver in 2015, they built a web app called PickThis.io in which a user can engage in image interpretation and then gauge his or her solution alongside a statistical heat map comprised of all previous picks on the image. Additionally, they have built a useful seismic synthetic modeling app called 'modelr' (free, check it out https://www.modelr.io). They are innovative, open and committed to the field of geophysics and its community, and as such, should be recognised by the CSEG with a Special Commendation for their contribution to the industry.
–Rachel Newrick
I have known Matt and Evan for about 6 years, firstly through their excellent blog, then in person through some project collaborations, publications, and countless discussions. One of the first things I do every morning is log onto the Software Underground Slack site. I was one of the students in attendance when Evan taught the first version of their outstanding geo-computing course and participated in the Calgary Geoscience Hackathon at the 2015 CSEG Geoconvention, which they also organized. I read all the open-access Geophysical tutorials in The Leading Edge, a series spearheaded by Matt in 2014 and curated by him since. I consult regularly the excellent Geophysics cheat sheets that Matt and Evan have put together and their “52 Things You Should Know About…” series. In summary, I cannot think of any better recipients for this award, and I wholeheartedly support their nomination.
–Matteo Niccoli
I echo all the rationale included in the nomination, plus Matteo’s comments; Matt/Evan are true champions for “information sharing”, particularly for our profession... and they do all of this, not from the security of our Calgary-based ‘heart’ of the profession, but from small-town Nova Scotia.
–Tooney Fink
