Peter Cary - 2008
CSEG Honorary Membership Award Citation for Peter Cary
by Ron Larson
Peter Cary has had the brief details of his professional life published many times in the RECORDER, in The Leading Edge, in Geophysics and so on. For example, the following biographical text, related to a CSEG Luncheon Presentation entitled, The 3C–Struggle: Good News From the Trenches, is from the February 1996 RECORDER.
Peter has B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Toronto. He began his career with Chevron in Calgary and LaHabra, then obtained his Ph.D. in Geophysics from Cambridge University, England. He went to Pulsonic Geophysical Ltd. in 1988 as Senior Research geophysicist and is presently (1996) Manager of Geophysical Research.
Peter has presented many papers at CSEG and SEG meetings on various topics to do with seismic data processing, and has published several papers in this area. In recent years he has spent more and more time on 3-C data processing, as the popularity of this type of data has increased. Peter has been actively involved with CSEG convention committees in the past and he presently (1996) serves as second VP of the CSEG.
To fill in the chronology, Peter joined Sensor Geophysical in 1997 and serves as Chief Geophysicist. He has continued to be active in CSEG and SEG, serving as CSEG President in 2005 and as the SEG Convention Technical Committee Chair in 2000. He has been an editor of Geophysics. It goes without saying that he has continued to present and publish in years since 1996. Readers might check the May 2004 RECORDER's section on the Annual Meeting and refer to the Awards page where Peter is found in the company of other CSEG stalwarts.
He has been a known presence in geophysical research for more than 20 years. A Google 'Scholar' search yields five pages of citations. A search of the CSEG website finds 101 items ranging from Executive announcements to abstracts. In this (partial) decade he has authored 15 CSEG Convention papers alone while serving on three CSEG executive groups – not to mention other publications and the demands of being a father and becoming something of an expert in the disparate field of yoga.
While impressive, these accomplishments serve only to indicate Peter's fundamental qualities of intellectual excellence and a sharing nature. This willingness to share his considerable expertise is one of the things that makes Peter remarkable, and members of the CSEG have benefited greatly from it over the years.
A simple listing of accomplishments has the potential to overlook many good personal qualities. Peter's willingness to share his expertise has already been mentioned. His wit and dry sense of humour have not. In his personal stock of stories is one involving athletic avoidance of Stephen Hawking's wheelchair in the corridors of Cambridge. My personal favorite, one that I have spoken of publicly before, is Peter's RECORDER article from 2001: Multicomponent Seismic Exploration in Canada – One Person's Perspective. In it we find primarily honesty, leavened with some humour and mixed with insight – all prepared by a first rate researcher in plain language for everyone's consumption.
Were this the Food Channel, with that formidable recipe Peter would have a starring role in his own TV show, but this is the CSEG and he will have to make do with our modest but sincere thanks in the form of an Honourary Membership.
