Honouring an alumnus

A Spring Symposium was held in Houston, Texas, in May 2008, honouring the contributions to geophysics of alumnus John Sherwood (Physics 1953, PhD 1956).

The Geophysical Society of Houston (GSH) and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) sponsored a Spring Symposium on 1-2 May 2008 in Houston, Texas, honouring John Sherwood (Physics 1953, PhD 1956). The theme of the meeting was 50 Years of Innovation in Exploration Geophysics.

The first morning of the Symposium featured notable geophysicists including Enders Robinson, Sven Treitel, Fred Herkenhoff, Tury Taner, Chris Liner, Phil Schultz and Fred Hilterman, who reviewed Dr. Sherwood's contributions to geophysics. Fred Herkenhoff looked back at his digital 2-D migration, perhaps the first in the industry, and (with Alan Trorey) the seminal paper, Minimum-Phase and related properties of a horizontally stratified absorptive earth to plane acoustic waves. Phil Schultz stated that John would quit when it stops being fun. Enders Robinson discussed John Sherwood and the Divining Rod.

An excellent technical program was presented in the remaining day and a half and the final presentation from Fred Hilterman covered John’s work at the Geophysical Development Corporation (GDC), specifically SOLID, a premier total elastic modelling package.

Dr Sherwood was roasted and toasted by his friends and colleagues at a banquet at the end of the first day of the symposium. Dave Agarwal (MSc Geology 1959), Chairman of the Symposium, read and presented letters of recognition from Imperial College's Rector, Sir Richard Sykes; Director of Development, Fiona Kirk; and Head of the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Professor Martin Blunt, together with Dr Hannah Gay’s book The History of Imperial College, 1907–2007 and a beautiful agate specimen.

The meeting was a three-fold success: it allowed colleagues to gather in recognition of past collaborations and to renew friendships; it allowed those who did not know John to meet the man whose contributions have advanced the science; and those still in school to witness the attributes of a consummate mentor.

About Dr John Sherwood (Physics 1953, PhD 1956)
Dr John Sherwood’s academic training was in physics at Imperial College London from 1950 to 1956, where he was awarded a BSc ARCS, a DIC and a PhD. He was a postdoctoral Fellow of the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa from 1956-57.

He and co-authors were awarded the award for Best Geophysical Paper at an Offshore Technology Conference and also the Best Paper at an Annual SEG Meeting. In 1986 he was honoured with the SEG Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal Award for pioneering work in the areas of dip moveout and migration. In 1993 he was awarded Honorary Membership of the SEG.  He is also an Honorary Member of GSH.

During his long and successful career, Dr Sherwood has made major contributions at Chevron Research and later at Digicon. He co-founded the Geophysical Development Corporation in 1981 with Fred Hilterman, for which he received the Cecil Green Enterprise Award from the SEG in 2004. John’s latest venture is Applied Geophysical Software.