The Patricia J. Lee Trailblazer Award will be given to CEGA individuals or teams who have blazed new trails in the field of energy geoscience. 

The individual or team must be recognized as having made significant contributions in one or more of the following areas, for accomplishments achieved within the past 5 years:

2022 Winners

	Dr. Donald C. Lawton	Click here to read their award citation
	Dr. Kirk G. Osadetz

Process for Nomination

• A sponsor must submit an award nomination form outlining the contributions of the nominee.
• The nomination requires the names and contact information for three referees who can comment on the nominee’s qualifications along with a description of the nature of their relationship to the nominee. These people will be contacted by the committee for telephone references.
• Nomination forms must be received by CEGA by October 31, 2023.
• Unsuccessful candidates will be automatically reconsidered for 3 additional years providing they continue to meet the award criteria. Sponsors will have the opportunity to update the information for the nomination.

Important Note: CEGA members from all genders are eligible for this award. For a multidisciplinary team to be considered, at least one individual from the team must be a CEGA member. 

Method for Selection

The Patricia J. Lee Trailblazer Award Committee, consisting of 3 to 4 members, will review nominations for a recipient of the Patricia J. Lee Trailblazer Award and bring recommendations to the CEGA Board. A recommendation for a recipient will only be made when the Committee deems that the criteria for this special recognition have been met to the satisfaction of all members of the Committee. The goal is to have the committee members represent the diversity of our society.

Recognition

The Patricia J. Lee Trailblazer Award will be presented by the Committee Chair or a delegate at a CEGA event or virtually within the Reservoir and Social Media. The Award will also be awarded in the form of a trophy with a reservoir sample from Caroline field, which is a high-impact gas discovery that was found as a result of Patricia Lee’s innovation and leadership.

 About Patricia J. Lee

Patricia J. Lee played an instrumental role in discovering the high-impact 2 TCF Devonian Swan Hills Caroline gas field in 1986. As a young exploration geologist, she was a trailblazer, convincing Shell to allow her to develop geophysical processing and modeling skills at a time when geology and geophysics departments were siloed. At the time, many explorationists were skeptical that her amplitude prospect represented excellent porosity in a very deep Swan Hills carbonate pool.  By combining her newly learned skills in geophysics with carbonate geology, she identified a possible narrow, elongate but highly porous Swan Hills carbonate edge south of known trends that had eluded other explorers.  As a result of her integration skills, advocacy and collaboration skills, she generated interest in the Caroline prospect, conservatively estimating one trillion cubic feet of gas in place.

Shell drilled the prospect identified by Lee, found significant pay and quietly acquired leases before results became public. The Caroline field had almost twice the resource that Lee predicted and at that time was the largest Alberta discovery in over two decades. Caroline has generated billions of dollars in revenue to date. After Lee's success, Shell Canada developed a formal program to cross-train geologists in geophysics which is a practice that is common in industry today.

Patricia J. Lee found further success in other Foothills discoveries, and eventually rose to the position of Chief Geologist of Shell Canada. She was awarded CSPG's 2004 Stanley Slipper Gold Medal for her significant contributions to petroleum exploration and she acknowledges the immense team effort to have made Caroline a success. In 2005 she was awarded the Alberta Centennial Medal for significant contributions to the Province of Alberta. It is Patricia J. Lee's trailblazing spirit for which this Award is named.

Thanks to the CSPG GeoWomen Committee members for their assistance in creating this award.