The Medal Award of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists was established to honor persons who have made a distinct contribution to exploration geophysics, such as an invention or an outstanding paper, or special recognition by fellow workers.
     The two 1969 medalists, Enders A. Robinson and Sven Treitel, have been recognized for their contributions to the digital processing of seismic data. Although both medalists have published numerous papers dealing with this problem, the specific contribution that no doubt greatly influenced the members of the Honors and Awards Committee was the Special Issue of Geophysics for June 1967, titled the MIT Geophysical Analysis Group Reports, with Special Editors Edward A. Flinn, Enders A. Robinson, and Sven Treitel. Further comments on these Reports are included in Daniel Silverman's 1967 "Best Paper," The Digital Processing of Seismic Data, which was published in the December 1967 number of Geophysics, and in The Robinson-Treitel Reader, compiled in 1969 by Seismic Service Corporation.

     As MIT graduate students in geophysics, Robinson and Treitel cut their professional eye teeth on the work of the Geophysical Analysis Group (GAG), and therein lies an interesting tale.
     In the late 1940s, while riding in a car pool between Lexington and Cambridge, MIT mathematician George P. Wadsworth and geophysicist Patrick M. Hurley often discussed how geophysicists might use mathematics more effectively. Wadsworth had developed certain techniques, based on some of Norbert Wiener's theoretical mathematics, for weather forecasting in the European Theater in World War II, and wondered if these might be applicable to any geophysical problems. For example, could auto- and cross-correlation techniques be used on geophysical data? Hurley thought so and in early 1949 secured a multiple-trace seismic record from one of the journals. Preliminary experimentation on this record by Wadsworth and a colleague, J. G. Bryan, proved encouraging, and "seed-corn" money was provided by MIT for further work. By the fall of 1950, ten seismic records had been obtained from the Magnolia Petroleum Corporation, through Dayton E. Clewell and W. J. Yost; graduate student Enders A. Robinson had been hired to conduct a serious study of linear operators and their possible usefulness in analyzing the Magnolia records; and the research project had been moved from Mathematics to the Department of Geology and Geophysics.
     In 1952, encouraged by their initial findings, Wadsworth and his colleagues presented their ideas to a group of exploration geophysicists who were sufficiently impressed to persuade their companies to support the research program that was proposed. Daniel Silverman, whose paper is referred to in a preceding paragraph, was elected Chairman of the Advisory Committee; Enders Robinson, and later Stephen M. Simpson, Jr.; organized and led the graduate student group; and faculty members of the Mathematics and Geology-Geophysics Departments helped when and where they could, but, to their everlasting credit, had enough sense to let the students have their head.
     Starting with about twenty actively participating members, this troika of practicing geophysicists, graduate students, and professors worked together harmoniously for more than four years, from 1952 to 1957. Although the digital methods developed by the
     GAG could not then be used commercially to process seismic data because of the high unit costs of the early computers, GAG members did write numerous reports, theses and papers in which they described their work. The more important aspects of this work are the substance of the 1967 Special Issue of Geophysics mentioned earlier.
     In 1957, as Silverman has pointed out, there were few scientists among exploration geophysicists who could capitalize on the GAG reports and publications, so this rich pool of information lay untapped in company files for several years. At MIT, however,
     work continued, although on a reduced scale and budget; students continued to write thesis and receive degrees; and a dozen entered the oil industry. Today, some seventeen years later, those who made the efforts of the Geophysical Analysis Group so productive, are making a major impact on the oil and exploration industries by applying the results of their earlier efforts and developments that have followed. Enders Robinson and Sven Treitel are among the leaders in this never ending quest for a better understanding of the seismic process.
     I am sure it takes not one iota of credit from the two medalists if I express the hope that the SEG Medal Award of 1969 recognizes not only their specific contribution but also the full spectrum of effort of the whole GAG troika a remarkably productive combination of imaginative graduate students, perceptive exploration geophysicists, and unusually tolerant professors.
     Enders Robinson and Sven Treitel, by your accomplishments you bring honor to your old school, to the profession of geophysical exploration, and to the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, whose Medal Award it is now my privilege to hand you.

     Robert R. Shrock