Gerry Gardner always does first-rate science and makes a contribution to the state of the art. As professionals, we should be pleased and even grateful that his interests turned from the purest of pure physics to the physics of hydrocarbon reservoirs and now to seismic methods for finding those reservoirs. As explorationists, we have gained the company of a fine and personable intellectual comrade and a teacher of remarkable perception whose students freely attest to the great efforts he is willing to expend in order to share this knowledge.
     Winning awards is nothing new for Gerry. In 1948, on graduating from Trinity College in Dublin, he obtained a first-class moderatorship and gold medal in mathematics and theoretical physics. His MSc in applied mathematics was granted by Carnegie-Mellon University in 1949 and his PhD in mathematical physics was granted by Princeton University in 1953. During the years 1950-55 he was an Honorary Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin. Both the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations recognized the important role he played in technical liaison with the Peoples Republic of China. Then in 1989 the Geophysical Society of Houston awarded him Honorary Membership.
     Teaching and achievement in industry both have been intertwined themes throughout Gerry's distinguished career. He first lectured in mathematics and engineering briefly at Trinity College and Cornell. He then had a short assignment at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. After a further year teaching mathematics at Carnegie-Mellon University, Gerry went on to spend 24 distinguished years at Gulf Research and Development in Pittsburgh. Here his work on reservoir properties on his own and in collaboration with others was years ahead of its time and is quoted with increasing frequency as the years pass. He even found time to do some work on high-performance engines as well.
     In 1980 Gardner began yet another remarkable 10 years as a professor of electrical engineering and director of the Allied Geophysical Laboratories (AGL) at the University of Houston. At AGL he could teach, but also enjoy a close relationship with industrial associates. The leading-edge work of this institute in no small measure under Gerry's guidance in seismic technology from modeling the theoretical 3-D algorithms is well known to all informed geophysicists. Most recently Gerry has joined Rice University as the Keck Foundation Professor of Geophysics. We look forward to his achievements again with anticipation.
     The list of publications on Gardner's resume is long, even intimidating. Not only did he publish his works, but during 1981-83 he also edited Geophysics a particularly arduous and thankless task. In 1982-83 he edited TLE and gave it the important direction which is so widely appreciated today.
     Previously the SEG has recognized Gerry for his outstanding presentation concerning 3-D methods in 1977 and as a Distinguished Lecturer in 1979-80. Halliburton selected him for their award for Excellence in Teaching in 1984. It is fitting and timely that the SEG should again at this time recognize this exemplary career.
     In the interest of making this exposition of Gerry's career more fully representative of him as a person, I asked him to tell me what he regarded as his most significant accomplishment. At first he told me after some thought that perhaps it was his very early appreciation of the role of 3-D seismic data both for exploration and production applications then he hesitatingly confided that his legal challenge of newspaper employment advertisements segregated by sex which he took all the way to a United States Supreme Court victory in the early 1970s was his proudest achievement. We honor ourselves as a society and as a profession when we recognize such humility and unselfish effort in the name of equity and justice.
     All those with whom he has worked have learned to think laterally and to simplify complex questions by critical self-examination as he does. He certainly well deserves to join the elite ranks of SEG Honorary Membership.

     N. S. Neidell