One of the greater satisfactions given to one who has labored in a field for many a year is to witness the process by which a scholar emerges from the ranks of those toiling in relative obscurity to join that select group of individuals who leave a marked impact on their profession. Often decades may elapse before a significant contribution is recognized. The reasons for delay vary the cause may lie in the innate tendency in any group of scientists to resist change, or may be that so many gifted people
     are unable to separate the wheat from the chaff when putting pen to paper. The beauty of a scientific construct lies often in its simplicity. As William of Occam, the famous creator of Occam's razor allegedly said, "It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer." That ancient scholastic would beam benignly at Peter Hubral, this year's recipient of the SEG Reginald Fessenden Award.
     Peter is being recognized for his contributions to the understanding of velocity in complex media, and in particular for his invention of the concept of the seismic "image ray." Even a cursory glance at the paper on this subject that he published in Geophysical Prospecting in 1977 reveals a natural talent to get to the root of the problem without foundering either himself or his hapless readers in a mathematical morass. The article in question is short and to the point the basic concepts follow through clearly and concisely, the examples are simple and relevant, and the paper contains those choice flashes of wit that add spice to any science. Thus, after he has described some of the shortcomings of conventional time migration, Peter writes, "This should disappoint only those readers who believe that Kirchhoff summation can be applied to vertically and laterally inhomogeneous media without having to pay any penalties. It cannot disappoint readers who accept the definition of point image
     migration given in this work....."
     Peter studied geophysics at the Bergakademie Clausthal in West Germany, where he graduated in 1967 with distinction. Efficient scholar that he is, he married that same year, and joined the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College in London. There his interest in exploration seismology was triggered by a scholarship provided by British Petroleum Co. in Australia, where he worked in exploration and also lectured at the West Australian Institute of Technology. Following a six month overland backpack return journey to Europe, he joined the German Bureau of Geosciences and Mineral Resources in Hannover, West Germany, where he has carried out geophysical research since 1974. In 1978, he was awarded the EAEG Conrad Schlumberger Award. In collaboration with Dr. Theodor Krey, he has just completed an exhaustive treatise entitled Interval Velocities from Seismic Reflection Time Measurements. This volume is to be issued as an SEG Monograph, and its appearance is eagerly awaited by his colleagues. At present, Peter is spending a year with us at Amoco's Research Center in Tulsa, where we have had ample opportunity to benefit from his vast knowledge and experience.
     I first "met" Peter through his published work, so that when we became actually acquainted a few years later, I felt that we had been friends all along. His keen interest in science is complemented by a warm personality and a fine sense of humor. I am sure that we may look forward to many further impressive contributions from Peter Hubral in years to come; and I am happy to be one of the first to congratulate him, his wife, and his two charming little daughters on this memorable occasion.

     Sven Treitel