Zuchuan Chen is receiving Life Membership for his outstanding technical contributions to the geophysics profession and his excellent services to our Society. It is my great honor and privilege to introduce Zuchuan to you not only because he is one of China's top geophysicists but also because he has been my dear friend, mentor, and professional idol.
     Zuchuan's career as a geophysicist traces back almost half a century. He was born in 1931 in the port city of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, on China's east coast. After graduating from Jiaotong University in Shanghai, he went all the way from the east coast to work in Xinjiang, China's far-west frontier, in 1951. Because the civil war had ended only two years before and many areas in western China were still unsafe, he and his group were escorted by a platoon of soldiers and traveled more than a month from Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, to Xinjiang where he worked as a practicing geophysicist. A year later, he was transferred to Qinghai Province, another western frontier region in China. He started with the Qinghai Petroleum Bureau as a gravity and magnetics technician and worked all the way up to engineer, director engineer, team leader, and party chief. Because of his dedication to work and his outstanding contributions to the exploration effort in western China, he was named a National Model Worker,
     a prestigious honor awarded to only a selected few, in 1956.
     In 1961, Zuchuan participated in the exploration and development of the Daqing oil field, in charge of structural mapping using seismic data. Daqing turned out to be the largest oil field in China. He was then transferred to the Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting in 1963 as deputy chief geophysicist in charge of geophysical research and development. Since 1963, he has participated in many strategic projects such as the massive seismic exploration effort in northern China, development and manufacturing of digital seismic recording systems, exploration and development of the Changqing oil field, importing geophysical digital technologies, and negotiating with foreign oil companies on the joint exploration and development of China's offshore fields.
     Throughout his distinguished career, Zuchuan has done pioneering work in potential fields, migration, statics, velocity analysis, signal-to-noise ratio improvement, and multiple suppression. He has published many papers and monographs on such subjects as hydrocarbon indicator analysis, optimum weighted stack, 3-D TV DMO method, and residual NMO analysis for multiple suppression, etc. He has been recognized as one of China's top applied geophysicists and as an exploration strategist and mentor to young geophysicists. His many technical awards include the National Grand Class and Third Class Prizes of the Advancement of Science and Technology for his work on oil and gas exploration in the Bohai Bay Basin and on vertical seismic profiling. His relative refraction statics (RRS) method won China National Petroleum Corporation's (CNPC) Third Class Award.
     Zuchuan has also been active in local professional and SEG activities. He was one of the principals in establishing the SEG Beijing Section that he currently serves as president. He is also vice-president of the Society of Petroleum Geophysicists of China. He was instrumental in organizing the four SEG Geophysical Conferences and Exhibitions held in Beijing (1985, 1989, 1993, and 1998), and served as technical program co-chairman for the one held last June.
     Zuchuan is not only a top geophysicist and scientist but also a great mentor. He is humorous and easy to talk with. At the Bureau, he is always surrounded by young geophysicists. He teaches them not only how to become a great geophysicist and scientist but also how to better serve society and be a great human being.
     I have always admired Zuchuan for his persistency in learning and self-improvement. He had only minimal training in English while at high school. From the 1950s until the late 1970s, English, along with most other foreign languages, was abandoned in China. Zuchuan started learning English by listening to the radio and reading books before and after work when he was in his mid-40s. He had already been promoted to senior geophysicist, a lifetime job and a position with high honor and prestige. He never intended to stop there though. He got up every morning at 5 a.m. and practiced English. After work, he spent hours in learning English and computer programming. Several years later, he became a fluent English speaker and writer and, of course, a great computer programmer.
     I am sure that Life Membership in SEG is not going to be the final step of his outstanding career. SEG is fortunate to have members like Zuchuan who devote all their life to the advancement of geophysical technologies, collaboration with international colleagues, and service to our Society.

     Zhijing (Zee) Wang