COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Society of Petroleum Engineers International (SPE) of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) will honor Texas A&M petroleum engineer Dr. John Lee with the DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal in September. Lee is a professor and holder of the L.F. Peterson Chair in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. The DeGolyer Medal is the society’s highest award for service and recognizes distinguished and outstanding service to SPE, the professions of engineering and/or geology and to the petroleum industry. Lee has served in numerous positions within SPE in more than 30 years of service, including service on the Board of Directors from 1996 to 1999. He has also served the industry for more than 30 years as an SPE continuing education instructor and has been visionary in seeing the application of distance learning technologies for both continuing education and degree programs in the industry. Lee came to Texas A&M in 1977 after working for Exxon since 1962. His expertise is in the areas of reservoir management, gas reservoir engineering and pressure transient testing. Lee currently directs the department’s outreach, distance-learning and continuing education programs. Lee was designated an Honorary Member of AIME and SPE in 2001, the highest honor those societies bestow on members. Among his numerous additional honors are the SPE/AIME Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal in 2003, the top technical award in the Societies; the SPE Reservoir Engineering Award in 1986; the SPE John Franklin Carll Award in 1995; and the SPE Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 1982. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 and to the Georgia Institute of Technology’s inaugural class of Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 1994. In 2001, Lee was named to the Texas Society of Professional Engineers’ Texas Engineering (TSPE) Dream Team, a group of 18 professional engineers honored for their contributions to the engineering profession during the first 50 years of TSPE’s existence. Lee holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Georgia Tech, all in chemical engineering.
