HOUSTON - John Thomas Leftwich, senior geological advisor in Halliburton's Drilling and Evaluation Division, has been awarded the Bromery Award for Minorities by the Geological Society of America (GSA).
 
The Bromery Award was established by a former GSA president and his wife to recognize minority professionals who have made significant contributions to research in the geological sciences, or those who have been instrumental in opening the geoscience field to other minorities.
 
A skilled professional with 36 years of onshore and offshore Gulf of Mexico experience, Leftwich has managed as many as seven exploration and production fields simultaneously.  His research investigations have focused on abnormal pressure and undercompaction in sedimentary basins.  Most notably, he discovered the relationship between undercompaction and smectite-illite transformation.  Much of his non-proprietary research has been published in university, trade and federal journals, bulletins, and corporate technical reports.
 
Leftwich is a certified petroleum geologist and a member of eight professional societies including GSA, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG), the Houston Geological Society and Sigma Xi.  He holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia State University, a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. He has been honored by universities, professional societies, corporations and federal agencies for his research and teaching.  In addition, Leftwich has been a 20-year volunteer at schools across the nation from elementary through college, encouraging students to choose careers in science.  He has been honored by universities, professional societies, corporations, and federal agencies for his research and teaching.  He has been professor of geology at Old Dominion University where he was awarded a "Chair of Excellence" by the U. S. Department of Energy; and he was a founding member of the NABGG, serving as president for six terms.
 
Married with two children, he enjoys astronomy, tennis and reading in his spare time.
 
The Geological Society of America is a global professional society with a growing membership of more than 22,000 individuals in 97 countries.  Established in 1888, the GSA provides access to elements that are essential to the professional growth of earth scientists at all levels of expertise and from all sectors:  academic, government, business, and industry.