ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- The American Geological Institute (AGI) will present the William B. Heroy Jr. Award to Dr. William L. Fisher during a reception and awards ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), an affiliated member society of the institute. The reception and awards ceremony will be held from 5:00-7:00 p.m., in the Arizona Room of the Little America hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Heroy Award is presented annually to a geoscientist in recognition of distinguished service to the institute and to the geoscience profession.

Fisher, who was president of AGI in 1991, is credited with developing new approaches for assessing domestic oil and gas resources. He was named Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) and State Geologist of Texas in 1970, a position he held for nearly 25 years. In the mid-1970s, he took a leave of absence to serve as Assistant Secretary for Energy and Minerals at the U.S. Department of the Interior. During his years as director of the BEG, the agency developed into one of the world's leading applied geological research groups in hydrocarbon studies. Fisher continues to teach in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, and holds the Leonidas T. Barrow Centennial Chair in Mineral Resources.

Through extensive analysis of new-field exploration and old-field extended development in the 1970s and '80s, Fisher demonstrated that fossil fuel reserves could be added at a rate essentially proportional to effort, and that production decline could be stabilized and even reversed. These analyses, countering the prevailing theory that oil and gas production would continue to decline at an exponential rate, contributed significantly to the nation's reassessment of its oil and gas resource base and productive capacity.

Bill Fisher has also generously shared his expertise and counsel with many professional scientific organizations. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources of the National Research Council, and other national advisory bodies. In addition to his service to AGI, he is past president of several organizations, including the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Institute of Professional Geologists, Association of American State Geologists, and Austin Geological Society; and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and Society of Economic Geologists.

The American Geological Institute's awards ceremony, held during GSA's annual meeting each fall, honors a select group of outstanding American geoscientists. The William B. Heroy Jr. Award is presented in honor of one of the outstanding geologists of the 20th century. Heroy advanced the use of geophysics in petroleum exploration and in geologic research worldwide. Recipients of this award are measured against his exemplary career.