Prairie Research Institute - All Events

Abstract: The energy industry and its workers literally fuel the world. The leaders of energy companies – executives and board members – are empowered to make decisions about the missions, visions, and strategies of their companies. These leaders must be responsive to various stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, governments, and communities in which companies operate. Employees are also stakeholders, but the key technical staff of energy companies – geoscientists, engineers, and data scientists – are special in that they literally fuel their companies: Without competent, industrious geoscientists, exploration and production companies will not succeed. The energy industry is notorious for its commodity cycles and concomitant layoffs, but what is different now is that the eroding support for geoscientists and geoscience comes at a time when society needs geoscientists to be more competent and versatile than ever to address resource needs in many forms of energy, strategic minerals, and water, and to mitigate carbon emissions. How can we encourage others to become geoscientists and follow in our footsteps if our industry might treat them brutally? Is there a business case for specifically shielding geoscientists because of the commitments they must make to their education and career-long professional development? Given the importance of energy, and the fact that the heart of companies, science, and industry is people, embracing our shared humanity by defending geoscience and geoscientists throughout their careers seems essential to the success of all involved.

Bio: Gretchen Gillis is a geologist with a long career in the energy industry and in nonprofit leadership. Following eight years in exploration and production, she held technical, communication, and consulting roles at SLB and Aramco Americas, where she supported operations and trained early-career scientists. Her contributions have been recognized with awards from Fort Valley State University, the Association for Women Geoscientists, ALLY Energy, and AAPG. Gillis has served AAPG in several leadership roles, including Editor from 2007–10 and President in 2022. She helped shape AAPG’s strategic direction, led committees for IMAGE, and served on the GeoScienceWorld Board of Directors. She is also a Trustee Associate of the AAPG and SEG Foundations. She holds geology degrees from Bryn Mawr College and The University of Texas at Austin, and she completed executive and finance programs at Yale and UT Austin.

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