Bio

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Leonard J. (Len) Srnka received his BSc in Engineering Science summa cum laude from Purdue University in 1968, and his PhD in Physics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England in 1974 where he was a Marshall Scholar. He was also a member of Corpus Christi College (MCR), Oxford University, from 1970 to 1973. Len was then a postdoctoral fellow and a staff scientist at NASA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute from 1974 to 1979 in Houston, where he did research on the origins and evolution of lunar and planetary electromagnetism.

Len joined Exxon Production Research Company in 1979, and held technical and supervisory positions in electromagnetic methods, seismic methods, and borehole geophysics. From 1993 to 1998 he supervised potential fields, electromagnetics, and remote sensing research and applications at Exxon Exploration Company (EEC, now EMEC), and also coordinated technology applications, planning, and staffing studies for EEC Technology Department. Len moved to ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (EMURC) in 1998 as project champion for Remote Reservoir Resistivity Mapping (“R3M”) breakthrough research, which has received four industry awards including most recently the Excellence Award for Technological Development at the 2011 World Petroleum Congress. He was Chief Scientist on numerous marine controlled-source electromagnetic surveys offshore Europe and West Africa from 2001 to 2003. He is currently Chief Research Geoscientist at EMURC, where his principal interest is integrated subsurface quantification. He is a member of the Geoscience Advisory Committee for ExxonMobil’s Corporate Strategic Research function. Len has twenty eight refereed publications, 9 patents issued and 7 pending.

Len was 2012-13 president of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE), having served previously as Vice President and VP-Elect. In addition to EAGE, Len is a member of the SEG, GSH, and AGU. He was the SEG Spring 2007 Distinguished Lecturer, and received the SEG Virgil Kaufmann Gold Medal in 2007. He has served on numerous professional society committees, including SEG and EAGE.  He has also served on a number of US government agency and university advisory boards, including the NSF Earth Science Directorate External Assessment Review panel, the Continental Dynamics Program panel, Lehigh University’s Department of Earth Sciences review panel, and Rice University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Advancement Committee.

Len continues his involvement in the Marshall Scholar program, established by the UK Parliament in 1953. He served on the Marshall Scholar candidate interview panel for the Houston Region 1n 2002 and 2009, and is the Marshal liaison to the British Consul-General’s Houston Office.

He is the Association of Marshall Scholars (AMS) 1968 Class Secretary, and serves on the AMS Board of Directors.

Len was appointed the first Professor of Practice at the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography in July 2013, and is a member of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Phyics.