Michael J. Nault, GCSSEPM Honorary Member
Michael J. Nault is the recipient of a GCSSEPM Honorary Membership for 2009.
Michael began his long involvement in service to the GCSSEPM by serving as the GCSSEPM Associate Editor for the 1980 Lafayette GCAGS Transactions. Since 1981, he has served as GCSSEPM Judging & Awards Chairman for the GCAGS convention for 27 of the last 30 years, including this year in Shreveport and 2010 in San Antonio. Mike has served as GCAGS Vice Chairman for GCSSEPM three times—1991 (Houston), 1998 (Corpus Christi) and in 2000 (Houston). He has been an elected officer of the GCSSEPM, including President (1992), Vice President (1983–84 & 1989–90), and acting Vice President (1994). Mike has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the GCSSEPM Foundation from 1997 through 2002 and from 2005 through 2008, serving as Board's Chairman in 1999, 2002, and 2008. The GCSSEPM Foundation is the sponsoring organization of the Bob F. Perkins Annual Research Conference held each December in Houston. Another service to the section has been as GCSSEPM Exhibit Booth Chairman for GCAGS Conventions for the past 15 plus years (a thoroughly thankless task). Mike has received the GCSSEPM Distinguished Service Award twice—in 1988 and 2002, being the award's only two-time recipient. He has also been the SEPM Awards Chairman for both the 1995 AAPG in Houston and the 2008 AAPG in San Antonio.
Michael also has contributed to the ever-growing volume of geosciences literature of the Gulf Coast. He is both a contributing author and coeditor for the GCSSEPM Foundation sponsored Gulf Coast Taxonomic Equivalency Project (1995–2001), which has produced two major books on Cenozoic foraminiferal marker species and paleoenvironments entitled: Gulf of Mexico Basin Biostratigraphic Index Microfossils, A Geoscientist's Guide: Volumes 1 & 2 on Oligocene through Pleistocene Foraminifers (1999) and Volume 3 on Paleocene through Eocene Foraminifers (2001). These two books will play a vital role in preserving the legacy of biostratigraphy in Gulf Coast petroleum exploration and development long after the last microscope light has been turned off. In addition since 1993, Mike has coauthored seven full papers in the GCAGS Transactions to accompany GCAGS Convention poster presentations, on foraminiferal biostratigraphic models and applications. Two of these papers have received the GCSSEPM Best Published Paper Award (now called the GCAGS/GCSSEPM Grover E. Murray Best Published Paper Award)—second place in 1993 and first place in 1996. He also contributed with his coauthors a deep water biostratigraphic zonation paper and poster for the 2000 GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference on "Deep Water Reservoirs of the World."
Michael began his professional career with the Louisiana Geological Survey in 1979. He has since worked as a corporate foraminiferal micropaleontologist for Arco and Tenneco in Lafayette, as well as Chevron and BP in Houston. In 1993, he formed Applied Biostratigraphix with two colleagues, the late Sylvester "Skip" Breard and Arden "Ardy" Callender, and was later joined by Dr. Richard A. Denne.
Michael's other major outside interest is in Amateur Radio Communications. He holds the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) highest class Amateur Radio License as well as the two top FCC Commercial Radio Licenses: the General Radiotelephone Operator and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System Operator/Maintainer with Ship Radar Endorsement. Mike serves as a volunteer examiner twice a month where he assists in administering FCC Amateur Radio License exams. He also is a member of the Volunteer Disaster Services Telecommunications Committee for the Greater Houston Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, having served as that committee's chair from February of 2003 through May of 2007.
All volunteer organizations have a select few members who form the core leadership of that group. Michael is such a member of the GCSSEPM Section and Foundation. He has consistently contributed and served the section for three decades. It was trustee Michael Nault who gave me (Norm Rosen) a call and asked if I would take over as executive director of the Foundation after Bob Perkins died. Since then I have been fortunate in having his active support in Foundation activities, to the point that I can say it has been a partnership. Michael's biggest fault is his insistence in staying in the background. Unless you have been part of the Section or Foundation, it is difficult to appreciate his efforts and devotion to both organizations. In recognition of his continued long and dedicated voluntary service to the Section and Foundation, the GCSSEPM is pleased to award an honorary membership to Michael J. Nault.
Sylvester Q. "Skip" Breard (2002);
updated by Norman C. Rosen (March, 2009)