GWH Award for Excellence in Electrical Geophysics

After a hiatus associated with the creation of the Hohmann Wannamaker Trust (HWT) we now have two new awardees:

Congratulations!

The 2025 GWH Award was given to two early-career scientists who are 10 or fewer years from their advanced degree at the close of nominations.

The Award, sponsored by the Hohmann Wannamaker Trust, is conferred on a colleague nominated from the global geophysics community, and voted on by the HWT Trustees. The selection criteria have varied from Award to Award covering topics such as (but not restricted to): 

  • Best paper

  • Outstanding educator

  • Humanitarian applications

  • Resource exploration and management 

  • Numerical computation

  • Solid Earth studies

  • Instrumentation

The Award, commemorated with an engraved silver bowl, is a tribute from the community for excellence in our profession. The geophysics community has supplied the GWH Trustees with many outstanding nominations since the initial award in 1997. Thank you very much for this.

Seogi Kang 

Seogi completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2018 and is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba. Seogi’s expertise lies in computational geoscience, with a particular focus on electromagnetics. His work on simulating and inverting EM survey data has led to significant advances in geophysics.

Over the course of his career, he has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of electromagnetic (EM) geophysics and its applications in geoscience. His achievements include fundamental research, contributions to software and computational methods, open science leadership, and impactful mentorship. He is a co-founder and core contributor to SimPEG, an open-source Python-based framework for processing and interpreting geophysical data.

Sihong Wu

Sihong obtained her PhD degree in geophysics in July 2021 from Peking University (PKU), followed by a two-year post-doctoral position in the same institution. She has been a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Houston (UH) since August 2023. During her doctoral and post-doctoral studies, she pioneered the use of deep learning in the realm of EM geophysics and created a comprehensive DL framework for EM data denoising, forward modeling, rapid inversion, uncertainty quantification in both supervised and unsupervised manners. 

Sihong stands out among early career researchers for her exceptional expertise and productivity in integrating deep learning. She is an original thinker, innovating and developing new methods with a profound understanding of both geophysics and deep learning, and  exemplifies the next generation of geophysicists poised to advance the field with new computational methods and tools. 

GWH Award History

  • 1997: Misac Nabighian, for lifetime achievement in the field of electrical methods and potential theory

  • 1998: David Alumbaugh,  for an outstanding young scientist working in electrical geophysics

  • 1999: Douglas Oldenburg and Yaoguo Li, for outstanding recent publications in the field of electrical geophysics

  • 2000: Stanley Ward, in support of the SEG Ewing Award

  • 2001: Ulrich Schmucker, for being an outstanding educator

  • 2002: Kurt Sorensen and Max Meju, for outstanding work in humanitarian applications of electrical geophysics

  • 2003: Steven Constable and Gerald Minerbo, for innovations in electrical methods of petroleum exploration

  • 2004: Yves Lamontagne, for development of novel methods of mineral exploration by electrical methods

  • 2005: Nigel Edwards, for lifetime achievement in modeling of electrical methods in geophysics

  • 2006: Adele Manzella and Toshihiro Uchida, for applications of electrical methods in geothermal exploration

  • ​​2007: Art Raiche, for lifetime achievement in mineral exploration by electrical methods

  • 2017: Frank Morrison and Arnold Orange, for lifetime achievement in applications of electrical methods in diverse settings

  • 2019: Jana H. Börner and Lindsey J. Heagy, for outstanding young scientists working in electrical geophysics

  • 2021: Paul Bedrosian and Max Moorkamp, for exceptional mid-career scientists working in electromagnetic geophysics