Mancini Earns Top Geology Award

Professor Emeritus Ernest Mancini
Professor Emeritus Ernest Mancini

Dr. Ernest A. Mancini, professor emeritus in the Department of Geological Sciences and retired UA Distinguished Research Professor, was named the 2014 recipient of the Sidney Powers Memorial Award by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

The association will recognize Mancini at the opening session of the April 2014 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Houston.

The Powers Award is given annually in recognition of distinguished and outstanding contributions to, or achievements in, petroleum geology. Mancini will become the 67th Powers medalist.

Mancini began his career with Cities Service Company as an exploration geologist in 1974. Two years later, he became an assistant professor at UA . He was appointed state geologist and director for the Geological Survey of Alabama and oil and gas supervisor and director for the state of Alabama Oil and Gas Board in 1982, where he served simultaneously until 1996.

Mancini founded UA’s Center for Sedimentary Basin Studies, an interdisciplinary geoscience research center, in 1998 and served as interim chair of the Department of Geological Sciences. He has received several AAPG awards, including the A.I. Levorsen Award in 1980, the Distinguished Educator Award in 2000 and Honorary Membership in 2008. He also served as AAPG elected editor in 2004-07 and was the Haas-Pratt Distinguished Lecturer in 1987-88.

He was appointed Distinguished Research Professor at UA in 2005. He was named UA’s Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor in 2007, and he received the Burnum Distinguished Professor Award and became professor emeritus in 2010.