Dr. Steve Larter
Steve Larter, CMC’s Scientific Director, has been awarded the Alfred Treibs Award by the Geochemical Society’s Organic Chemistry Division. The award is presented annually in recognition of major achievements, over a number of years, in organic chemistry. These achievements include pioneering and innovative investigations that have made significant contributions to the understanding of the origin and fate of organic materials in the geosphere and/or in extraterrestrial environments.
The purpose of the Society’s Organic Chemistry Division is to encourage and foster studies on the origin, nature, geochemical significance, and behavior during diagenesis and catagenesis of naturally occurring organic substances in the Earth, and also studies of extraterrestrial organic matter.
Alfred Treibs, a German chemist, is credited with founding the area of organic chemistry. He mentored 32 students and published about 140 papers. His legacy consists of his classic papers on porphyrins which are regarded as the starting point of Organic Geochemistry, the current Treibs Award of the Geochemical Society, and his broad chemical knowledge and modesty in interacting with fellow scientists.
In addition to serving as CMC’s Scientific Director, Larter is Canada Research Chair and Professor of Petroleum Geology at the University of Calgary. He has broad research interests which range from understanding the phenomenon of biodegradation and predicting fluid property variations in tar sand and heavy oil reservoirs, biogenic gas generation and shale gas. He is also interested in innovation processes, nuclear energy and solutions to our climate/carbon/energy conundrum, through to studying the microbial life of subsurface petroleum reservoirs. In addition to this award, Larter is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and American Association of Petroleum Geologists distinguished lecturer. He is also Chief Executive Officer of Gushor Inc. and a partner of Profero Energy Inc., two technology companies developing transition technologies to enable society and the oil and gas industry to rapidly migrate to zero carbon emission practices.