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The Leading Edge; July 2003; v. 22; no. 7; p. 622-628
© 2003 Society of Exploration Geophysicists
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H. Roice Nelson Jr.

Quixotic geophysics

Dolores Proubasta

associate editor, TLE

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Howard Roice Nelson Jr. grew up on a farm flanked by stratigraphic and metamorphic geology in southern Utah. After school and chores, rather than play he would explore the land on horseback or build things. Music provided a social outlet for the shy youngster. On 24 February 1964, inspired by The Beatles' debut on American television, Roice and four other junior high schoolers gathered in that hotbed of rock ‘;n’ roll, a garage, from which they emerged as "The KeyNotes," with Roice the lead and rhythm guitarist.


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Normal teenage behavior notwithstanding, Roice was marching to the tune of a different drummer, thinking "outside the box" before the term was coined. Futurist, visionary, dreamer, always planning 30–40 years out, risking it all but his integrity to stand behind his ideas, Roice Nelson would, to a large degree, cause a paradigm shift in geophysics. The now familiar sight of workstations cranking 3D seismic data is the result of his ability to look into the future as early as 1973, when 3D surveys were still a novelty, computers ponderous mainframes, and workstations in their infancy. Around this idea, Landmark Graphics Corporation, a geophysical service industry phenomenon, was born ... But back to the beginning.

Roice was studying mathematics at the University of Utah when his fraternity big brother, Bob Otis, introduced him to geophysics, a profession that fused his three loves: science, nature, and service to humankind.

A little knowledge, to paraphrase the adage, makes undergrads a dangerous breed, but there are exceptions. While working for Pan American (later Amoco) in the summers of 1970 and 1973, Roice began to challenge conventional wisdom. "After my first summer job with Amoco, I couldn't understand why they spent so much time doing things the way they did. It seemed as though they should be looking . . . [Full Text of this Article]






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