Kurt Strack
Dr. K.M. Strack is president of KMS Technologies- KJT Enterprises Inc. specializing in integrated seismic/electromagnetic technology for land & marine exploration, appraisal drilling and production monitoring for the geothermal/petroleum industry. He also is CTO for Responsible Energy Services International Inc. that provides data acquisition services to the green Energy industry. Present emphasis is to drive the technology enabling smooth energy transition to zero carbon footprint. In addition to his industry career, Kurt also has a distinguished academic career in Europe (Germany), Asia (China, Thailand, Indonesia and India), and USA where he co-supervised many M.Sc. and Ph.D. students and post-docs.
His company, KMS Technologies pioneers borehole, borehole-to-surface, and land & marine electromagnetics as link with the 3D seismic Earth model. Previously, he was Chief Scientist for Baker Atlas after various management positions. There founded Research Department and supported the development of numerous new logging tools. Prior to that Kurt pioneered LOTEM (Transient electromagnetics for hydrocarbon exploration) development and advanced borehole geophysics technologies in Germany, Australia and the USA. Kurt also serves as Adjunct Professor in the Earth and Atmospheric Geoscience Department and Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Houston, Mahidol University Bangkok, and at Yangtze University, Wuhan China (borehole geophysics and electrical methods for petroleum applications) (and other universities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi and Germany). Kurt is also on the Advisory Board of the German Institute of the Southwest in Houston.
Kurt received a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne and a M.Sc. from Colorado School of Mines. He also did graduate work at Macquarie University in Australia and MBA course in the USA. He worked over the past 25 years as consultant, university researcher, and R & D manager in the geothermal and oil industry.
His geophysical work started with internships in Astrophysics in the Middle East and nuclear properties of materials in Eastern Europe, followed by Earthquake analysis and thermal conductivity methods development and geothermal exploration in the US. After that he focused on electromagnetic methods for oil & gas and geothermal in Germany. Subsequent he spent a decade developing new logging tools and methods in Logging industry. In the past 20 years he is building novel equipment for land and marine electromagnetics/seismic present being applied to CO2 monitoring.
Kurt has over 200 publications, 1 textbook & authors/co-authors more than 40 patents. He received two Fulbright scholarships and numerous international grants/awards. His interest is integrating geophysics with other disciplines, technology transfer and project development. He is a member of SPWLA, AAPG, ASEG, BDG, DGG, EAGE, EEGS, GRC, SPE, SEG and TSEG. He was Co-Chair of the Technical program for the IPTC in Bangkok 2012 and active in many committees. He was the Industry representative on the IAGA EM division and still provides frequent workshops at their bi-annual meetings. He is a Board Member of the German Institute of the Southwest in Houston.
The SPWLA granted Kurt a Distinguished Technical Achievement Award in 2003 for new logging technologies. SEG granted him the Reginald Fessenden Award for the development of through casing resistivity and 3D induction logging. The Russian Academy of Science elected him a Foreign Member and gave him the Kapitsa Gold Medal of Honor for his innovations to borehole geophysics and pioneering work to surface geophysics (Lotem). Kurt was Distinguished Lecturer for the SPE (1998-1999) and SPWLA (2004-2005). In 2007-2008 he received the SEG’s Presidents Special Services Award. 2012 Kurt is co-recipient for KMS Technologies’ Cecil H. Green Enterprise Award from the SEG. He is an Honorary Alumnus of University of Cologne.