President's Page: Where West and East come together

Abstract

I remember years ago the president of BGP, Wenrong Xu, spoke at an SEG Annual Meeting on the topic of “From the East to West.” The presentation and its title referred to the fact that, at the time, the focus of geophysics in China was moving from the eastern regions to western regions where difficult surface conditions and subsurface structural complexity made seismic acquisition and imaging a challenge. I would like to put a spin on Xu's title and consider our current challenges and opportunities not from East to West or from West to East but from where West and East come together.