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The Celebrate UTIG Luncheon is an annual celebration at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics to recognize and reward the achievements of the institution’s staff and students. The 2022 awards were presented by director, Demian Saffer, at a lunch ceremony – the first in person awards since 2019.
Before presenting the awards, Saffer gave a review of the year, including new hires, recent retirements, research highlights and other achievements.
Although the awards go to a handful of people, they recognize the collective achievements of everyone who makes UTIG an exciting and great place to work.



Congratulations to the winners of this year’s awards!
They were:

Thorsten Becker
UTIG Director’s Circle of Excellence

Peter Flemings
UTIG Director’s Circle of Excellence

Chris Lowery
UTIG Director’s Circle of Excellence

Sean Gulick
UTIG Director’s Circle of Excellence

Laura Wallace
UTIG Director’s Circle of Excellence

Mark Wiederspahn
Career Award

Shuai Yan
Outstanding Graduate Student

Simone Puel
Outstanding Graduate Student

Angela Reyes
Outstanding Support Staff

Jesse Houghton
Outstanding Support Staff

Enze Zhang
Outstanding Postdoc

Xiaohua ‘Eric’ Xu
Outstanding Young Researcher

Don Blankenship
Outstanding Research

Ben Hester
Eleanor Picard Excellence Award