Bob Trentham, longtime University of Texas Permian Basin Senior Lecturer and Research Associate in the Department of Geosciences, has won the Grover E. Murray Distinguished Educator Award given by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
The laurel is given in recognition of distinguished and outstanding contributions to geological education, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists website said. Trentham said he was told he was a recipient a couple of months ago, but he won’t officially receive the award until the national convention in August in Houston.
“It came as an email. When I first saw the email, I thought this is a scam. But then I read through it and I recognized the lady who sent it and so well it’s real. I was very appreciative of it. I never thought I’d get something like this. I just do my job. I was recommended for it by a geologist that I’ve known for 25 years. I haven’t ever worked directly with him, but I’ve worked kind of with him on things. It was very nice. They give out one or two a year and it’s one of their four or five major awards that they give every year,” Trentham said.
He was recommended for it by fellow geologist Nic Brisette, who Trentham has known for 25 years.
“The geologic community, we’re not all concentrated in Midland-Odessa. We know people all over,” Trentham said.
He has been at UTPB since 2021. Trentham was the CEED director and also senior lecturer in geology.
“I was teaching classes, developing petroleum geology-related classes. I’ve been thesis advisor on probably close to 30 theses in the last 20 years. Since I’ve been here, we’ve graduated about 200 people with master’s, half of them with theses and half of them without,” Trentham said.
He added that they have had some students go on for doctorates at University of Houston, Oklahoma State and University of Texas-El Paso.
Trentham teaches many of the petroleum related classes — petroleum geology, subsurface methods, core descriptions and sample descriptions. He also teaches a class in sedimentary rocks for engineers and exploration and production logging. He added that these classes are designed to help students with their jobs.
“Most of our people, their master’s is their degree. They don’t need another. They’re going to work in industry, in education, whatever, and they don’t need a PhD. At least half of our graduate students are people who work in industry. As long as I’ve been here and before that, all our graduate program classes are taught in the evening, so that people who work in Midland or Odessa can get over here to class after work. So, at least half of all our graduate students worked in industry. Maybe they were a technician and want to get bumped up to geologist; maybe they’re geologists and want to get bumped up to manager. Our degrees are ticket punching for advancement, and they can’t get anywhere else because they’re here. We’re their local provider of master’s,” Trentham said.
Before coming to UTPB, Trentham spent 20 years working in the oil industry in Odessa and Midland as a geologist. He worked for Gulf, Chevron and then for about 10 years he was a consulting geologist working for major and smaller oil companies.
When he came to CEED, his goal was to build a better connection, or be a bridge, between industry and UTPB.
“I did that through working with people in industry on projects and on boards and giving talks. I got cores donated to UTPB from the universities and then we had students who came to do theses on cores. We started to put out a graduate student who industry found very appealing as workers because they could hit the ground running,” Trentham said.
Trentham, who is a native of New York City, went to high school at Brooklyn Tech High School. From there he went to City College in New York for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He did six years in the National Guard and finished his master’s during that time.
As soon as he finished his enlistment, Trentham went to UTEP for his doctorate. All his degrees are in geology.
“I took the University of Arizona field camp in 1969 and love the Southwest, so basically I got back here as quick as I could,” Trentham said.
The terrain of the Southwest was totally different from what he knew in the Northeast. He added that he couldn’t wait to leave New York.
“I liked it. I really liked it — the mountains and the outcrops,” he said.
Trentham got interested in oil and gas working on a doctorate in mobility of uranium and volcanic rocks at UTEP “when Three Mile Island nuclear power plant tried to melt down. The entire nuclear energy industry in the United States, the exploration industry disappeared within six months. I took all of the opportunities to interview with oil companies, because that’s where the jobs were in 1979-1980. I got hired on by Gulf here in Midland,” Trentham said.
He added that he could have retired some time ago, but he really enjoys working with what he refers to as the “kids.”
“Most of them, the majority of them, are younger than my youngest son. … They keep me young. They keep me energized. They ask questions that maybe something I hadn’t thought of, and I had to go do a little bit of research on my own. I really enjoy the teaching and the research and the interaction with the students. I think that’s probably why I wound up getting the award because I think it must have shone through to other people,” he said.
Michael Zavada, professor and chair, Department of Geosciences, said UTPB has exquisitely educated faculty, knowledgeable about their field and dedicated.
“If for some reason they leave we can replace them with someone who have similar education and expertise. Bob Trentham is the rare individual in academia who brings to the a table not only the exquisite training in the academic discipline, but skills that only come from his experience; experience as an academic, practical experience as a person working in industry, and a seasoned field geologist. He has lived multiple professional lives, and has the uncanny ability to integrate that knowledge and experience and enthusiastically pass it on to his students. If for some reason Bob were to leave, we will have to look long and hard to find his skill set, if we can at all. This award is of course deserved, but the number of students he has delivered to all areas of the industry and academia is the real living monument to his skills as an educator,” Zavada said.
Trentham and his wife, Martha, a native Midlander, have three sons and five grandchildren.
