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EXPLORER
A pioneer of modern geoscience, geochemistry
A Conversation With Dietrich Welte
By DAVID BROWN, EXPLORER Correspondent
AAPG
Dietrich Welte is a pioneer of modern
geoscience, co-author of the
first comprehensive textbook on
geochemical process-focused exploration,
an outstanding academician and
researcher, a leader in the development of
basin and petroleum-system modeling.
He also is now the 2013 recipient of
AAPG’s highest honor, the Sidney Powers
Memorial Award.
Welte’s previous recognition from AAPG
includes the President’s Award in 1966, the
International Special Commendation Award
in 2000, a Special Award in 2004 and the
Distinguished Service Award in 2006.
A native of Würzburg, Germany, he
has made a powerful, lifelong contribution
to teaching the geosciences in Europe
and to developing and applying scientific
principles to exploration around the world.
EXPLORER: When did you know you
were going to become a scientist?
Welte: Already as a schoolboy I was
exposed to an atmosphere where science
was part of daily conversations. Both of
my parents had a scientific educational
background. My mother had a Ph.D. in
biology, which was very rare in the early
1920s for a woman.
My father was a geoscientist and
university professor. Both of my parents
died very early. My father was killed during
the Second World War as a soldier and my
mother died soon after the war from typhoid
fever.
The way he was: Left, Welte on a field trip to Israel, 1978; right, at the Institute for Petroleum
and Organic Geochemistry at the Nuclear Research Center (KFA) in Jülich, Germany, 1981.
EXPLORER: Why did you study
geoscience?
Welte: My interest for science was
persistent, and when I started university
in the city of Würzburg in Bavaria in 1952,
I was undecided whether I should study
Recent Sidney Powers Winners:
2012 – Koenraad J. Weber
2011 – John W. Shelton
2010 – L. Frank Brown Jr.
2009 – Marlan W. Downey
2008 – Fred F. Meissner
2007 – Arnold H. Bouma
chemistry or geology. Consequently, I tried
as much as possible to devote time to both
fields.
An organized student excursion in 1954
to the emerging post-war chemical industry
in Frankfurt quickly brought the decision. I
2006 – Robert M. Mitchum Jr.
2005 – Kenneth W. Glennie
2004 – Lawrence W. Funkhouser
2003 – Peter R. Vail
2002 – James L. Wilson
2001 – Robert M. Sneider
2000 – Gerald M. Friedman
could not imagine spending part of my life
as an industry chemist “in a little laboratory
with unpleasant odors.”
From then on I focused on geology, and
after my interim examination I moved from
Würzburg to the University of Göttingen
to take courses in sedimentology and
mineralogy.
EXPLORER: Your biggest early influence
was in modern geochemistry, a field you
helped develop. What got you interested in
geochemistry?
Welte: After the fall semester of 1956 I
returned to the University of Würzburg and
received a diploma in geology, equivalent
to a master’s degree, in July 1957. During
my stay in Göttingen I was exposed to
geochemistry, which also suited my former
inclination toward chemistry.
Winning a Fulbright scholarship brought
me to the United States. There, I studied
and worked as a graduate assistant
in the geochemistry department of the
Pennsylvania State University.
EXPLORER: And geochemistry was the
start of your career?
Welte: An invitation by P.H. Abelson,
at that time director of the Geophysical
Laboratory in Washington, D.C., stimulated
my interest in organic geochemistry.
The fate of organic substances in the
Earth’s crust – the remnants of former
See Welte, page 24
22 MAY 2013 WWW.AAPG.ORG