M. Turhan Taner

Abstract

At the recent EAGE Paris Conference, M.Turhan Taner added the Erasmus Award to the tributes he has received for his exemplary roles as teacher, scholar, and practitioner. Probably no other geophysicist has contributed more to the seismic method—coding efficient algorithms in deconvolution, statics, multiple attenuation, velocity analysis, velocity inversion time imaging, depth migration, seismic attributes, reservoir characterization, and more. But it may well be that “Tury” has earned the affection and respect of his colleagues more for his integrity, insight, generosity, and consideration of others than for a lifetime of achievements. Taner's humaneness surfaced early on, as gleaned from Some Thoughts and Memories , a mosaic of his youth—from Tury's earliest awareness of a balcony over a candy shop in his native Akhisar, Turkey, through personal gems such as falling in love, at age four, with a much older woman whom he rapturously called Guzel Hanim (Beautiful Lady), playing soccer with a ball of crunched up newspaper wrapped in string, or the flavor of dew-covered grapes in his family's vineyard—embedded in thoughts of infinity, metaphysics, and history. All this is told in the unassuming tone Taner uses to explain complex science or the delights of a Brunello di Montalcino wine. Science, arts, friendship, work, leisure—all is One for Tury Taner. “Baki kalan kubbede hos bir seda imis … it's a line of a Turkish poem that for some reason I remember, meaning: … a gentle little echo in the eternal dome. Our life is just a little echo; if you can leave a couple more reverberations behind of what knowledge we have gained, that is a very satisfactory condition.” —Tury Taner, May 2004 “It was May in Paris,” remembers Simon Spitz (CGG Americas). “Tury and I went for dinner in one of those 19th century brasseries. The brasserie was my …