Biography

Dave Hale received a B.S. in physics from Texas A&M University in 1977 and a Ph.D. in geophysics from Stanford University in 1983. At Stanford, he studied with the Stanford Exploration Project.

He has worked as a field seismologist and research geophysicist for Western Geophysical, as a senior research geophysicist for Chevron, as an associate professor at the Colorado School of Mines, as a chief geophysicist and software developer for Advance Geophysical, and as a senior research fellow for Landmark Graphics. In 2005 he returned to Mines as the C.H. Green Professor of Exploration Geophysics, where he worked with the Center for Wave Phenomena until retiring in 2015. Dave now writes computer software with Dean Witte.

Dave received the Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal from the Society of Exploration Geophysics for his work on dip-moveout processing of seismic data. He also received the SEG's awards for Best Paper in Geophysics in 1992 (imaging salt with seismic turning waves) and Best Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting in 2002 (atomic meshing of seismic images). In 2014 he gave the SEG's Distinguished Lecture (3D seismic image processing for interpretation of faults and horizons) to audiences worldwide. Dave taught the SEG''s first course in dip-moveout processing as part of the Continuing Education program, and was editor of "DMO Processing", volume 16 of the Geophysics reprint series.