Blog & News

The Paul Milroy Carbonate Award

Tue 18 September 2018

Category: Community

The PESGB was set up with a very particular purpose in mind – to promote, for the public benefit, education in the scientific and technical aspects of petroleum exploration. It is with this purpose in mind that the PESGB has run events such as PETEX, PROSPEX and others, to raise money for disbursements to support not only the running of the charity itself, but to meet that purpose. To date the PESGB has supported initiatives from individuals doing MSc’s to donations to the Earth Science Teachers Association (ESTA), the Etches Collection and much more.
Our members will not be unaware that this has been more challenging over the last few years during this long downturn. However, we have managed to keep going, to cut costs and to increase the support we give to members who have struggled during this difficult time, adjusting our usual conference and training plans to include “back to work” training, and more networking events that include individuals seeking new opportunities.

The PESGB has also been supported by some very specific legacies – monies raised or given in memory of a particular member or personality in the industry. We have the Karen Reed Fund, given by the Reed Family in memory of a young geologist who was murdered. More recently, we have worked with the family of Dr Paul Milroy, who died recently doing field work at the relatively young age of 55 to create a legacy. Dr Milroy rose to the top of his field – carbonates – from challenged beginnings, and it has been suggested that we create a designated fund in his name, to support fieldwork in carbonates. This fund will be disbursed as the “Paul Milroy Carbonate Fund” and has been raised through donations by family, friends and colleagues.

The Fund is now open and donations can be made to:

Account number: 10056046
Sort code: 16-00-30
Reference: The Paul Milroy Carbonate Award

Legacy funding is a rather special way of leaving monies to a charity. It is a way of benefiting

individuals whilst ensuring that the memory of someone lives on – and bequests can be very specific, or more general. Legacies that are left for general purposes will go towards supporting the key purposes for which a charity was set up. A “Restricted Fund” is set up with very specific terms for disbursement – if no suitable recipient is found, the money can’t be used.

A “Designated Fund” – such as the Paul Milroy Carbonate Fund – is set up with a strong preference for the funds to be used for a particular purpose, but, if there are no suitable recipients, the focus changes or the terms become inappropriate for any particular reason, they can be changed with suitable justification. The family of Paul Milroy has specified this fund in order to ensure that the money raised is used in the first instance for fieldwork in carbonates, but if not appropriate, will still be used to fulfil the charitable aims of the PESGB – ie in promoting, for the public benefit, education in the scientific and technical aspects of petroleum exploration.

If you would be interested in setting up a similar fund, or making a bequest to the PESGB to celebrate the memory of someone’s life – or indeed your own – please talk to us about your wishes. You would also need to seek independent advice on adding such a bequest to your will.

About the Paul Milroy Carbonate Award

Paul Milroy was an exceptional carbonate field geologist who sadly died whilst doing fieldwork at the age of 55 on 26th May 2018. At the time, he was working on the Beachley Beach section (Gloucestershire) of the Mercia Mudstone, completing a paper that built on his PhD studies.
Paul had an MS (Florida State, 1992-1994), a PhD (University of Bristol, 1995-8) and spent time as a post-Doc at the University of Tokyo (1998-2001) where he met his wife Miki. He joined Badley Ashton (2001-5) followed by Shell (2005-9) and BG Group (2009-15) where he was Senior Carbonate Geologist. Since 2015, he had been working as a Consultant.

The “Paul Milroy Carbonate Award” has been set up, with the support of Paul’s wife, Miki, and Paul’s brother, Vincent, to support young researchers on carbonates and anyone bold enough to tackle the Mercia Mudstone Group. Paul had a challenging early school career, but subsequently shone, and the award is particularly designed to support those students with interests in carbonates but with insufficient funds for field and research-related visits.

The award (up to £500) will support students:

-Carbonate (incl. MMG) field work expenses/travel
-Carbonate training course travel (hopefully any fees can
be waived by the provider)
-Travel to carbonate conferences (e.g. Bathurst) particularly for student presenters

Please find the application form here and send to pesgb@pesgb.org.uk

Applications should be made to:
PESGB Membership Number, etc, marked “Paul Milroy Carbonate Award”

Application review committee
-Prof Patrick Corbett (Heriot-Watt University)
-Dr Andrew Barnett (Shell)
-Prof Paul Wright (Consultant)
-Prof Rachel Wood (Edinburgh University)
-Prof Michael Simms (National Museums Northern Ireland)

 

Paul’s wife Miki has said of the award: “I looked at PESGB website and thought that it seems an ideal organization for this purpose. Also, the fact that the award goes to young researchers is perfect as Paul was tirelessly helping and encouraging his juniors. He was thankful that he had had scholarships throughout his university life. I am sure that he would be very happy”.

The PESGB is very grateful to the family, friends and colleagues of Paul Milroy for their generosity and help in setting up this fund to support young carbonate researchers. We are honoured to be the means by which the fund can be disbursed, and look forward to the opportunity to support this valuable work.

 

Applications for travel to the 2019 Bathurst Meeting have to be in by 31st May

Paul Milroy, Leonardo Borghi and David Watson doing fieldwork in Brazil. Paul’s wife Miki noted that “Paul was a great believer of knowledge sharing”