Howard Nicholls, Spectrum
Vice President

I feel privileged to be part of this great industry of ours. I have been lucky enough to travel the world as part of my job, and feel passionately about passing on the knowledge I have gained to the next generation of Geoscientists that will take our industry forward to meet the challenges to come.

I graduated from University College London with a BSc. in Geology in the middle of the great downturn of 1986. I spent 10 months temping in the City before I joined Geosource as a Junior Seismologist in May 1987, quickly learning my trade of processing land seismic on data from North Africa. But 20 months later Geosource and GSI merged to become HGS, and I moved to Spectrum Energy. 27 years later I am still at the now Spectrum Geo, having held a variety of positions within the processing department from Processing Geophysicist to Team Leader, processing 2D & 3D land and marine seismic data from all over the world. From the early 2000s I helped develop our fledging processing centre in Cairo, and in 2005-2006 I helped Spectrum establish a processing centre in Libya. In 2009 I accepted the role of Remote Sites manager, overseeing Spectrum’s processing centres in Cairo, Beijing, Islamabad and Jakarta. In 2012 I moved to Spectrum’s expanding Multi-Client department, where I now hold the position of Geophysical Manager, responsible for the QC of all processing performed on behalf of Spectrum MC in the EAME region.

I have been a member of the PESGB for over 20 years and am a regular attendee at the London Evening Lectures and Surrey Group Meetings. The lectures play a major role in one of the main objectives of the PESGB – promoting and sharing knowledge. I recognise these events, along with the Stoneley Lecture, are central to the success of the society, so they must be varied and interesting enough to encourage as many of our members as possible to attend and participate.  In the past we have been very successful at this, and so anyone putting themselves forward for the post of Vice President has a level of responsibility to continue the high standards set by those before. I am honoured to be nominated for the post of Vice President and believe I have the enthusiasm and skills to accept the challenge to continue the excellent variety of talks we have seen over the past years.

I am married with 2 children. My taste for good beer is shared with many of my colleagues in the society. I am a passionate Welshman and rugby fan and on match days can often be found in the bars of Cardiff sampling the local ales.

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