Awards & Scholarships

Kate Hadley Baker is now retired from BP America in Houston, Texas. Her career has spanned many areas among the geoscience and engineering disciplines, including geotechnical, drilling, and reservoir engineering; geology; geophysics; and formation evaluation. Baker started her career at Exxon Production Research Company, working as a research geologist, becoming supervisory geologist in the Reservoir Description Section. She then moved from senior to district geologist positions in Exxon’s Offshore Division, then to head of formation evaluation at Exxon Company USA. After serving in various managerial roles at BP and its predecessor companies, she became distinguished advisor and director of new well delivery in BP’s Upstream Technology Function, serving also during 2009–10 as Vann Fellow to Princeton University.

Baker was awarded SPE Distinguished Membership, and Rotary International made her a Paul Harris Fellow. Among many professional volunteer positions, she has served with the US National Science Foundation Advisory Committee and US Department of Energy (DOE)/Office of Basic Energy Sciences Council on Earth Sciences. She currently chairs the annual peer review for the US DOE Geothermal Technologies Program Office and is secretary of the American Rock Mechanics Association. In her association with SPE, Baker is proudest of helping nurture it as an international organization, as a participant in the digital age, and as custodian of international reserves and resources definitions. She earned a BS degree in geology and a PhD in geophysics—both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.