Simon Lang

Professor Simon Lang is a sedimentologist and stratigrapher with global experience including regional geological mapping, sedimentology/stratigraphy research, and petroleum exploration & development. He started at the Geological Survey of Queensland (1979-92) working for the Palaeontology and Regional Mapping departments, then joined Queensland University of Technology as Lecturer of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy (1992-1999). He then moved the National Centre for Petroleum Geology & Geophysics as Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide, which then became the Australian School of Petroleum (1999-2005), where his work on seismic stratigraphy, reservoir characterization, and modern depositional analogues was deployed for basin analysis and the pioneering phase of geo-sequestration in Australia (part of CO2CRC).

He left academia to join Woodside in Perth as a co-ordinator and manager of the Stratigraphy and Reservoir Analysis teams (2005-13) working on their major Australian assets (NWS, Pluto, Browse, Otway) and many international projects (including Mauritania, Libya, USA, Myanmar). He moved to Houston in 2013 joining Chevron (Energy Technology Company), as a Senior Stratigrapher in the Seismic Geomorphology team and worked as a global consultant on projects across the globe. He returned to Perth as Geologic Services Manager & Stratigraphy Advisor for Chevron Australia (2015-18) to continue work on their major Australian assets (Gorgon, Wheatstone, Janz, asset development and exploration licences), and other projects in New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.

He returned to academia as Professor of Practice – Petroleum Geoscience, and Director of the Centre for Energy & Climate Geoscience, University of Western Australia (2018-present). He has focussed on industry-funded research consortia on quantitative seismic stratigraphy (QSS Consortium) and modern and ancient reservoir analogues (RA Consortium) from 2019-2023, and now the next Phase of these projects combined (QRA Consortium) that runs to the end of 2026, funded by national and international industry sponsors.

Simon is a graduate of University of Queensland (BSc Hons 1985 & PhD 1994). He has published over 120 papers and geological maps, supervised numerous post-graduate students and run many field courses and core-workshops for academia and industry in Australia and SE Asia. He is a member of IAS, SEPM, AAPG, and PESA.

He was honoured as an Australian National Geoscience Champion in 2024 by the Australian Geoscience Council, representing all eight Australian geoscience professional societies, in recognition of his “major contribution to Australian Geoscience through decades of work and research across government, industry and academia”.