William Abriel (Bill) received his B.S. in earth science (1975) and his M.S. in Geophysics (1978) from the Pennsylvania State University. He joined Chevron oil Company in the fall of 1978 and worked for Chevron in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Perth Australia, and San Ramon California from 1978 to the present. During this time, he has been involved in many interesting projects in operations, seismic research and deployment. Bill was the first Chevron user or developer of the following technologies: 3D subsalt depth migration, 3D prestack depth migration, reservoir estimates from 3D seismic amplitudes, reservoir characterization from seismic data for reservoir simulation, 3D AVO, 3DDMO, dual sensor bottom cable acquisition, turning wave migration, and forming a team of geology, geophysics and reservoir engineering. During this time, Bill has worked on projects in areas including Gulf of Mexico offshore and onshore, North Atlantic (USA, Canada, UK, and Africa), West Australia, Brazil, China, and Saudi Arabia.

Bill is an active member of the SEG, EAEG and AAPG. He has served on the board of The Leading Edge, and as an associate editor of Geophysics. Bill also serves with the SEG Development Geophysics and Global Affairs committees, and is the current President of the Bay Area Geophysical Society. He has been a co-chair of technical meetings including the first SPE deepwater conference ('97), the Latin American Geophysical Convention (Caracas '98), and the Society of Brazilian Geophysics (Salvador '01).

Bill's interests include the pleasures of life with his law professor wife, raising three children, and coaching lacrosse.