Dr Cook has distinguished academic record in Australia, the United States and in the United Kingdom. He has some 130 publications to his credit.

In his early career he participated in the first geological mapping of the Amadeus Basin, in the geological mapping of Antarctica, in deep sea drilling studies and he led a major program to define the Phanerzoic paloegeography of Australia.

From 1982 to 1998 he had a distinguished public service career here in Australia at the Australia Bureau of Mineral Resources and in the UK as Director of the British Geological Survey.

In 1998 Dr Cook became the Executive Director of the Australian Petroleum Cooperative Research Centre.

Since 2003 he has been the Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies. For the past four years he as co-chaired the APPEA Conference technical papers committee.

The Weeks medal commemorates Dr Lewis Weeks who undertook pioneering work in Bass Strait as well as making a number of other international exploration achievements. The award was first made in 1982 and this is the 22nd occasion APPEA has presented the gold medal.

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