SHREVEPORT, LA -- Jimmy Jones of Bossier City, a senior at Centenary College, is one

of seven students nationally to receive $1,000 scholarships from the Society of Independent

Professional Earth Scientists (SIPES) Foundation. Jones is a senior in physics and geology at

Centenary.

The Foundation, which administers the scientific, educational and charitable programs of

SIPES, accepted applications from upper-division or graduate students in any field of earth

science. Its 1998 scholarship recipients include undergraduates from the University of Texas

at Austin and Tarleton State University, master's program students from Rice University and

Wichita State University, and a doctoral student from the Colorado School of Mines.

Since its establishment in 1981, the SIPES Foundation has awarded scholarships to more than

90 promising earth science students. Funding for the 1998 awards was received from SIPES

members; a bequest from the estate of Marvolene Speed Bennett, widow of the society's

founding member, Carlton D. Speed Jr.; and from the Stephen E. Collins Memorial

Scholarship Fund.

The SIPES Foundation also conducts and films educational seminars, publishes technical and

business articles, and maintains a library of earth science films in Dallas, Texas. The society is a national organization of more than 1,300 self-employed geologists, geophysicists and engineers engaged primarily in energy exploration and development. It has 13 chapters located in oil and gas centers of the United States.

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