UTIG Alumni News

This page is a clearinghouse for former UTIG students and staff, particularly those on the 'net. Please drop us a line if you would like to be included. (Date in parentheses indicates when the information was last updated.)

Check out photos from recent meetings!

Check out group photos.
AGU 2003 Fall Meeting Photos

Going to a meeting? We'll see you there!

UTIG alumni and staff enjoy lunch at SEG 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah

The UT Dept. of Geological Sciences has an e-mail list, GEOSCIINFO, that former students can join.

To formally update your information with UT 'Texas Exes,' go to http://www.texasexes.org/.

Names are linked to e-mail addresses.

Peter Abel (BS, 2002) is working for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in Austin. Peter recently got married - Congratulations, Peter! (April 2004)

Scott Adamek (MA, 1986) is still working for Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. in Bellevue, Washington. Scott lives in North Seattle with wife Lisa, Sarah (8 yr), Luke (3 yr), and Allyson (10 months). (Nov. 2004)

Sunit K. Addy (former Research Scientist) retired from CGG Americas Inc. and is living in Round Rock. (Photo) (Feb 2007)

Imtiaz Ahmed (PhD, 2003) is working for BP in Houston. (Photo) (Jan. 2004)

Trevor Aitken (MS, 2005) is working as an Exploration Geophysicist in the International Division for Devon Energy in Houston. (Apr. 2006) (Photo)

Faruq Akbar (PhD, 1997) is working for GX Technology Corp. (Nov. 1999)

Aziz Al-Aslani (PhD, 2001) is working for Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. (Photo) (Jan. 2003)

Saleh Al-Saleh (MS 2001) is working on his PhD in Geophysics at the University of Calgary. (Photo) (June 2004)

Marty Albertin (MA, 1989) is working for BP in Houston, TX. For the last year and a half, he has been part of bp's Gulf of Mexico Subsalt Exploration Team

Salem Al-Juhani (PhD, 1999) is working for Saudi ARAMCO in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. (Nov. 1999)

David M. Angstadt (MA, 1983) is currently in Chevron Overseas Petroleum's Africa New Venture group working Equatorial Guinea's Rio Muni Basin. David had a great time partying in the excellent Afro-Pop nightclubs of Lagos in 1998 and 1999 - almost as good as Sixth Street - while working the Niger Delta. Several years of work with a great team resulted in two 500 MM barrel + wildcat discoveries during that period. David says, "My peace comes at work doing geology." (Recent Fieldwork Photo) (Photo) (May 2005)

Denise Apperson (BS 1987, PhD 1992) returned to UT in March, 2005, as Associate Chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences. She spent more than 12 years in a soft-money position with the Energy & Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah conducting applied research for the petroleum industry. Her research specialties include basin analysis, petroleum systems analysis, and sequence stratigraphic studies. Denise is discovering many surprising challenges in her new career, and only occasionally misses her research activities. (May 2005)

Olufemi Oladapo Babalola (MA, 1984) received a PhD from University of South Carolina, Columbia in 1990. Femi has been working in exploration and reservoir geophysics as a Houston-based consultant with major projects in the United States, Latin America and Africa. Since 1995, he has concentrated his practice in Computing Applications and Workflow Support using the industry’s major UNIX-Oracle based software in Seismic Interpretation, Integration and Visualization. He is developing his more recent interest in interfacing Exploration Computing Systems (or porting the knowledge-based technical results) into the Managerial Information Systems in order to facilitate managerial utility of exploration, reservoir and production information across the upstream petroleum enterprise. His wife, Adebola is midway in advanced professional training as Nurse Practitioner. Two sons are senior and sophomore majoring in Information Systems and Information Technology at the University of Houston. Two other sons are senior and sophomore in High School. (Photo) (Oct. 2002)

Stephen Babb (PhD, 1997) is an Exploration Geologist with British Gas International (Trinidad Ltd). He is currently involved in exploration projects off Trinidad's north and east coast.

Ajay Badachhape (MA, 1988) is working for IKON Science in Houston. (Photo) (October 2009)

Dan Barker (PhD, 1997) is working on crustal geophysics with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo) (Apr. 2002)

Lila Beckley (MA, 1991) is working for the GSI Environmental in Austin, TX. (Dec. 2007)

Juan Bermudez (PhD, 2003) is working for Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo. (Photo) (Jan. 2004)

Nick Bernitsas (PhD, 1991) is Senior VP of Technology for the GX Technology in Houston. (Photo) (August 2000)

Janelle Berry (former staff member) retired from UTIG. She is in real estate and is living in Austin. She joined us at our holiday party. (Photo) (Dec. 2003)

Allen Bertagne (MA, 1980) is Chief Operating Officer forFusion Petroleum Technologies Inc The Woodlands Office. (January 2007)

Cecilia Binig McCann (MA, 1990) is working for the SeisXperts in Houston and a mother of two children (Photo) (September 2001)

Judeene Blankenship (former staff member) is the Senior Administrative Associate for the Assistant Vice President for Development in the Office of the Vice President for Development at UT Austin. (Photo) (Dec. 1999)

Phil Bording (former Post-Doc) has been appointed as Research Chair of the Husky Chair in Oil and Gas Research at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Congratulations, Phil!! (Photo) (September 2004)

Lynn Broz (former staff member) retired from UTIG and is living in Austin. She joined us at our holiday party. (Photo) (Dec. 2003)

Keith Buck (MA, 1997) is working as a geologist for Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in Houston. (Photo) (May 2001)

Robert (Bob) Burger (PhD, 2002) is the Assistant Provost For Science and Technology at Yale University. (Photo) (Jan. 2007)

Carlos Calderon Macias (Phd, 1997) is working as a Geophysicist for Insttito Mexicano Del Petroleo. (Photo) (September 2001)

Guillaume Cambois (PhD, 1991) is the Executive Vice President of Data Processing and Reservoir Services for CGG (Compagnie Générale de Géophysique) in France. (Photo) (September 2001)

Steve Cardimona (PhD 1992) is a professor at Mendocino College in Ukiah, CA. Steve says, "It is about 2 hours north of San Francisco, up Hwy 101 in the wine country of the coastal ranges. I will be building a program in Earth Sciences. Very different than what I have been doing. Pretty exciting! Pretty Scary! I think it will be a really good move." Steve's son Warren, now 3 and a half years old, is amazing! In addition to (or in spite of) Steve's geophysics teaching and research, he has also written and published a historical novel Godiva and the Golden Dragon (www.stevenjames.org), chronicling the last years of Anglo-Saxon rule in England. Support a new author and buy a few copies! (April 2002) (Photo)

Danielle Carpenter (MA, 1996) is working for Chevron-Texaco in Houston, currently focusing research on Brazil. She visits UTIG often as part of Chevron-Texaco's recruitment efforts. (Photo) (Sept. 2004)

Steve M. Carlson (MA, 1984) has been a senior project manager at Chroma Energy in Sugar Land, TX since January 2001. Chroma is a small exploration company utilizing proprietary 3D seismic pattern recognition and visualization software. Steve lives in Sugar Land with wife Jenny and four kids and is refusing to grow old. He can be reached at scarlson@chromaenergy.com. (February 2004) (Photo)

Veronica Castillo (PhD, 2001) is in Venezuela. She is teaching a graduate course, Stuctural interpretation of sesimic data, at the university. (Oct. 2003) (Photo)

Donna Cathro (PhD, 2002) I have left Geoscience Australia and now work for a consulting firm called FrOG Tech. We are based in Canberra but do work all over the world so it has greatly increased my experience. I am also expecting no. 2 baby in January, with No. 1 (Alexander) a romping 2 yo. Graham is nursing and has just setup a biostrat consultancy ( http://www.aimbiostrat.com.au/). (Photo) (January 2007)

Bernard Celerier is the Charge de recherche CNRS at the Institut des Sciences de la Terre de l'Eau et de l'Espace De Montpellier in France. He is currently working on the mechanical organisation of fault systems and the experimental compaction of clays. Bernard's homepage is http://www.dstu.univ-montp2.fr/PERSO/celerier/index.html.

Raghu Chunduru (PhD, 1996) is working as a Senior Geophysicist for Shell in India. (Photo) (October 2009)

Les Cirilo (former GBDS undergrad assistant) left Anadarko in March of this year, and is now working for Samson in Tulsa, OK. He is still working as a geologist helping to identify and optimize tight and unconventional reservoirs. "We’re really excited about all the changes in our lives, new job, new town, new home, etc, but we will miss all our friends down in Houston". (Photo) (May 2007)

Stephen "Stoney" Clark (MS, 1999) is working on his PhD at Rice University in Houston. (Photo) (September 2004)

Ricardo Combellas-Bigott (PhD, 2003) is working for Chevron Corporation in Houston and enjoying his new baby girl, Alexandra Combellas-Jaimes, born in September 2005. (Photo) (May 2004)

Shane Cowley (Ma,1998) is working for Tullow Oil in Ireland. (Sept. 2009)

Julie Craun (former GBDS undergrad assistant) I moved to Colorado about 3 years ago to get a masters degree and have been working as an IT project manager for a company called HealthGrades. I did complete graduate work, but I took a bit of a different turn and went into a dual degree program for an MBA/Masters in IT. But sometimes I still really miss rocks and science, so who knows what the future will hold :)(Photo) (January 2007)

Dickson Cunningham (PhD, 1993) is a lecturer at the University of Leicester (same as Assistant Professor in US system) teaching global tectonics, remote sensing and photogeology, mineral deposit evaluation, and field courses in structural geology and geological mapping. The field courses that he teaches are in Anglesey, Wales, Arran Scotland, Almeria, Spain, and in the Swiss Alps. His research is primarily focussed on active processes of intracontinental mountain building in Central Asia. During the last 6 years he has worked in the Mongoian Altai, Hangay Dome and eastern Tien Shan regions. Further details about his research can be found at: http://www.le.ac.uk/geology/wdc2/wdchome.html. (Photo) (May 2001)

Tom Davies former UTIG Associate Directorand Manager of Science Services at the Ocean Drilling Program at Texas A&M is now retired and living in Bastrop, Texa. (Photo) (Dec. 2004)

Marcy Davis (MS, 2001) is a Research Scientist Associate at UTIG.

Scott Davis (PhD, 1989) is an independent consultant in Madison, Indiana. Scott's homepage is: http://clifty.com/scott/.

Rudi de Zoeten (MA, 1988) is an exploration geologist for Unocal Deepwater in Sugarland, TX. He previously worked in Los Angeles and spent 7+ years in Bangkok. (Photo) (Oct. 2004)

Don Dean, former support staff member, left ARCO after 10 years and then worked at Veritas Exploration Services in Houston as Principal Geophysicist but now a Sr. Geophysicist at Sanchez Oil and Gas Corp in Houston. (April 2006) (Photo)

David DeBalko (MA, 1991) left the oil and gas industry. He decided to change careers after receiving his MBA in finance and strategic management from Rice University in December 1998. He is now President of Logic Approach www.LogicApproach.com in Austin (September 2001)

Walter Denny is a Senior Geophysicist-Onshore Exploration with Dominion Exploration & Production in Houston, also a recent new Dad (Photo) (He says the shiner is from a recent basketball game?) (March 2002)

Jim Dolan is working for Raytheon Polar Services Company in Englewood, CO. (Jan. 2001)

Paul L. Donoho (former research staff) is retired and living in Santa Rosa CA (Feb. 2007)

John Dunbar (PhD, 1988) is an Assistant Professor in Baylor's Geology Department in Waco, TX (http://www3.baylor.edu/~John_Dunbar/. His two current research interests are the mechanics of continental breakup and passive margin formation (still) and acoustic sub-bottom profiling for water reservoir sedimentation studies. (Photo)

Laurie Schuur Duncan (MA, 1997; PhD, 2001) is working in Austin as a freelance science writer and as an adjunct professor at Austin Community College. She and her husband, Drew, welcomed a baby daughter, Emily, in February 2003. (April, 2003)

Joe Ebeniro (MA 1981, PhD, 1986) is currently a Professor of Physics and Leader of the Geophysics Group at the Department of Physics, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Joe says, "I have been enjoying my teaching and research in the Department of Physics, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria since leaving UTIG. I have been a Professor of Geophysics since 1995 and have been graduating about 5 - 10 graduate students annually. Between 1996 and 2000, I served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Journal of Physics-an international Physics Journal based in Nigeria. Currently, I am spending my one- year sabbatical at Shell-East, Nigeria where I am a geophysical adviser to the Geophysics Department in the Sub-surface Development Services (DTE-GPH). During this year, I will be working on Amplitude-versus-Offset techniques and the use of crossplotting to segregate hydrocarbon lithologies from non-hydrocarbon ones. In September, I will be bestowed with the Fellowship of the Nigerian Institute of Physics, a recognition of my immense contributions in Physics so far." (Photo) (Oct. 2001).

Alejandro Escalona (PhD, 2003) is working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at UTIG. (Photo) (Jan. 2004)

Eduardo Lopes de Faria (PhD, 1993) I am still working for Petrobras on Seismic data Processing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I am managing the Seismic Data Processing of E & P - Rio de Janeiro Business Unit. (Photo) (September 2001)

Laura Faulkenberry (MS, 1999) finished her PhD at University of Leeds and is now working at ConocoPhillips in Houston, TX. (March 2006)

Mike Faust (MA, 1984) is an exploration manager for ConocoPhillips in Anchorage. (Sept 2004) (Photo)

Jianhua Feng (PhD, 1995) is working for ExxonMobil in Houston in its Equatorial Guinea section. (Oct. 2002) (Photo)

Carl Fiduk (PhD, 1994) works at CGG in Houston as a Chief Geologist. (May 2004) (Photo)

Christopher Finn (MA, 1986; PhD, 1990) is a Research Associate for the Subsurface Imaging Division of ExxonMobil. (2002) (Photo)

William Fitchen (MA, 1992; PhD, 1997) is Chief Geologist for Occidental Mukhaizna in Al-Athaibah, Oman. (Sept. 2005)

Jacqueline Floyd (B.S., 1997) completed her PhD in Marine Geology and Geophysics at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y. She is web publisher and editor at ElementList.com. http://www.elementlist.com/element/blog/about.html

Alan Fuqua (MA, 1990) works for Chevron Corporation in Houston. (Photo) (Sept. 2004)

Lisa Gahagan (MA, 1988) is working at UTIG as a Research Scientist Associate, managing the PLATES Project (plate reconstructions). She and her husband, Alan, have a daughter, Tori, and a son, Ryan. (Photo) (Dec. 2002)

Jan Garmany (former Research Scientist) works in Austin for SPEC-Systems & Processes Engineering Corporation (September 2001) (Photo)

Tadeusz P. Gladczenko (former graduate research assistant) is working for Schlumberger and living in Walnut Creek, CA (March 2007) (Photo)

Jeremy Green (MA, 1984) works for EOG Resources in Houston. (Photo) (September 2001)

Joy Griffen Thomas (PhD,2001) works for Marathon Oil Company in Houston. (Photo) (May 2004)

Ken Griffiths (former research staff) is semi-retired on the beautiful, serene Lake Richland-Chambers just out of Corsicana (Feb. 2007)

Mark Gordon (PhD, 1990) works for GX Technology in Houston. He does pre-stack depth migration projects for energy companies anywhere they happen to be working (Australia, Brazil and exotic places like southern OK and Gulf of Mexico). (Photo) (August 2000)

David Gorney (MS 2005) David completed internships at Marathon & ExxonMobil and then accepted a permanent position with Marathon Oil Company in Houstoin. He is currently working onshore East Texas-North Louisiana. (March 2006)

Marco Guzmán-Speziale (MA, 1985) went on to get a PhD from New Mexico State University, 1990. He now works as a research scientist for the Instituto de Geofísica (Institute of Geophysics) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, at the Juriquilla, Querétaro Campus.

Trent Haines (former research staff) works for Stone Energy in Lafayette. from Trent: "I was a UTMSI kind of guy from August 1976 until February 1980 and then hoofed it over to Amoco in New Orleans. Have been a couple of short stints out of N.O. here and there until landing at Stone Energy in Lafayette." (Feb 2006)

Judith Haller (former staff member) has been working various Information Technology contracts with Apple Computer, Motorola, and other high tech companies. She is working as a consultant now. (Photo) (December 2003)

Leipin He (M.A., 1996) after receiving his PhD from Tulane he now works for the Minerals Management Service in New Orleans. (Photo)

Christoph Heubeck (M.A., 1988), after getting at PhD at Stanford ('94) and moving with Amoco around the world (Houston-China-Tulsa-Calgary), took the difficult step of leaving scenic western Canada and moving back to his home country Germany (after 15 years!). He started as Associate Professor of Geology at the Free University Berlin in October, 2000. He needs all the help he can get, so write him or pay him a visit (ceheubeck@yahoo.com; cheubeck@zedat.fu-berlin.de) ! His home page is: http://www.userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cheubeck/. (June 2000). (Photo)

Tim Hoar (M.A., 1993) is an Associate Scientist working on the Geophysical Statistics Project at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. He provides geophysical and computational support to statisticians entrained to work on atmospheric/oceanographic problems. Tim says, "Life in Colorado and the work at NCAR is great. They'll take me kicking and screaming, IF they can take me." Tim's homepage is: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/hoar.html. (Sept. 1998)

Mark Houston former Research Scientist in MSI Galveston Lab, is working in Houston as Director of Business Development for Litton Guidance Control Systems (Photo) (September 2001)

Raul Huerta (MA, 1980) is working with Exxon Upstream Development Company. As a Planning Advisor, he gets to see the "big picture" on some world class developments. "Tell everyone I said Hello." (Feb. 1999)

Carlos Huerta Lopez (PhD, 2002) is a research associate at the Dept. of Seismology of the Research Center and Higher Education at Ensenada. He is teaching and doing research in Global Seismology, Engineering Seismology, Geotechnical earthquake engineering, and Exploration geophysics. He is working on site effects is seismic ground motions; wave propagation techniques; Earthquake engineering seismology; analysis and modeling of spatially variable seismic ground motions; non-conventional signal processing techniques; simulation techniques; system identification; random vibrations; and non-destructive examination tests (NDT). His website is http://www.carloshuerta.info. (Photo) (March 2003)

Dan Huston (MA, 1987) is working at Hunter 3D (http://www.hunter3dinc.com/) in Houston as a consultant in geophysical exploration/development. (Oct. 2002)

Martha Jaimes (MS, 2003) is living in Houston with husband Ricardo Combellas, enjoying her baby girl, Alexandra Combellas-Jaimes, born in September 2005 and waiting on a new 2007 summer sibling. (Photo) (May. 2007)

Michael Jervis (PhD, 1993) is working for Aramco in its new Geophysics R&D department in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Mike says, "We have a big place so feel free to drop by." (Jan. 2003)

Junru Jiao (PhD, 2001) is working for PGS in Houston. (Sept. 2002)

Denise Kakas is employed by Schlumberger Geco-Prakla. (Photo)

Walter Kessinger (MA, 1991) is working at Fusion Petroleum Technologies in the Woodlands. Check out his website, http://walter.kessinger.com. (Photo) (March 2006)

Radim Kolarsky (MA, 1992) continues to run his geophysics/IT consulting business and also works as the Chief Geophysicist at Petrokazakhstan, a mid-size British/Canadian independent. His home of course is still in New Orleans. Radim says, "One nice thing about commuting to Africa and now to Asia have been those layovers in Paris and Frankfurt, which allow ample opportunity for test-driving exciting German hardware on the Autobahn. My webpage is www.kolarsky.com. Still only 2 kids and 2 cats." (Photo) (Jan. 2005)

Fanchen Kong (PhD, 1998) is currently working Kerr McGee Oil and Gas Corp in Houston. (October 2003) (Photo)

Lis Könnecke (MA, 1997) is still having a great time working as a field geophysicist for Schlumberger/Geco-Prakla. Her first year took her to as diverse places as Nova Scotia, Norway, The Netherlands, London, Germany (!), Congo, and now Brazil. Not to mention Houston and the Gulf of Mexico... Lots of frequent flier miles, lots of free time to use them, and an interesting job on top of that. What more can one ask for! Still live in South-Austin, with an eye or two on New Mexico. (Photo) (June 1999)

Junji Koyama (former Post-Doctoral Fellow) was a post-doctoral fellow at MSI in Galveston from 1977-1979, working with Yosio Nakamura. He is now a professor in the Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Japan. (April 2005)

Dhananjay Kumar (PhD, 2005) is working for Chevron in San Ramon, CA. (Photo) (web page) (April 2005)

John Ladd (former Research Scientist) is the Benthic Habitat Coordinator at the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation. (May 2002)

George Laguros (MA, 1987) is a Senior Geophysicist in the Gulf of Mexico Production Operations group at Marathon Oil Company in Houston, Texas. (2002)

Jeff Lawton (MA, 1982) is still busy as a geologist in California, now working for Bankers Petroleum (US) Inc.. (Photo) May 2007)

Tung-Yi (Tony) Lee (PhD, 1992; MA, 1987) is a Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University. Tony recently began serving as Dean of Research at the university. (Aug. 2004)

Ning Li (PhD, 1998) is working for Paradigm Geophysical in Houston. (Nov. 1999)

Li Xiang (former Research Fellow) works for Corel Corporation in Canada (Sept. 2002)

Faqi Liu (PhD, 1999) is working for Conoco in Ponca City, OK at their Seismic Imaging Technology Center (August 200) (Photo)

Julia Liu Hall is working in Austin as a Chief Executive Officer for an online company since 1999. She and her husband, Dr. Brad Hall (Chief Forensic Toxicologist) have two boys. (Sept. 2009)

Qunling Liu (PhD, 2000) is working as a Senior Geologist in Houston for Shell International E&P (Photo) (May 2002)

Xijin (CJ) Liu (PhD, 1995) is currently working for Phillips Petroleum's Worldwide Deepwater Exploration Division based in Houston as a senior geological specialist. (Photo) (June 2002)

Hongbo Lu (PhD, 2004) is working as a geoscientist for Shell in Houston. (Photo) (July 2004)

Gyorgy Marton (PhD, 1995) is now working for Chevron Corporation in Houston. (June 2003) (Photo)

Cristopher Marshall (BS, 1997) teaches in the Frisco ISD. (Photo) (June 2008)

Christina Massell (MS, 1997) completed her PhD (2002) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA. She is a Post-Doc at the UT Austin Dept. of Geol. Sciences working with Sharon Mosher. Christina and her new husband, Tim, are living in Virginia. (Photo) (Feb. 2003)

Doug McCowan (Former Research Staff) is the Technology Advisor for Reservoir Geophysical in Sugarland. (Sept. 2001)

Amanda McCutcheon (BS, 2002) is a staff geologist for Miller Brooks Environmental in Huntington Beach, CA. (Photo) (August 2004)

Tom McKenna (PhD 1997) is a hydrogeologist with the Delaware Geological Survey at the University of Delaware. Kim, Jillian, and Tom are enjoying the east coast beaches and being near their families in the motherland of Southern New Jersey. http://www.udel.edu/dgs/staffpages/tmck.html (Photo) (July 2007)

Jim McLaren (MA, 1984) spent 12 years in Pasadena, CA, modeling earthquakes for Woodward-Clyde Consultants. He moved back to Austin in '96 and is working in software development and system administration at Gresham Enterprise Storage. (Photo) (Sept. 2002)

Kenneth J. McMillen (Former Research Staff) works in Sonoma, CA for Knowledge Reservoir as a Consulting Geologist. (Photo) (March 2002)

Karen Meador-Hakim (MA, 1989) is works at Veritas Exploration Services in Houston as the Data Sales Manager for Derivative Products (Photo) (May 2004)

Timothy (Tip) Meckel (PhD, 2003) is a Research Associate at the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin. Tip and his wife Amanda are the proud parents of son, Ash. Welcome back to Austin, Tip! (Photo) (July 2006)

Gijs Meek was happily surprised to find out that the Shell booth he was manning at the AAPG 2005 Exhibition in Paris was located next to the UT Jackson School delegation. On the last day of the conference he was the lucky winner of the notorious Jackson School polo shirt. Gijs graduated in 2003 from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, but performed most of his thesis work at UTIG with Mrinal Sen. He currently works for Shell in the Netherlands in deepwater exploration. (Photo) (Sept. 2005)

Tom Miskelly (MS 2002) is a teacher at Hightower HS in Missouri City, Texas, just south of Houston. He is preparing our future geoscientists. (Photo)(Tom brought his class to the JSG-SEG luncheon in the Fall, 2005) (March 2006)

James Moore (MA, 1993) is working as a surveyor for SAM, Inc. in Austin. (Oct. 2004)

Anubrati Mukherjee (PhD, 2002) is working for Schlumberger Geoquest in Houston. (Photo) (April 2002)

Dietmar Müller (former PhD student) is a Lecturer in Geophysics at the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, Australia, since 1993. To see what he is up to have a look at http://www.es.usyd.edu.au/geology/people/staff/dietmar/dietmar.html (Sept. 2001) (Photo)

Qiaozhen Mu (former post-doc) is working with the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group at the Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences (School of Forestry), University of Montana (Oct. 2003)

Paul Murray (BS, 1995) is a research scientist associate in the Exploration Geophysics Laboratory group at the Bureau of Economic Geology, UT Austin. Check out his webpage, http://www.inetport.com/~paulm/. (Sept. 2001) (Photo)

Stefan Muszala (M.S., 1998) will be starting the PhD program at the University of Colorado-Boulder in computer engineering (December 2000)

Seiichi Nagihara (PhD, 1992) is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Texas Tech University. He and his wife, Susan, are looking forward to raising their daughter, Kelly, in Lubbock. (May 2004)

Jerry Newman (MA, 1987) is employed by Schlumberger Geco-Prakla. (Sept. 1998) (Photo)

Dirk Nürnberg (former PhD student) is working at GEOMAR on paleoceanographic/paleoclimatological in different ocean areas: Sea of Okhotsk (NW Pacific), N-Atlantic off Portugal, Caribbean, and Tasman Sea. His research concentrates on trace metals in foraminifers (e.g. Mg/Ca as a new SST-proxy), and on major and minor elements in bulk sediment (e.g. Ba as a proxy for productivity). (Jan. 2000)

Paul Nyffenegger (PhD, 1998) works with Applied Research Laboratories at The University of Texas at Austin (Photo) (September 2001)

Juergen Oberst (PhD, 1989) is currently with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin, Germany, where he is involved in a number of stereo camera and planetary cartography projects. A DLR camera will be leaving for Mars in 2003 to take fancy 3-D pictures of the planet. Check out http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/ for info on DLR's other exciting missions and projects. (Photo) (Dec. 2004)

Bill O'Brien (Research Scientist 1980-1985?) is an Associate Professor of Physics at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas (Check out his University Profile) (August 2002)

Jinyong Oh (PhD, 1993) is part of the Data Processing Group at the Petroleum & Marine Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geology, Mining & Materials (KIGAM) in Taejon, South Korea.

Stéphane Operto (post-doctoral fellow, 1995-96) returned to France in April, 1996. He works for CNRS at Géosciences Azur as a research scientist. (2004)

Charlene Palmer (former staff member) is enjoying her retirement. She lives in Austin. She joined us at our holiday party. (Photo) (Dec. 2003)

Ethan Perry received his PhD from UT in 2005. During his time at UT, he worked with Kathy Ellins on the GK-12 project (Lago Fagnano) Ethan received a Fulbright Fellowship and will be working in Sumatra for the next year. Ethan says,"My primary role will be working with high school teachers and their students to enhance their English language proficiency and awareness of earth and environmental science issues that impact their society (through teaching, curriculum development, extracurricular activities)." From Padang, West Sumatra. He has set up a web blog: http://ethanperry.blog.com

Reynam de Cruz Pestana (Research Fellow) is working at the Research Center for Geophysics and Geology at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. (Photo) (Oct 2002)

Ronald Phair (MA, 1984) "Took the package" offered during the recent Chevron-Texaco merger. He is enjoying exploring the net with his free time.

Joe Phillips (former Research Scientist) is retired and living in Austin. (Photo)

Eric Phinney (MA, 1997) is working Western Desert exploration for Apache in Egypt starting this month(Feb. 2007)

Denis Potapov (BS, 2006) former GBDS Undergrduate assistant is working for PGS in Houston. (Feb. 2007)

Andrew Quarles (PhD, 1996) Andrew graduated from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Chicago and moved back to Texas to work at Pioneer Natural Resources in Las Colinas where he is a Portfolio Coordinator in the Finance and Operations Group. Stacey says, "It's great to have him here!" (Photo) (Oct. 2004)

Stacey Tyburski Quarles (MA, 1992) is living in Calgary with husband, Andrew and 2 year old son Ian. (Photo) (Jan. 2007)

Matt Ralston (MA, 1994) after working in Western Australia for awhile he is back in school in a PhD program at University of Kansas in Lawrence. The scenery is beautiful, just like Austin-cornfields to the North, South , East and West. (Photo) (September 2001)

Rafael Ramirez-Serafinoff (MA, 1988) is working for Texaco. (Nov. 1999)

Brad Reid (MS, 2002) is a geologist for the Ground Water Quality Bureau in the New Mexico Environment Department. (Oct. 2003)

Brian Rader (Former staff member ) is working for Samadan Oil Corporation. (Photo) (March 2002

Christie Rogers (Former GBDS Undergrad assistant ) after finishing her PhD at Penn State is now working for ExxonMobil in Houston and will assist the JSG with GeoForce in the summer of 2006.. (Photo) (May 2001)

Rob Rogers (PhD, 2003) is an assistant professor at the California State University, Stanislaus. (Photo) (Jan. 2007)

David Rosenthal (MA, 1987) is working for Samson Resources in Houston. (Apr. 2006)

Phillip Rowell (PhD, 1994) taught geology in Brunei for two years before moving to Houston in 1996 to work for Marathon Oil company. (Photo)

Jean-Yves Royer (Post-doctoral Fellow) is working for the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale-Institut Universitaire Europeen de la Mer in Plouzane, France. His webpage is http://www-sdt.univ-brest.fr/~jyroyer. (Jan. 2000)

Dork Sahagian (former Research Associate) is the Executive Director of IGBP/GAIM (Global Analysis, Integration, and Modelling task force of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) and a Research Associate Professor of the Dept. of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. (http://www.unh.edu/esci/sahagian.html) (Nov. 2003)

Luis Sanchez-Barreda (PhD, 1981) is a consulting geologist in Wyoming, specializing in Latin America.

David Sandwell (former Research Scientist) is at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego (http://topex.ucsd.edu/sandwell/sandwell.html).

John Sclater (former Research Scientist) is enjoying being a fulltime teacher and researcher again at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, CA. (Photo) (Dec. 2004)

Vikramaditya ("Vik") Sen (PhD, 1998) is currently with the Upstream Technology Group of bp in Houston. (Photo) (September 2001)

Armando Sena (PhD, 2004) is an assistant professor at the Earth Sciences Institute of the Central University of Venezuela (Jan. 2007).

Kriyanti Setiyono (MA 1996) returned to Indonesia in March, 1996. Kriyanti said, "I hope you all can visit me some day. I'll be happy to put you up in my place!"

Mark Shorey (MA, 1987) joined Fast Geophysical Processing Solutions in March 2004 after spending 22 years with Northern Geophysical, and Western Geophysical/WesternGeco. His career has involved him as a navigation data analyst and senior geophysicist. He has a BA in Geology from Oxford University and a Masters in Geophysics from the University of Texas, Austin. Mark’s responsibilities are in FLQC, data processing and field support. He lives in the Channel Islands in Guernsey with his wife and 2 daughters. Check out his website: http://www.shorey.force9.co.uk. (Nov. 2005)

Samik Sil (PhD, 2009) is working at ConocoPhillips in Houston, TX. (Aug. 2009)

Hercules Silva (PhD, 1993) is at Petrobras, working with management since 1995. At present, he leads a team of 65 explorationists in SE Brazil. His team is involved with a major oil discovery in deep-water in northern Campos Basin. (Oct. 2002)

Ben Sloan (PhD, 1995) and family moved from San Francisco to Western Australia early in 2008 and are enjoying the laid-back aussie lifestyle in sunny Perth. In his spare time, he does a little work for Chevron on the Gorgon and Jansz gas fields - too much engineering and too little geophysics! (Photo) (Mar. 2008)

Chris Small (MA, 1989) is currently living in New York City and working as a research scientist at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. His research focuses on the structure and evolution of ocean basins and applications of optical remote sensing to land surface monitoring. For details, see: www.LDEO.Columbia.edu/~small. (June 2001)

Livia Squires (PhD, 1993) is living in Los Angeles where she is an independent software consultant. She also performs stand-up comedy at clubs like The Laugh Factory in Hollywood and the Pasadena Ice House. (Photo) (May 2001)

John Stachowiak (MS, 2000) is a Petrophysical Engineer at Shell. John says, "I'm currently the petrophysicist for a development project in the Mars-Ursa basin, deepwater GOM. Its been a really exciting three years (since leaving UTIG), with a very steep learning curve. I found that the skills required in industry are often quite different to those needed in school! My wife Katie and I are having a great time in New Orleans. We're enjoying the local running club and music scene." (Feb. 2003)

Tracy Stark (PhD, 1986) Has formed his own consulting firm, STARK Research and is very confident he will be very successful! He is the proud father of a daughter (Photo) (May 2004)

Fumiko Tajima (former Research Scientist) is a full profeessor at Hiroshima University in Japan with a faculty position in the Department of Earth and Planetary Systems Science. She is a member of the Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors Laboratory. (Photo) (2007)

Mehmet Tanis (PhD, 1998; MA, 1993) is working for bp. He is working in London now. (Photo) (September 2001)

Alison Teagan Henning (MA, 1997) is working on her PhD at Rice University. She and husband Todd are the proud parents of Mark Edward, born in March 2003 (Photo) (April 2003)

Galen Treadgold (MA, 1985) is working as Vice President for Weinman GeoScience in Dallas (Photo) (May 2004)

George Tsoflias (PhD, 1999) is an assistant professor (http://people.ku.edu/~tsoflias/") in the Dept. of Geology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. (Photo) (April 2004)

Eric Tuitjer (MS, 2003) is working for Chevron-Texaco in Houston. (Photo) (Jan. 2004)

Jean-Paul van Gestel (PhD, 2000) is working at BP in Houston as an interpretation geophysicist. Check out his homepage. (Photo) (August 2000)

Carlos Varela (PhD, 1996) is working at Petrobras in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Kathleen Wall (B.S., 1988) is working at Schlumberger/GeoQuest in Houston, Texas.

Rob Walters (MA 1985, PhD, 1991) is working for ExxonMobil Exploration in Houston, Texas. (Photo) (March 2002)

Chengshu Wang (PhD, 2003) is working for China National Petroleum Corporation in Beijing. (Photo) (Aug. 2003)

Paul Weimer (PhD, 1989) holds the Bruce D. Benson Endowed Chair in Petroleum Geology in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and serves as Director of the Energy and Minerals Applied Research Center (http://emarc.colorado.edu/faculty/paul_weimer.html. His research interests are in sequence stratigraphy, reservoir geology, 3-D seismic interpretation, and the petroleum systems of deep-water continental margins. (Photo) (September 2001)

Karah Wertz (PhD, 2003) is a programme development consultant living in Adelaide in South Australia. (Photo) (Dec. 2008)

Charles D. Winker (MA, 1979) works as a Senior Research Geologist for Shell E&P Technology Co. (April 1999)

Warren Wood (PhD, 1993) is still working as a research geophysicist with the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, MS. His research interests continue to center around the technique of high resolution reflection seismology. He works with 250-650 Hz data to determine the distribution of methane hydrates and fluid flow conduits on the 1-10 m scale, and is working with 5-50 kHz data to quantify bottom roughness and structure on the 1-15 cm scale. Warren and his wife, Caroline, have just moved into a larger home, still in Slidell, LA, where Ben (7), Ryan (5) and Zack (3) help Warren with his gardening. Caroline loves her work as a director of education at a local church, and they are all quite happy.(Photo) (September 2001)

Xinxia Wu (PhD, 2004) is working for ConocoPhillips in Perth. (Photo) (July 2004)

Ganyuan Xia (PhD, 1997) is working in the Seismic Imaging group for bp in Houston. (Photo) (September 2001)

Youlong Xia (former Postdoctoral Fellow) is a member of the research staff of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton. (Photo) (Dec. 2004)

Qiucheng (Mike) Ye (PhD, 1995) works as a Sequence Stratigrapher for Texaco Exploration and Production. (October 2000) (Photo)

Sally Zellers (PhD, 1995) is a Professor of Geology at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, MO. (Photo) (October 2003)

George Zemlicka (MA, 1988) is a Production Geophysicist for ExxonMobil. Currently in Aberdeen, Scotland, George and his wife, son (4) and daughter (7) will be returning to Houston this summer. (Feb. 2003)

Lian-She Zhao is working at Molecular Dynamics in Sunnyvale, CA. He is a software engineer, developing aglorithms and user interfaces.

Ran Zhou (PhD, 1996) is working for VSFusion, a division of Baker Atlas,in the research department, in Houston, Texas. (Photo) (August 2006)