New faculty members, a move into the Oxley College of Health & Natural Sciences, and new alumni board leadership are just a few of the recent exciting changes in TU’s Department of Geosciences.
New faculty, new college, new opportunities
Three new faculty members – Matt Hamilton, John Volesky, and Aaron Ball – joined the Department of Geosciences this past year, and in July, Geosciences moved into the newly reorganized Oxley College of Health & Natural Sciences. The department will continue to educate students in petroleum systems and explore collaborative areas such as energy transition, environment, and medical geology. As we kick off the 2023-24 academic year, we are focused on working closely with university leadership to build a plan that will guide our department into the future.
Faculty course updates
During the 2022-23 academic year, Aaron Ball taught Physical Geology, Sedimentary Rocks, History of the Biosphere, and Rocks & Minerals. He also began preparing two courses for the fall 2023 semester: Introduction to Oceanography; and Special Topics: Critical Minerals, which will bring student attention to the economic importance of mineral ore deposits specifically related to technology. As a member of the Oxley College of Health & Natural Sciences transition team, he has represented the Department of Geosciences during the recent reorganization and is working with the Dean Search Committee to advocate for a dean who values geosciences. Ball also presented a talk at the 2023 TEDxUTulsa that explored the continued importance of geoscience in contemporary society, and a video will soon be available for our department to share when recruiting students.
John Volesky created a new course in the fall 2023 semester: Introduction to Remote Sensing and Imagery Analysis. This course introduces students to the principles of imagery science, the art of imagery interpretation, and the process of imagery analysis. In Remote Sensing, we interpret and analyze imagery, extract information from the imagery (qualitative and quantitative data, geospatial, temporal, and spectral data), and use the information to help answer questions and solve problems.
Matt Hamilton teaches Geological Hazards and Catastrophes, Physics of the Earth, Structural Geology, Applied Geophysics, and Geology of National Parks. He is also acting as the faculty advisor for the Geoscience Club and teaching Sedimentary Rocks and Processes beginning this semester.
Recent faculty publications
Graham D., Michael P., Truong T. (2023). Carbon isotope composition of basalts from Loihi Seamount: Primordial or recycled carbon in the Hawaiian mantle plume? Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 617, 118248.
Wu Y., Pan S., Chen Y., Chen J., Yi S., Zhang D. and Song G. (2023). An unsupervised inversion method for seismic brittleness parameters driven by the physical equation. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. 10.1109/TGRS.2023.3273302.
Poian V., Theiling B., Clough L., McKinney B., Major J., Chen J. and Horst S. (2023). A machine learning approach for ocean worlds analog mass spectrometry: Exploratory data analysis (EDA). Frontiers, accepted.
Liu X. and Chen J. (2023). Electric field and potential distribution in layered homogeneous borehole fluids and its logging responses of resistivity logging through casing. Geoenergy Science and Engineering, 224, 211532.
Wen X., Qin Y., Pan S., Chen J. and Gou Q. (2023). Study on selection and direct inversion method of brittleness index for shale reservoir. Acta Geophysica, 71, 757-768.
Liu X., Shen G. and Chen J. (2022). AVA Inversion of Fluid Parameters in Porous Media Using An Accurate Estimation of The Jacobian Matrix. Geophysics. 87(6), N95.
Wu Y, Pan S., Chen J., Song G. and Gou Q. (2022). A Surface-wave Inversion Method Based on FHLV Loss Function in LSTM. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. 10.1109/LGRS.2022.3187020.
Recent faculty presentations
Matt Hamilton, Geophysical Society of Tulsa, March 9, 2023
Title: Strongly negative field-dependence of magnetic susceptibility in rocks from the basement cover interface of Northeastern Oklahoma
Aaron Ball, TEDxuTulsa, University of Tulsa, March 6, 2023
Title: Rocks & Human Progress
Alumni Board updates
The Alumni Board has been hard at work exploring ways in which the alumni network can best support the ongoing needs of the Department of Geosciences.
- New board members have been elected: Sloan Anderson is the chair, Tim Witham is vice-chair, and Kyle Reamer is secretary.
- The Geosciences department has historically been a diverse department with students hailing from around the world. Jingyi Chen, Department Chair of Geosciences, along with Sloan, Kyle, and Tim, recently met with TU’s Vice Provost of Global Engagement to strategize about increasing the geosciences department’s enrollment of international students. This represents a great opportunity for the recruitment committee of the alumni board as well as the university.
- The Geosciences department hosted a TU Geoscience Happy Hour at the IMAGE conference in Houston last September. If you attended, thank you for making the time to catch up and socialize. If you would like to know the next time a TU Geoscience Alumni Happy Hour occurs, please reach out to Joel Donahue, chair of the alumni outreach committee.
- The Alumni Board is meeting at least once every semester. If you would like to contribute your time to helping, please reach out to Sloan Anderson at sloan.anderson@dvn.com.
Student achievements
Conference presentations
Valeff E., Ghidina M., Galan A. and Chen J. (2023). Comparison of dynamic slip sweep with nodes and flip-flop mode with geophones: A case study in Neuquen Basin, Argentina. Seismic Reflection Centennial Workshop, Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), April 12-14, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.- Valeff E., Ghidina M., Galan A. and Chen J. (2023). Case study: 3D survey design using small-scale vibrators merged with previous sismigel data acquired in Llanos Orientales Basin, Colombia. Seismic Reflection Centennial Workshop, Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), April 12-14, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
- Hasan F., Li J. and Robert K. (2023). Human and climatic pressure in shelterbelt declining and their effects on microclimate and wheat production in Oklahoma, USA. American Association of Geographers (AAG), March 23-27, Denver, Colorado.
- Clough, L., McKinney, B., Theiling, B., Da Poian, V., Chen, J., Major, J. and Seyler, L. (2022). Autonomous astrobiology pipeline for biosignature detection from ocean worlds mass spectrometry: data prioritization and machine learning, American Geophysical Union (AGU), December 12-16, Chicago, Illinois.
- Theiling, B., Clough L., Da Poian, V., Major, J., McKinney, B., Chen, J. and Seyler, L. (2022). Squeezing every last ‘bit’ of information from Enceladus mass spectrometry. American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022 Conference, December 12-16, Chicago, IL.
- Luo H., Xing Y., Wang C., Zhang J., and Yang P. (2022). Lithofacies prediction of shale based on broadband spectral inversion. Second International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy/page 1403-1407, Aug. 29-SEP 4, Houston, Taxes.
- Clough, L., McKinney, B., Theiling, B., Da Poian, V., Chen, J., Major, J. and Seyler, L. (2022). Nearest-neighbor machine learning feature selection for interpretation of microbial molecular signatures from isotope ratio mass spectrometry data. Geological Society of America Abstractswith programs, v. 54, No. 5, October 9-12, Denver, Colorado.
- Wang M., Chen J., Zhao Z., Ji K. and Chang S., (2022). The calculation of first-arrival P-wave traveltime for attenuating TTI media, Second International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy/page 2571-2575, Aug. 29-SEP 4, Houston, Taxes.
- Chang S., Wang M. and Ji K., 2022, A method to identify subtle carbonate reservoirs, Second International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy/page1428-1431, Aug. 29-SEP 4, Houston, Taxes.
- Undergraduate student Holly Hilst presented work on mercury contamination in southeastern Oklahoma at the TU Student Research Colloquium, March 27-31, 2023.
Employment and internships
Graduates
- Seth Pinnoo: Geothermal, Devon Energy, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 2023 summer
- Malik Muhammad Raheel: Environmental Research, Think Environmental, Hollyfrontier, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2023 summer
- Malik Muhammad Raheel: Geologist Geochemical Analyst, King Canyon Buffalo Geochem & Mudlogging LLC, Vincent, Iowa, 2023 summer
- Seth Pinnoo: Drone survey, Imerys Company, Fernley, Nevada, 2022 summer
- Lily Clough (MS in Geosciences, graduated in December 2022): PhD student, Computer Sciences, The University of Tulsa
- Ezequiel Valeff (MS in Geosciences, graduated in August 2023): Tecpetrol company, Argentina
Undergraduates
- Beau Crockett: Mine Engineer, Erlen Group, Springfield, Missouri, 2022 summer
- Cailin Stauffer: Environmental Research, Lithochimeia LLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2022 summer
- Hannah Whorton (BS in Geosciences, graduated in May 2022): Policy Advisory, Hamm Institute for American Energy, OSU Oklahoma City
- Sarah Jackson (BS in Geosciences, graduated in August 2022): GIS Analyst at Williams, Tulsa
Scholarships and awards
Graduates
- Seth Pinnoo received the Graduate Scholarship from Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City (GSOC) in spring 2023.
- Ezequiel Valeff received the Graduate Scholarship from Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City (GSOC) in spring 2023.
- Yiran Xing received Meshri Scholarship award from TU Geosciences department in spring 2023.
- Yiran Xing received Graduate Fellowship from Oklahoma Geological Foundation (OGF) in spring 2023.
Undergraduates
Ellie Cooper received the Tulsa Rock & Mineral Society Scholarship in fall 2022.- Beau Crockett received the TU McMahon Scholarship for the field camp in spring 2023.
- Helena Gutzmer received the TU McMahon Scholarship for the field camp in spring 2023.
- Paloma Probart received the TU McMahon Scholarship for the field camp in spring 2023.
- Helena Gutzmer received the Black Field Camp grant from Oklahoma Geological Foundation in spring 2023.
- Paloma Probart received the Black Field Camp grant from Oklahoma Geological Foundation in spring 2023.
- Helena Gutzmer received the Field Camp grant from Oklahoma Geological Foundation in spring 2023.
- Paloma Probart received the Field Camp grant from Oklahoma Geological Foundation in spring 2023.
- Cailin Stauffer received the scholarship from Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City in spring 2023.
- Beau Crockett received the scholarship from Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City in spring 2023.