* Congratulations to Emeka Obianyor and his advisors James R. Derby and Kumar Ramachandran upon receiving the 2008 AAPG Mid-Continent Section Honorable Mention Imperial Barrel Award.

* Albert Nelson Murray, better known as “Cannonball” Murray, came to the University of Tulsa after completing his master’s degree at the University of Colorado and his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. He was chairman of the Department of Geosciences for 32 years from 1928 until he retired in 1960. The following Geoscience students will be honored with the A. N. Murray Award at the 39th Annual Honors and Awards Banquet on April 18, 2008:

  • Vanessa Andrews - Faculty Honor Medal and College Honor Medal
  • Aaron Palke - Faculty Honor Medal
  • Eric Vanderboom - Faculty Honor Medal
  • Meghan Weaver

* Congratulations to Erin Lewallen upon her successful defense of her thesis "Geophysical Investigation of the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer, Southern Oklahoma". She will be a May 2008 graduate and her research advisor is Kumar Ramachandran.

* Congratulations to Christie Houston upon her successful defense of her thesis "Middle Pennsylvanian Sequence Stratigraphy of the Red Fork Interval in the Vicinity of Southeast Thomas, Squaw Creek, and Bridgeport Fields, Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma". She will be a May 2008 graduate and her research advisor is Dennis Kerr.

* Justin Scroggs will graduate in May 2008 by completing his JD/MS degree. His research area for his non-thesis report is "Structural Evolution of the Sabine Arch, Texas". Bryan Tapp served as his faculty and research advisor.

* Geoscience student Ashley Johnson was selected for the Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant Program. She was nominated by the AAPG student chapter and funds will be used to assist with student travel to the AAPG meeting in April 2008.

* February 11 - 14, 2008, the Geosciences Department hosted Dr. William R. Dickinson, a professor emeritus of Geosciences at the University of Arizona and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is renowned for his work in plate tectonics, sedimentary geology and Pacific Oceana geology. He is considered to be one of the foremost experts on the geology of the Colorado Plateau.

* Papers presented at the Fall 2007 AGU National Meeting include the following from our Geosciences Department:

  • "Water and Melting in Back-arc Basins: New Perspectives from the Eastern Lau Spreading Center", by Langmuir, C.H., Bezos, A., Escrig, S., Michael, P.J.
  • "Trace Element and Isotopic Contraints on Mantle Source Heterogeneity and Subduction-related Fluids Along the Eastern Lau Spreading Center", Escrig, S., Goldstein, S.L., Bezos, A., Langmuir, C.H., Michael, P.J.
  • "Geophysical Investigation of the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer, Oklahoma, to Determine the Influence of Subsurface Structure on Groundwater Flow", Lewallen, E., Ramachandran, K., Tapp, B.
  • "Where Does Subducted Water Go? Estimates from Seismic Tomography of Serpentinite in the Forearc Mantle and Quartz in the Deep Crust", Hyndman, R.D. and Ramachandran, K.
  • "Constraints on the Northern Cascadia Subduction Zone Structure From 3D Shear-waves", Ramachandran, K. and Hyndman, R.D.

* Congratulations to our December 2007 graduates: Amy Beauchamp (BA-EES), Carla Landrum (BS-Biogeosciences), Oyebode Famubode (MS-Geology), Evren Ozeren (MS-Geology).

* Dr. Kumar Ramachandran (geophysics) was recently awarded a Summer 2008 Faculty Fellowship. Congratulations!

* Congratulations to Carla for her poster presentation and award. The poster title is: "An Investigation into Preventing the Vertical Migration of Salt from Brine Contamination" with co-investigators Carla J. Landrum, Shoeb Munshi, J. Berton Fisher, Eleanor M. Jennings, Kerry Sublette, William Redman, Bryan Tapp and Dan Weber. The award was announced at IC EST2007, The Third International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology sponsored by the American Academy of Sciences, August 6-9, 2007 in Houston, Texas. (http://www.aasci.org/conference/env/2007/awardees.html)

* Aaron Palke had a great Spring 2007 study abroad experience in Iceland. Kathleen McKee is studied abroad in Ireland Fall 2007.

* The 2007-2008 Geoscience Club Officers are: President - Amy Beauchamp, Vice-President - Ashley Johnson, Treasurer - Ryan Henry, Secretary - Chad Lollar, Friday Forum Chair - Dan Weber. Congratulations!

* Catherine Webster (alpine biogeosciences) presented posters at GSA 2007 in Denver and ISEB 2007 in Taupo, New Zealand.

* Dr. Michael will be traveling to China in late June to represent the Department and University in negotiations over possible exchange programs with Beijing University of Geosciences, Tongji University , and RIPED. He will be part of the delegation that includes Provost Roger Blais, members of PE, and Cheryl Matherly of Center for Global Education. 

* Vanessa Andrews was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa honor society on May 4, 2007.  Vanessa is one of 21 students across campus that were selected for this recognition. 

* Melissa Barton received the W.A. Tarr award from Sigma Gamma Epsilon honorary society for her service to the department and her scholarship.

* Cristie Mofield has been named our Outstanding Student.  She will be recognized by the Tulsa Geological Society on May 8, 2007.