Program Personnel

expandFaculty/Researchers

flemingsPeter Flemings
Co-Director of UT GeoFluids Consortium

Dr. Flemings specializes in stratigraphy and flow through porous media. He uses seismic, well, and core data to characterize subsurface systems, and he uses theoretical modeling to study stratigraphic and hydrodynamic evolution. Dr. Flemings is a professor in Geological Science.

germaineJohn Germaine
Co-Director of UT GeoFluids Consortium

John “Jack” Germaine is a Senior Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a world leader in experimental methods in geotechnical analysis. In recent years Jack has worked on small-strain nonlinearity of normally consolidated clay and has explored factors affecting the initial stiffness of cohesive soils.

luoGang Luo
Research Associate

Gang Luo earned his Ph.D. in geosciences from University of Missouri-Columbia, in 2009, his M.S. and B.S. in geophysics and geology from Peking University, P.R. China. His primary research interest is computational geodynamics and finite element modeling on stress within and around salt, fluid flow, fault interactions, earthquake stress triggering, crustal/lithospheric stress and strain evolution during earthquake cycles.

NikolinakouMaria-Katarina Nikolinakou
Research Associate

Maria is a Civil/Geotechnical Engineer. She earned her ScD from MIT in 2008, her MSc from MIT and her Diploma from NTUA, Greece. She specializes in theoretical soil mechanics and the constitutive modeling of earth materials. She is interested in understanding the stress state within and around salt bodies. Before joining the Bureau, Maria worked as a postdoc for Shell in the Depleted Drilling Group.

Julia SchneiderJulia Schneider
Postdoctoral Fellow

Julia joined the UTGeoFluids group in Fall 2006. Her interests are in mudrock consolidation, overpressure generation and evolution, and subsurface fluid flow. As part of the UT Geofluids group, Julia is involved in geotechnical laboratory experimentation to analyze material properties, fabric as well as compression and permeability behavior of mudrocks. She is working on various materials such as Boston Blue Clay and Nankai mudstone from offshore Japan. Julia earned her Ph.D. in Geosciences from The University of Texas in 2011, her B.S. and M.S. in Geosciences from the University of Bremen.

 

expandStaff

Peter PolitoPeter Polito
UT GeoFluids Laboratory Manager

Peter is responsible for all UTGeoFluid laboratory facilities at UT’s Pickle Research Campus.  He is responsible for all laboratory activities, safety, purchasing, managing of personnel and equipment, and is the UTGeoFluids official brewer. His background is in fluvial geomorphology where he used experimentally derived mechanical properties of rock to constrain bedrock channel evolution and morphology. Peter received a BS in geology and MS in applied geosciences from San Francisco State University in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

Donnie BrooksDonnie Brooks
UT GeoFluids Laboratory Assistant

Donnie provides mechanical support and assistance with machinery in the GeoFluids lab. Donnie received an BS in Physics from Auburn University and an ME in Radiological Health Engineering from the University of Michigan.

tessa greenTessa Green
Projects Director

Tessa is responsible for project management and marketing activities of the UT GeoFluids Consortium. She is the webmaster, logistic person, and all around answer lady. In addition Tessa is responsible for coordinating the annual UTGeoFluids meeting and oversees financial management of the consortium.

nelsonHeather Nelson
Assistant Director

Heather is a consultant for the UT GeoFluids group. She serves as the UT GeoFluids librarian, data manager, and assists with running a productive research group. She resides in State College, Pennsylvania and works for NASA in her free time.

loganJennifer Logan
Administrative Associate

Jennifer is with the Bureau of Economic Geology. She assists UT GeoFluids with travel and administrative needs.

  

expandCurrent Students

adamsAmy Lynn Adams
Graduate Student seeking S.M., MIT

Amy joined the MIT team in 2009 and is working on a thesis related to stress dependent permeability anisotropy behavior of clays. Her work involves laboratory experiments on resedimented Boston Blue Clay and includes flexible wall constant head tests as well as constant rate of strain (CRS) tests. Cubic specimens are used to allow multidirectional testing on a single specimen in the constant head device. Amy earned her bachelor’s degree in Geological Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada and gained interest in laboratory testing and material behavior through co-op work placements with a geotechnical engineering firm.

bettsWilliam Betts
Graduate Student seeking M.S., UT Austin

William is studying consolidation and deformation of mudstones in the Nankai Trough area of offshore Japan. He joined the UT Geofluids group in 2010. He has a B.S. in Geology from Brigham Young University, and completed an internship with NASA in 2009.

caseyBrendan Anthony Casey
Graduate Student seeking S.M., MIT

Brendan is a Master’s student studying geotechnical engineering at MIT. He completed a BEng in Civil and Environmental Engineering at University College Cork, Ireland, in 2009 and joined the UT Geofluids group in early 2010. Brendan’s research focuses on high stress one-dimensional consolidation and undrained shear behavior of cohesive soil. He is also developing a new high pressure triaxial testing device with associated auxiliary equipment for testing conventional sized soil specimens in compression and extension modes of shear as well as having capabilities for one-dimensional consolidation.

Michael Cronin
Graduate Student seeking PhD, UT Austin

Michael joined the UT GeoFluids consortium in fall 2011 after receiving a B.S. degree in Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering and a B.S. degree in Geosciences (Honors) from the Pennsylvania State University in May 2011. As a first year PhD student, his research interests include geomechanics, methane hydrates, and large scale fluid flow modeling. Currently he is working on transient permeability measurement techniques in mud rock. Undergraduate internships include working as a hydrologist for the USGS (Summer 2009), as a production engineer at ConocoPhilips (Summer 2010), and as a reservoir engineer at Shell (Summer 2011).

gaoBaiyuan Gao
Graduate Student seeking PhD, UT Austin

Baiyuan will be studying sedimentology, stratigraphy, basin analysis and petroleum geology for the UT GeoFluids group. She will be joining the UT team after earning a B.S. in Resource Exploration Engineering from China University of Petroleum.

horanAiden Horan
Graduate Student seeking S.M., MIT

Aiden is a Masters of Science student studying Geotechnical Engineering at MIT. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering (Ordinary) in Civil Engineering from the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in 2005 and received his Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Civil Engineering from the National University of Ireland, Galway in 2007. Aiden is contributing to characterising the fabric and mechanical properties of mudrocks over effective stresses from 0.1-10 MPa. He will be studying the effect of salt concentration on the compressibility of soils such as Gulf of Mexico mudrock and Boston Blue Cla. This work will help develop a geomechanical model for mudrocks that will better allow us to predict compaction behavior, pore pressure, and borehole stability at geologic stresses.

marjanovicJana Marjanovic
Graduate Student seeking S.M., MIT

Jana is a Masters student majoring in Geotechnical Engineering. She graduated from MIT in 2010 with a B.S. degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering. She first became acquainted with the geotech field doing research in the soils lab under Dr. Germaine as an undergraduate. After deciding to continue her studies at MIT, she joined the UT Geofluids group and is conducting her research in the use of Bender Elements to propagate waves through soil specimens and accurately determine the soil's properties under different confining stresses.

merrellMichael Merrell
Graduate Student seeking M.S., UT Austin

Michael joined the UT GeoFluids consortium in fall 2010. His research focuses on understanding how pressure and stress behave in the vicinity of salt bodies along the Sigsbee Escarpment in the GOM. He uses logging data, pressure measurements, and drilling records to characterize the in-situ pressure and stress across the Mad Dog field. He is also using high resolution seismic data to map key horizons to build a 3D geometry of the Mad Dog field. My future work will include developing conceptual and quantitative model of stress, pore pressure, and deformation around salt to describe the evolution of stresses and fluid pressures beneath salt sheets. Michael received his B.S. degree in Petroleum Geology from the University of Oklahoma in May 2010. Undergraduate internships include Apache Corporation (Summer 2010), Mt. Dora Energy (Spring 2010), Mewbourne Oil Company (Summer 2008-09), and Oklahoma Geological Survey (Spring 2008).

smithAndrew Smith
Graduate Student seeking M.S., UT Austin

Andrew joined the UT GeoFluids consortium in fall 2010. His research focuses on seafloor vents in deepwater Gulf of Mexico, and he is currently working a on a coupled model of flow, salinity, and hydrate formation at vent locations in the Ursa Basin. Andrew earned his B.A. in 2010 in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. During his undergrad, Andrew completed geology internships with IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany (Summer 2009) and with ECU Silver Inc. at an underground silver mine in Velardena, Mexico (Winter 2009). He will intern at ExxonMobil’s Exploration Company in Houston this summer.

youYao You
Graduate Student seeking PhD, UT Austin

Yao joined the group in fall, 2009. He is now working with Dr. Peter Flemings and Dr. David Mohrig in Jackson School of Geosciences. His interests are in quantitative modeling of crustal fluids and geomorphology. He is currently studying failure in sand caused by breaching in subaqueous and submarine environments, and he is also trying to model the pore pressure in Ursa Basin using soil properties measured by the GeoFluids group. Yao earned his B.S. from Peking University in China and he majored geology and mathematics. He then got his Master's degree in Indiana University where he worked with Dr. Mark Person on pore pressure in compacting basins and fluid flow in faults.

expandPast Students/Researchers

day-stirratRuarri Day-Stirrat

Ruarri is interested in mudstone diagenesis, fabric anisotropy and physical properties. He joined Shell following his work with UT GeoFluids

johnsonSean Michael Johnson, S.M., MIT

Sean Johnson studied geotechnical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology His research interest included Wave Propagation through Bender Element agitation using Ticino Sand.

 

sawyerDerek Sawyer, PhD

Derek studied sedimentation, deformation, and fluid flow on continental margins. Upon completion of his PhD, Derek, joined the Operations Geology group of ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas.

 

strongHilary Strong, M.S.

Hilary's thesis focused on consolidation characteristics of mass transport complexes in the Ursa Region. Upon completion of her MS, she joined ExxonMobil as an Operations Geologist.

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