The Web site for Earth Science Week (ESW) has a new home at the Bureau. Established in 1988 as part of the American Geological Institute’s mission to increase public awareness and understanding of the earth sciences, ESW has become an annual, worldwide event held during the first full week of October. There is a lot to learn about earth sciences and ESW at the relocated Web site, http://www.beg.utexas.edu/esw, including the Career Day Fair hosted by the Bureau. 05/29/01

Former Bureau Director William Fisher appeared on the PBS news program NewsHour Wednesday evening with other energy experts to debate the Bush administration's current energy proposals focusing on fossil fuel supplies. For details, including access to streaming audio and a transcript of the program, click here. 05/24/01

"Our objective will be to have the ear of the administration in communicating the concerns of our constituency," says graphics illustrator Pat Alfano, the Bureau’s recently elected representative for the new UT Staff Council. The Staff Council is the result of efforts by Human Resource Services, together with support from UT President Larry Faulkner and the University Leadership Council. For more information, click here to visit the UT Staff Council Web page. 05/24/01

The 2001 Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Technical Program Committee, chaired by Senior Research Scientist Bob Hardage, gathered at Bureau headquarters on Wednesday, May 23, 2001, to make final selections for the 2001 SEG International Exposition and 71^st Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. (Details) 05/23/01

Martin Jackson (left) and Eric Potter (right)

Associate Director Eric Potter and Senior Scientist Martin P. A. Jackson arrived in Houston Wednesday, May 16, 2001, to present an overview of the Bureau’s Industrial Associates programs to Burlington Resources Oil and Gas and Conoco. The two made their presentations to chief geologist Byrd Larberg and interested staff at Burlington Resources Oil and Gas. They then traveled to Conoco to reprise their presentations for Dan Burggraf, Basin Analysis and Structural Geology group leader, and invited staff. Eric presented a general overview of Bureau IA programs; Martin discussed the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory and membership opportunities. 05/17/01

Dr. Gary Pope, Director of the Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, spoke at the Bureau’s Friday morning seminar on May 18, 2001, at 8:30 a.m. His topic was "Surfactant Cleanup of Groundwater Contaminated by Organic Liquids (Examples of the Important Roles of Site Characterization, Laboratory Experiments, Flow and Transport Modeling, and Engineering Design on the Success of Field Projects)." Visit the Center’s Web site by clicking here. Dr. Pope's Internet biography page can be viewed here. (Abstract) 05/17/01

On Wednesday, May 23, 2001, Bureau Director Scott W. Tinker was in Tyler, Texas, to address the East Texas Geological Society at its monthly meeting. Scott's presentation was titled "Value of Applied Research and the Natural Gas Supply: How the U.S. Natural Gas Production Curve Was Built and How It Will Be Sustained in the Future." (Abstract) 05/16/01

The Salt Mine

The Salt Mine is a browser-based, interactive, and comprehensive atlas of salt structures currently in production at the Bureau’s Applied Geodynamics Laboratory (AGL). When complete, the 20-module atlas will hold thousands of images of salt structures from around the world. This archive of salt models, seismic sections, field photographs, maps, satellite images, and cross sections will be the most exhaustive collection of salt images ever organized. The Salt Mine will serve as both an introduction to salt tectonics for salt novices and a unique and comprehensive source of analogs for experienced users. (Details) 05/16/01

Scott Hamlin, who worked at the Bureau for 15 years before returning to school in 1998 to complete a Ph.D. in Geology at UT, has returned to work at the Bureau as a Research Scientist. While in graduate school, Scott worked with UT Professor Bill Galloway and the Energy & Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah compiling an electronic catalog and GIS of deep-water reservoirs. Scott’s interests include stratigraphy, hydrogeology, and petroleum geology. In his new assignment at the Bureau, Scott is developing hydrogeologic data sets as inputs to a numerical model of groundwater flow in the central part of the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer. 05/11/01

Bureau employees gathered Thursday, May 10, 2001, for the Bureau’s 6^th Annual International Luncheon. The International Luncheon is a celebration not only of the great cultural diversity at the Bureau, but also the achievement of those Bureau staff receiving service awards. This year, 11 Bureau employees received awards representing 190 combined years of BEG service! (Additional photos) 05/11/01

Back row (left to right) Jay Raney, Joel Lardon, Bureau Director Scott Tinker, Charlie Kerans; front row (left to right) Jana Robinson, Sue Hovorka, Jamie Coggin, Amanda Masterson

Scott Rodgers, Program Manager of Media Technologies, traveled to Houston on Thursday, May 10, 2001, to present "Web-Based Training for the Petroleum Industry" to a Petroleum Technology Transfer Council workshop titled "Putting the Internet to Work." Scott is part of the Bureau team charged with developing educational Web-based modules, which include reservoir characterization technology, for the American Geological Institute. 05/11/01

The Bureau welcomes scientist Rebecca Harrington Jones to its growing team of research stratigraphers. A senior geologist with ExxonMobil in Houston for more than 2 years, Rebecca earned her M.S. in Geology from the University of Wyoming and a B.S. degree in Earth Sciences, with high honors, from Dartmouth College. Her fields of interest include clastic and carbonate stratigraphy and geochemistry. 05/09/01

Mr. Guadalupe "Lupe" Rendon has signed on as the new supervisor of the Bureau’s Midland Core Research Center (MCRC). Lupe has several years’ experience in supervising and UPC inventory tracking. He joins Andrew Faigle there at MCRC to continue the essential day-to-day management of the center’s enormous collection of rock core and cuttings. 05/09/01

Zilker Park Clubhouse was the happenin’ site of live music, volleyball, dancing, and barbecue Sunday evening, May 6, 2001, as faculty and staff from the Bureau, the Department of Geological Sciences, and the Institute for Geophysics joined forces for a geosciences picnic. (Photos)

Left to right: Luiz Landau, Giuseppe Bacoccoli, José Luis Drummond Alves, Ricardo Perez Bedregal, and Jay Raney

The Bureau hosted visitors from Brazil and Ecuador the first week of May. Srs. Bacoccoli, Landau, and Bedregal from Coordenação dos Programas de Pós-Graduação de Engenharia (COPPE), an engineering component of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, spent May 2–6, 2001 with Bureau researchers discussing potential joint research projects.

On May 3 and 4, 2001 the Bureau hosted Srs. Terán and Gallegos from Ecuador's Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (ESPOL) to discuss the possibility of joint research projects in Ecuador.

Left to right: Ing. Heinz Terán Mite, Ricardo Gallegos Orta, and Jay Raney