Bureau of Economic Geology Recent News and Events

February 11, 2013

February 2010

On February 25 Bridget Scanlon presented a talk at the World Bank titled "Novel Satellite and Ground-Based Techniques for Watershed Planning." The presentation emphasized work on use of the GRACE satellite for monitoring water-storage changes globally and also included information on a Google Earth product developed by Laurent Longuevergne, a postdoc at the Bureau. The work is based on a project with Professor Clark Wilson funded by NASA.

There was snow on the ground, but the reception was welcoming and warm when AEC members and project mentors traveled to Norman, Oklahoma, on Thursday,February 4, for a project site visit with Daniel Resasco and his co-principal investigators, Jeffrey Harwell and Ben Shiau. Representatives from ConocoPhillips, Schlumberger, Shell, Total, and the AEC attended in person; additional participants from Baker Hughes, Petrobras, and Halliburton joined by teleconference. This collaborative project requires expertise in catalysis and nanomaterials (Resasco) , interfacial chemistry (Harwell), and petroleum engineering (Shiau) and is supported by postdocs, graduate students and undergrads. This team is developing novel silica/carbon nanotube hybrids that aim to deliver catalysts directly to stranded oil. Daniel and the students presented on the first year's progress, visitors toured the University of Oklahoma's Sarkeys Energy Center and its research labs, and the visit concluded with lunch at the University Club. Some AEC members then met briefly with OU Professor Dean Oliver and his students, who are just starting a new AEC project this year titled "Data Analysis and Inversion for Mobile Nano Sensors."

The first annual UT GeoFluids Consortium Meeting was held Thursday and Friday, February 11 and 12 here on the UT Pickle Research Campus in north-central Austin. The meeting was enthusiastically received by more than 50 members from 10 international sponsor corporations and several academic institutions. The consortium is led at UT by Peter Flemings. He and other BEG researchers, including Ruarri Day-Stirrat and Mike Hudec, were among those presenting more than 20 talks during the 2-day event.

On February 24, Bruce Cutright gave an invited talk titled “Solving the Edwards Aquifer Perennial Water Shortages” at the EPA Ground Water Summit 2010: Aquifer Storage and Recovery, Aquifer Recharge, and Desalination of Brackish Ground Water. The meeting was held in the San Antonio Water System Buildings.