Dr. Lorena Moscardelli

Dr. Lorena Moscardelli is the Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology and the State Geologist of Texas. She holds the Edwin Allday Endowed Chair in Subsurface Geology at the Jackson School of Geosciences. Lorena co-chairs the executive council for the Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center and serves on the NCS2030 scientific advisory committee at the University of Stavanger in Norway. Prior to her appointment as director, she was the Principal Investigator of the State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery (STARR) program at BEG. Her expertise includes seismic geomorphology and interpretation, sedimentology and stratigraphy, and geoscience data integration. She earned a degree in Geological Engineering from Central University of Venezuela and a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin.

Her industry experience includes roles as an exploration geologist for the national oil company of Venezuela and as a researcher for the Norwegian energy company Equinor, where she worked on projects in the Americas and the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Her academic career spans over 10 years at the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG), where she also co-founded and co-directed the Quantitative Clastic Laboratory (QCL) in 2007.

Dr. Moscardelli is deeply committed to understanding the role of the subsurface in emerging energies while supporting ongoing oil and gas research to enhance the production and profitability of energy resources in Texas. She also encourages responsible economic development and supports education and environmental stewardship.