Academics & Research

Awards prove students rock

The Geoscience Alumni Association presented awards to three students for posters they presented at the Houston Geological Society Joint International and North American Dinner.

The awards were split into three categories: Tier 1, for undergraduates and first-year masters students, with a prize of a $500 travel grant; Tier 2, for advanced masters and first year Ph.D. students, with a $750 travel grant; and Tier 3, for advanced Ph.D. students, with a $1000 travel grant. The recipients were Maria De Los Santos, Long Huang and Azizuddin Aziz.

With the help of these travel grants, students are able to attend conferences and events to present their research posters.

Petroleum Geosciences Programs Director and professor Donald Van Nieuwenhuise, who was one of judges of the posters, said students benefited from just being at the event.

“It’s a chance (for students) to interact with industries and see how an industry really works and get to see a professional meeting,” Nieuwenhuise said. “They got to show what they can do; even the ones who didn’t win are winners, because they got to show some people who might hire them in the future what they can do.”

The dinner hosted the annual Robert E. Sheriff Lecture Series, where BP Vice President and Gulf of Mexico Appraisal Director Cindy Yeilding presented “What a Difference a Few Decades Make: Exploration History of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Deepwater.”

“First, we’re going to talk about the first round of exploration here in primary super salts and then move into slightly deeper sediments and slightly deeper water as we talk about second-phase exploration,” Yeilding said. “Then we’ll come in and talk about, as we’re going deeper, in getting into more complex imaging and deeper water, but also moving up back up into shallower water, but with wells moving up into 30 to 35,000 deep; total depth.”

In addition to Yeilding’s presentation, Department Chair and professor Hua-Wei Zhou showed the progress of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

“EAS is expected to award 194 degrees in 2013, which is an all-time record,” Zhou said.

Zhou informed the HGS of the available positions at UH and thanked BP, Swift Energy and the International Explorationists Group of HGS for their sponsorship.

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