The Jackson School hired 17 new faculty members for the academic years starting in 2008 and 2009.

We have already profiled many of them and will feature the final six in 2010.

Dan Breecker*
Assistant Professor

Rose Came
Assistant Professor

Kerry Cook
Professor

Robert Dickinson
Professor and Jackson Scholar

Rong Fu
Professor

Tim Shanahan
Assistant Professor



Ginny Catania
Assistant Professor

Joel Johnson*
Assistant Professor

Wonsuck Kim
Assistant Professor



Jaime Barnes*
Assistant Professor

Liz Catlos*
Associate Professor

Rich Ketcham
Associate Professor

Luc Lavier
Assistant Professor

Afu Lin
Assistant Professor



Marc Hesse*
Assistant Professor

Kyle Spikes*
Assistant Professor



Julia Clarke
Associate Professor

* To be profiled in 2010

From Austin to the Poles:
Ginny Catania studies ice sheet dynamics in Greenland and Antarctica.

Ancient History:
Julia Clarke examines the mysterious origins of birds.

Code Talker:
Rich Ketcham develops computational methods to solve geoscience problems.

Simulating Nature:
Wonsuck Kim moves from virtual to physical modeling.

Studying Detachment:
Luc Lavier unearths clues to the formation of mountains and oceans.

Paleoclimate Sleuth:
Tim Shanahan uses organic geochemistry to uncover the past.

Working Under Pressure:
Jung-fu "Afu" Lin investigates mineral physics of planetary interiors.

The Big Picture:
Rong Fu uses satellites to study the interplay between the land surface and climate to better understand droughts and monsoons.

Summer Rain:
Kerry Cook’s climate research focuses on Africa and the Americas.

Beyond the Bucket:
Robert Dickinson works to improve how Earth’s land surface is represented in climate models.

Swept Away:
Researchers working on pore pressure in deep ocean sediments generally do not wind up at the center of media storms, but that’s where Peter Flemings found himself.

Born into Science:
Sergey Fomel grew up in Akademgorodok, literally “Academic Town,” a scientific hub in Russia’s third largest city, Novosibirsk.

Making Mountains:
For most of us, it’s hard to remember the moment when we first knew what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives. Not so for Brian Horton.

Renaissance Wonk:
Inventor, op-ed writer, policy wonk, and engineer—Michael Webber has done them all with success.

Coastal Oceanography:
Mead Allison studies areas where large rivers such as the Mississippi discharge into the oceans to better understand ancient delta systems and to reconstruct paleoclimate.

Science Online:
Aaron Averett develops internet applications that incorporate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in support of several Bureau projects.

Quantitative Seismic Geomorphology:
Dallas Dunlap interprets seismic data to understand the evolution of continental margins, which can lead to improved success in hydrocarbon exploration.

Petroleum Petrophysics:
Raymond Eastwood applies modern computer models to old well log data to help small, independent oil and gas companies determine reservoir potentials.

His Fault:
Faults, as Nick Hayman will tell you, are hazardous. They can also tell us about fundamental planetary processes such as plate tectonics.

West Texas Oil & Gas:
Rebecca Jones conducts regional sedimentological and stratigraphic studies in West Texas using core, thin sections, and wireline logs.

Underwater Landslides:
Lorena Moscardelli develops a classification system for submarine mass transport complexes which sometimes spawn tsunamis.

Sound Science:
Doug McCowan develops seismic analysis software to improve imaging and provide better measurements of subsurface attributes.

Tuning Up Climate Models:
Climate models have a hard time depicting clouds and extreme rainfall events. Michael Tobis gets under the hood to tune up the models.

Outcrops as Analogs:
Chris Zahm studies outcrops as analogs for subsurface reservoirs to better understand how fractures and non-matrix pores affect oil and gas flow.

Hitting Fast Forward:
First-time faculty member, hydrogeologist Bayani Cardenas, is anxious to get his feet wet. He studies surface water/groundwater interactions.

Ice Dynamics:
Ginny Catania hopes her work will lead to better predictions of how ice sheets will change in the future and how those changes might impact global sea level.

Salt Tectonics:
Tim Dooley's research focuses on gravity-driven salt tectonics using scaled analog modeling for reproducing real world systems.

Faults and Fractures:
Peter Eichhubl's research addresses coupled structural and diagenetic processes.

Sediments and Fluid Dynamics:
Matthew Hornbach's research applies to methane hydrates, submarine landslides, and life at hydrothermal vents on the seafloor.

Seismic Interpretation and Analysis:
Angela McDonnell's research has focused largely on the Gulf of Mexico and its deep gas play potential.

Geomechanical Subsurface Injections:
Timothy (Tip) Meckel's research aims to discover what happens when fluids are injected into the subsurface.

Going With the Flow:
David Mohrig studies the changing face of our planet. His work relates to underwater landslides,  tsunamis, wetland loss and channels on Mars.

Sentinels of the Sea:
Terry Quinn and colleagues drill into fossil corals to retrieve climate time capsules. What they're learning will help forecast future climate.

Sedimentological and Stratigraphic Studies:
Wayne Wright's regional research has focused on the greater Permian and Fort Worth Basins.