Recent Jackson School People & Science Featured in the Media

• Current In the News
• July 2006-June 2007
• 2005

Rebuilding New Orleans needs science, report says

New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 20, 2006
A 20-person panel of the American Geophysical Union recommended improved hurricane and storm surge forecasting and a reliance on high-quality scientific data to guide the rebuilding of New Orleans and other hard-hit areas of the Gulf Coast. Charles Groat, a geology professor at the University of Texas and former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, said the committee has been helpful in pointing out the failure of experts to communicate their individual research findings in the hurricane prediction and coastal restoration debate to each other. "We brought people together who we assumed were talking to each other -- and they weren't," Groat said.
Read Times-Picayune article.

Officials plan for anticipated visit by FutureGen officials

Midland Reporter-Telegram, MyWestTexas, June 17, 2006
Members of FutureGen Texas and the Permian Basin FutureGen Task Force met Friday at the Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission to discuss preparations for a site visit from the FutureGen Industrial Alliance. "I believe once they come to West Texas, there will be no question that not only do we as a region support the effort but we want it here," said Stephanie Sparkman, chairman of the task force. Jay Kipper with the Bureau of Economic Geology and also a member of FutureGen Texas, agreed support will be a key criteria in securing the project.
Read MyWestTexas.com article.

Geoscience Training in Full Force

Geotimes, June 2006
In summer 2005, Doug Ratcliff, assistant dean of the Jackson School of Geociences at the University of Texas in Austin, and colleagues launched GeoFORCE, a program that selects 40 new students per year from South Texas who will spend about a week every summer from 9th through 12th grade learning about careers in geology. “The goal is to try to get more students into that math-science pipeline that the nation is really thin on,” says Stephen Hammond, a USGS hydrologist who worked to recruit exhibitors. Based on student reaction, the corporate-sponsored venture appears to be a big hit.
Read Geotimes article.

New dean to assume post at UT's Jackson School

Daily Texan, June 1, 2006
Eric J. Barron will assume his new post at UT's Jackson School of Geosciences this summer. Barron, who is taking over Dean William L. Fisher's position, said there are many possibilities to help the Jackson school, which was established in 2002. "It's a new school, but the programs that are in it are very strong," Barron said. "The opportunity to grow and to move in new directions is unprecedented because of the Jackson Endowment."
Read Daily Texan article.

Who is Mark Myers, nominee to head USGS?

Nature, May 17, 2006
If confirmed by the Senate, Mark Myers would be the first USGS director in decades to come neither from academia nor from within the agency. His history has made many academic geologists nervous, says Charles Groat, the agency's previous director. "The biggest question is, since he is so identified with oil and gas, what is his agenda?" says Groat, now at the University of Texas, Austin.
Read Nature article.

Earth sciences dean to leave Penn State

Austin American-Statesman, Centre Daily, May 12 & 18, 2006
Eric J. Barron, the dean of the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, will leave the university this summer to join the University of Texas at Austin. Barron, 54, is slated to join Texas in August as the dean of its Jackson School of Geosciences. A donor in 2002 gave the school a $232 million gift and a mandate "to create one of the elite geosciences institutions in the world."
Read Centre Daily article.

Ph.D. student helps lead journey to depths

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 8, 2006
The search for life beneath the icy crust of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, is beginning in an unlikely place -- 1,140 feet below the Earth's surface, on a private cattle ranch in the coastal plains of northeast Mexico, site of the world's deepest sinkhole. What scientists learn from the sinkhole, El Zacaton, could help unravel the mystery of life beyond Earth. "We're not just going down to explore caves but to show that this could have applications far beyond that," said Marcus Gary, a doctoral student in hydrogeology at the University of Texas at Austin and the project's logistics coordinator.
Read Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article.

As oil prices set record, lawmaker touts gouging bill

Environment & Energy News, April 19, 2006
As oil prices continued their record-setting climb, Rep. Bob Stupak (D-Mich.) urged House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to allow for a House vote as soon as possible on his price gouging bill, H.R. 3936. But at least one economist is blaming the price rise on an "extremely speculative" commodities market that at least on the oil side could be off by as much as $20. "There's a big difference between the market fundamentals and what's going on," said Michelle Michot Foss, chief energy economist at the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas.
Read Environment & Energy News article.

Texas must build plants - and soon, experts say

Dallas Morning News, April 18, 2006
Texans this week got a small glimpse of what life might be like in 2010 if power companies don't build more generation plants. Demand for electricity peaked Monday as record-high temperatures prompted folks to turn on air conditioners. Electric companies weren't ready, causing a rolling electricity blackout across the state. If all goes as some experts predict, however, as power prices rise with demand, power companies will build more generators. "The market is very healthy. This is a good place to be. People like investing in Texas," said Michelle Michot Foss, chief energy economist for the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas.
Read Dallas Morning News article.

Barrier islands: Scientists seek management plan

Biloxi Sun-Herald, April 15, 2006
In the middle of an oversized conference room in the IP Hotel & Casino, 10 coastal scientists from across the country met this week to consider a strategy for managing North America's barrier islands. "You've got to talk about how much things are worth," said Jim Gibeaut, a geologist from the University of Texas at Austin. "What we are trying to get at is to recommend a strategy for managing barrier islands. There's a lot of development going on, like in Texas, and there's no sign of it slowing down, even with last year's storms."
Read Biloxi Sun-Herald article.

Big oil and gas finds share similar geology

The Oil Daily, April 13, 2006
When it comes to finding giant oil and gas fields, nothing beats looking in the same regions and the same types of geological setting that have yielded the biggest discoveries in the past. By contrast, trying to open up entirely new areas with no established hydrocarbon production is a risky business that typically fails to yield major finds. Those complementary conclusions were voiced in Houston this week by Paul Mann of the University of Texas and Andrew Latham of research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie at the annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Read The Oil Daily article (UT access or subscription required).

Oil geologists are hot commodities

Houston Chronicle, April 12, 2006
With energy companies in a race to find more fossil fuels, petroleum geologists are hot commodities, demanding pay increases and often jumping ship for better offers, more stock options and fat bonus checks. Young recruits are particularly prized, like Andrew Petter, a doctoral candidate in geology at the University of Texas at Austin. Petter has been asked by several companies to sign a letter of intent to work for them when he graduates—two and a half years from now.
Read the Houston Chronicle story.

Big Oil makes big push in campus recruiting

MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post et al., April 11-12, 2006
A story from the Associated Press picked up by news outlets around the country reports that “Big Oil” has been doing some big recruiting on U.S. campuses this year — as have many smaller companies in the petroleum and natural gas business. The combination of high prices, an aging work force and a tight pipeline of trained workers has the industry desperate for talent. Job offers to three students at the Jackson School of Geosciences—graduate student Matt McDonald and undergraduates Thuan Phan and Kim Nguyen—tell the story.
Read the AP article at MSNBC.com.

Story to be told and sold: talent is sought and valued

AAPG Explorer, April 2006
Prices are up and companies are flush, but if you peek below the bottom line, you'll discover the international oil companies are facing what Bureau of Economic Geology Director Scott Tinker refers to as a significant "trilemma": their three greatest assets—reserves, talent and technology—are drying up. Solutions to the "trilemma" will entail concerted effort among a number of groups, says Tinker, who cited a few of the steps they must take.
Read the AAPG Explorer story.

Jackson School ranks No. 9 overall in earth sciences

U.S. News & World Report, March 31, 2006
The latest graduate school rankings from U.S. News & World Report placed the Jackson School No. 9 overall among graduate programs in earth sciences. U.S. News ranked the Jackson School in the top 10 in three of its four earth science specialties: geology (No. 5), geophysics and seismology (No. 9) and paleology (No. 9).
See the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

FutureGen could aid research into desalination of brackish water in West Texas

Midland Reporter-Telegram, March 19, 2006
Now that Odessa is one of Texas' two proposed sites to host the $1 billion FutureGen project, local officials are looking at how to meet the power plant's requirements. Natural gas needed for the plant would be readily accessible in the Permian Basin. But in arid West Texas, water to cool the plant could be a concern. That's why local officials, who understand they can not compete for drinking water, are looking to desalination of brackish water as a possible answer.
Read story at MyWestTexas.com.

New geosciences model explains ocean formation

Nature, March 16, 2006, PhysOrg.com, March 17, 2006
Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences and the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, have developed a new model to explain how continents break apart to form new oceans. Their discovery may improve targeting of deep-water oil and gas reserves. A description of the model appears in the March 16 edition of Nature under the title, "A mechanism to thin the continental lithosphere at magma-poor margins."
Read PhysOrg.com article or Nature report online.

FutureGen Texas site narrows to Odessa & Jewett

Odessa American, Midland Reporter-Telegram, March 15, 2006
Permian Basin officials cheered when Gov. Rick Perry announced Odessa and Jewett in East Texas had been chosen as the two sites the state will propose to house the federal FutureGen power project. The decision followed months of entertaining competitive bids from across the state, a process led by the Bureau of Economic Geology. Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams praised Gov. Perry "for having the foresight to move Texas down the road of clean coal technology [and] Dr. Scott Tinker and his team in identifying and reviewing sites across Texas."
Read article at MyWestTexas.com.

Giddings field shows how quickly things can change

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 7, 2006
A decade ago, the Giddings Field in the Austin Chalk limestone formation was the Barnett Shale of its day: Texas' leading energy producer and the talk of the industry. But today, the Giddings Field serves as a cautionary tale for the boomtown euphoria that has settled over the Barnett Shale around Fort Worth, where production has doubled since 2002. But experts, like Ian Duncan, associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, are more optimistic about the Barnett Shale and don't think its decline will be as abrupt and steep as Giddings'.
Read Fort Worth Star-Telegram article (requires free registration).

Texas natural-gas rides high, while oil slump persists

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 6, 2006
If Texas' oil and gas industries were baseball teams headed to spring training, the scouting reports would read something like this: Oil has fallen into a slump caused by age, while natural gas rides a boom that can be explained in two words—Barnett Shale. "The future for natural gas in Texas is in unconventional fields like the Barnett Shale, where new technology can be brought into play," said Dr. Ian Duncan of the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology.
Read Fort Worth Star-Telegram article (requires free registration).

Should North Carolina embrace offshore exploration?

WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio, March 7, 2006
Several bills making their way through Congress would weaken a moratorium on offshore exploration on the Atlantic coast. Historically, North Carolina lawmakers opposed offshore drilling, but skyrocketing prices at the pump and foreign oil dependence have pushed the issue back into the spotlight. Is North Carolina sitting on a black gold mine or will offshore exploration ruin the coastal economy? Host Frank Stasio speaks with Charles Groat, director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the Jackson School of Geosciences, Michael McOwen, a publisher and activist from Manteo, and Bill Whitsitt, president of the Domestic Petroleum Council.
Listen to the WUNC audio file.

Bolivian policies likely to inhibit gas exploration

Geotimes, March 2006
Last May, Bolivia passed a new hydrocarbon law that significantly "jacks up the tax for production," says Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin. The high taxes place Bolivia at risk of losing outside investment. And "Bolivia doesn't have the capital to develop its own resources," says Tinker. Around the world, companies and countries are stepping up the search for unconventional energy resources. Countries such as Bolivia, says Tinker, mired in political debates about how to develop conventional resources, "could get left behind."
This article is only available in the print edition of Geotimes.

Repairing Gulf Coast highway may fight erosion

Beaumont Enterprise, Feb. 28, 2006
The strip of sand between the salty Gulf of Mexico and the freshwater McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge in Sabine Pass, Texas, is slowly being whittled away, although helped along by the big bite Hurricane Rita took out of it last September. Hurricane Rita took out part of the coastline between High Island and Sea Rim State Park, said Jim Gibeaut, a researcher with The University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology. His team took aerial surveys before and after the hurricane and are working to compare those to historical surveys.
Read article from the Beaumont Enterprise.

Texas town sees its future as an energy port

MSNBC, Associated Press, Feb. 17, 2006
The only business left in Quintana, Texas, is the Quintana Yacht Club—a restaurant with fresh seafood but no yachts. But the population of 38 will double next year when Quintana welcomes the nation’s first new liquefied natural gas storage facility in more than two decades. Energy companies need places to store gas imported to ease domestic supplies; but some communities worry about hazards of a spill or explosion. The most significant LNG accident took place more than 60 years ago in Cleveland, according to The University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology.
Read MSNBC story.

Texas competes for coal plant of the future

KUT Radio, Jan. 13, 2006
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that it will build a one-billion dollar, pollution-free coal plant called FutureGen. Texas is working hard to bring the plant here with efforts coordinated by The University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology. As KUT's Michael May reports, it could be a boon for the state.
Listen to KUT audio file.

Congress considers weather modification

NPR Marketplace, Jan. 2, 2006
With more intense hurricane seasons forecast over the next several years, the Senate is considering funding research into taming nature's fury. Institute for Geophysics researcher Rob Scott questions the wisdom of such an approach.
Listen to the Marketplace Report.

New computers uncover old quakes on the moon

Discover Magazine, January 2006
Three decades after NASA pulled the plug on a network of sensitive seismometers on the moon, scientists have taken a second look at old research and discovered the moon was doing more shaking than they realized. With new computing power, University of Texas geophysicist Yosio Nakamura has been able to reanalyze old data from the 1970s, ialtering our view of moon geology. Ranked No. 49 among the top 100 discoveries of 2005, according to Discovery.
Read Discover article (pdf) or see related feature on JSG Web site.

Also see: Fall 2005: Jackson School in the News

For more information, contact J.B. Bird, Jackson School of Geosciences, jbird@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623.