Master’s Thesis Presentations
The Master of Science (MS) degree at the Jackson School of Geosciences is considered to be the professional degree for a career in the Geosciences. This degree is the foundation for students pursuing employment in the petroleum industry, environmental and hydrogeological fields, state and federal government agencies, and other related geoscience fields. Some students also use the MS degree as preparation for pursuing a Ph.D.
The Energy & Earth Resources Interdisciplinary program provides the opportunity for students to prepare themselves in management, finance, economics, law and policy leading to analytical and leadership positions in resource-related fields. The private sector and government organizations face a growing need for professionals that can plan, evaluate, and manage complex resource projects, commonly international in scope, which often include partners with a variety of professional backgrounds.
As requirements for these degrees, students must present a professional talk on Master’s Thesis Presentations.
Previous presentations from 2019 to 2025 can be found here.
Master’s Thesis Presentations Agenda for Friday, April 17, 2026
- First Place:
- Second Place:
Session A1: JGB 2.216
Session Chairs: Tanner Johnson and Berit Hudson Rasmussen
Theme: Water & Resource Management and Climate Tools
| Time | Student | Advisor(s) |
| 2:00-2:15 | Jacob Kruel (GEO) Fire-Driven Changes in Soil Structure and Hydraulic Function Across Seasonal Burns in Central Texas |
James Thompson |
| 2:15-2:30 | Amber Nguyen (GEO) Seawater-Groundwater Mixing Dynamics in a Groundwater-Fed Estuary: Ria Celestun, Yucatan, Mexico |
Bayani Cardenas |
| 2:30-2:45 | Vivian Yale (GEO) Impacts of Hydrogeologic Processes on Water Quality in the Middle Trinity Aquifer: A Hill Country Field Station Case Study |
Jay Banner and Daniella Rempe |
| 2:45-3:00 | Sydney Libbing (GEO) The Tradeoffs of Being Resilient: Assessing Environmental Impacts of Reflective Pavement to Mitigate against Urban Heat |
Jay Banner |
| 3:00-3:15 | Ella Reid (EER) Evaluation of Texas’s Water Infrastructure Funding: Equity in Disadvantaged Communities, Privatization, and Regulation |
Bridget Scanlon |
| 3:15-3:30 | Lauren Trotter (EER) From Statute to Stream: Barriers to Environmental Flows Policy in Texas |
Patrick Bixler |
| 3:30-3:45 | Audrey Donovan (EER) Water We Doing About Drought: Evaluating the Impact of Drought Contingency Plans in the Texas Hill Country |
Justin Thompson, Bridget Scanlon and Daniella Rempe |
| 3:45-4:00 | BREAK |
Session A2: JGB 2.216
Session Chairs: Fletcher Hozven and Ashley Matheny
Theme: Power Policy & Sustainability
| Time | Student | Advisor(s) |
| 4:00-4:15 | J. Rodrigo Leal (EER) EcoCaminatas: Youth-Led Environmental Assessments and Planning for Climate Adaptation and Health in the Rio Grande Valley,TX |
Sergio Castellanos, Bjørn Sletto and Miriam Solis |
| 4:15-4:30 | Naomi Yael Montes Goo (EER) From Reform to Risk: The Role of US Natural Gas in Mexico’s Electricity System Under Political Constraints |
Sergio Castellanos, Fred Beach and David Spence |
| 4:30-4:45 | Byron Davis Sehlke Jr. (EER/MBA) Analyzing Residential Battery Energy Storage System Business Models and the Implication of Vertically Integrated, Residential Energy Storage Providers |
Sergio Castellanos |
| 4:45-5:00 | Sudhir Gopalakrishnan (EER) Carbon-Aware Scheduling Strategies for Large Language Model Training Across US Power Grids: An Empirical Study Using Marginal Emissions Data |
Sergio Castellanos, Arvind Ravikumar and Varun Rai |
| 5:00-5:15 | Alonso Fernandez (EER) Electric Vehicle Managed Charging Strategies and ERCOT Grid Impacts |
Michael Webber, Joshua Rhodes and Drew Kassel |
| 5:15-5:30 | Kendall Baker (EER) The Future of Wind and Solar Expansion in Texas: Project-Level Responses to Federal Policy Shifts and Deployment Economics |
Michael Webber, Sergio Castellanos and Paras Mandal |
| 5:30-5:45 | Nevin Durish (EER) Development of a Framework for Identification of High-Priority Solar Photovoltaic Sites on Agricultural Land in the Continental United States |
David Adelman |
Session B1: JGB 2.218
Session Chair: Pamela Morelos and Marek Locmelis
Theme: Carbon Capture & Storage Frontiers
| Time | Student | Advisor(s) |
| 2:00-2:15 | Eddie Talen (EER) CO2 Storage Potential of the Corsair Trough, offshore Gulf of Mexico, USA |
Alex Bump and Carlos Uroza |
| 2:15-2:30 | Bim Maulana (EER) Assessment of the CO2 Storage Potential of the Sunda Strait Area, Indonesia |
Tip Meckel and Carlos Uroza |
| 2:30-2:45 | Javid Aliyev (EER) Classification and Calibration of Legacy Well Risk for CO₂ Storage in the Gulf Coast Basin |
Alex Bump, Susan Hovorka and Hailun Ni |
| 2:45-3:00 | Ruba Mahmood Afifi (GEO) Prospect-Scale CO2 Storage Resource Assessment in Offshore Southeast Texas, USA |
Tip Meckel and Carlos Uroza |
| 3:00-3:15 | Anna Cervantes (GEO) Subsurface Energy Storage Potential of Salt Domes in the Netherlands |
Lorena Moscardelli and Leopoldo M. Ruiz Maraggi |
| 3:15-3:30 | Ssu-Chi Yang (EER) Assessing the CO2 Sequestration Potential of the Frio Formation in South Texas, USA |
Carlos Uroza and Susan Hovorka |
| 3:30-3:45 | Edwina Owusu-Adjapong(EER) Optimizing Offshore CO₂ Transport Pathways: A Decision-Support Framework for the Gulf Coast |
Susan Hovorka and Ramon Gil-Egui |
| 3:45-4:00 | BREAK |
Session B2: JGB 2.218
Session Chair: Angela Luciano
Theme: Power Policy & Sustainability
| Time | Student | Advisor(s) |
| 4:00-4:15 | Yassmine F. Abba-Kaka (EER) Financial Oil Market Metrics for Geopolitical Crises |
Ehud Ronn |
| 4:15-4:30 | Avery Sugg (EER) Net Energy Analysis Regarding the Importation of Liquified Natural Gas in Germany |
Carey King |
| 4:30-4:45 | Christian Fogerty (EER) Analyzing the impact of AI/ML Forecasting on Decision-Making in the Electricity System |
Varun Rai |
| 4:45-5:00 | Talita Lammoglia (EER/MBA) A Techno-Economic and Portfolio Analysis of Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Upstream Oil & Gas Projects for Energy Diversification |
Eric Bickel |
| 5:00-5:15 | Morgan McGraw (EER) Minerals, Manufacturing, and the Future of US Solar: Evaluating Perovskite Photovoltaics and Energy System Resilience |
David Spence and Brian Korgel |
| 5:15-5:30 | Abdullah Aljuaid (EER) Nuclear Fuel Future Analysis of Saudi Arabia: Domestic Uranium Demand, Local Supply, and Integrative Aqua-Mining as a Strategic Opportunity |
Sheldon Landsberger, Daniel Alessi and Fred Beach |
| 5:30-5:45 | Theodoros Tsirigotis (EER/MBA) Power and Principle: Simulating Stakeholder Decisions in the Energy Transition |
David Spence and Fred Beach |
Session C1: JGB 2.324 (Boyd)
Session Chair: Mary Eminue and Ghadah Alharbi
Theme: Sedimentology & Stratigraphy
| Time | Student | Advisor(s) |
| 2:00-2:15 | Ameena AlJehairan (EER) Generalized Extreme Value Rock Typing and Classification for Complex Carbonates |
Carlos Torres-Verdin, Zoya Heidari and Toti Larson |
| 2:15-2:30 | Jacob Margoshes (GEO) Avulsion Mechanisms and Geometries in the Late Pleistocene Joshua Submarine Channel |
Jacob Covault and Michael Sweet |
| 2:30-2:45 | Kalen Murphy (GEO) Evidence for Ponded Flow Deposition from a Turbidite Megabed in Basin IV, Brazos-Trinity Submarine Slope System |
Zoltan Sylvester and Jacob Covault |
| 2:45-3:00 | John Neary (GEO) Hydrogeological Constraints on Serpentinization Rates |
Marc Hesse |
| 3:00-3:15 | Abigail Tucker (GEO) Cyclic Deposition in the Navajo Sandstone, Southcentral Utah: Implications for Paleo-wind Regime |
Jacob Covault and Zoltan Sylvester |
| 3:15-3:30 | Remi Kurita (GEO) A New Record of Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) Reefs from the Central High Atlas Mountains of Morocco |
Rowan Martindale |
| 3:30-3:45 | Isabel Johnson (GEO) Comparative Analysis of Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Mixed Carbonate-Siliclastic Subsurface Deposits of the Strawn Group, Permian Basin, TX and an Outcrop Analog in the Bug Scuffle Member, Sacramento Mountains, NM |
Peter Flaig |
| 3:45-4:00 | BREAK |
Session C2: JGB 2.324 (Boyd)
Session Chair: Megan Kerr and Paola Salas Rivera
Theme: Tectonics & Basin Evolution
| Time | Student | Advisor(s) |
| 4:00-4:15 | Savon Brooks (GEO) Records from the Latest Cretacesou and Earliest Paleocene of Seymour Island Antartica and Reassessment of Basinal Redox Conditions Across the K/PG |
Dan Breecker and Julia Clarke |
| 4:15-4:30 | Mitchell Casazza (GEO) U-Pb Geochronology of Syn-Kinematic Calcite from the Sawtooth Mtns, MT- Implications for Temporal and Kinematic History of the Montana Disturbed Belt |
Danny Stockli |
| 4:30-4:45 | Susie Cook (GEO) Petrochronology of Composite Footwall Mylonites in the Whipple Mountains Metamorphic Core Complex |
Danny Stockli |
| 4:45-5:00 | Marcos Jimenez (GEO) Seismic Morphology of Cretaceous Nanushuk-Torok Clinoforms, Colville Basin, Alaska: Implications for Shelf Margin Evolution |
Cornel Olariu and Matt Malkowski |
| 5:00-5:15 | Regan Swain (GEO) The Genesis of the Bourbon Iron Ore Deposit within the Context of the Geodynamic Evolution of the St. Francois Mountains Terrane in Southeast Missouri, USA |
Marek Locmelis |
| 5:15-5:30 | Leena Abdulqader (GEO) Final Stitches of a Supercontinent: Neoproterozoic Dike Emplacement during the Transition from Compression to Post-Orogenic Extension in South Jordan |
Danny Stockli |
Please vote for Best Talk via: 