Moscardelli and Bureau Focus on Serving the State
February 16, 2026
In her first year as director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, Lorena Moscardelli has set her focus on the bureau’s position as the State Geological Survey of Texas and its Texas Imperative initiative, a set of multi-disciplinary studies of vital state resources.
To that end, the bureau is in the midst of several projects whose outcome will help Texas maximize and manage its resources, Moscardelli said. This year the bureau is set to:
- Complete a statewide assessment of critical minerals and build a public web portal to share the information;
- Largely complete a statewide assessment of geothermal resources;
- Make significant progress on mapping and quantifying the state’s geologic hydrogen and helium resources;
- Make significant progress on its drought initiative aimed at understanding the hydrological systems and water resources of the Texas Hill Country; and,
- Start a statewide assessment and mapping of aggregate resources and create a database that can be accessed by industry, state agencies, policy makers and the general public.
Moscardelli began leading the bureau, the oldest and second-largest research institution at The University of Texas at Austin, in March 2025. She has more than 20 years of experience in energy research in industry and academia, most recently leading the bureau’s largest research program: the State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery (STARR) program, which works to enhance the efficient production and profitability of energy and natural resources in Texas. In addition to serving the state, she is strengthening the Bureau’s educational mission as part of the UT Jackson School of Geosciences and implementing structural changes to enhance collaboration within the Bureau, across campus, and with partners nationally and internationally.