Advisory Board
Brent Bennett
Brent Bennett, Ph.D., is the policy director for Life:Powered, an initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation to raise America’s energy IQ. As part of the Life:Powered team, Dr. Bennett regularly speaks with policymakers, energy experts, and industry associations across the country. He is responsible for researching, fact-checking, and spearheading many of the team’s policy and regulatory initiatives. He has written extensively on how America has improved its environment while growing its energy use and on future energy technologies. Dr. Bennett has an M.S.E. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in physics from the University of Tulsa. His graduate research focused on advanced chemistries for utility-scale energy storage systems.
Landon Lockhart
Landon Lockhart will be completing his Ph.D. in August 2024. His research explores how stress history impacts rock deformation and pore pressure. He has developed an approach to estimate subsurface pore pressures from velocity data in areas where significant erosion has occurred. Landon is actively involved in his church, and he enjoys tennis, friends, and spending time with his wife Rachel. Landon is currently interviewing for a full-time position as a geoscientist in the oil and gas industry.
Paul Mann
Paul Mann received a B.A. in geology from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany. He is currently the Robert E. Sheriff endowed professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston, where he also directs the CBTH Project. His main research interest area is the tectonics of sedimentary basins.
Jacob Margoshes
Kurang Mehta
Kurang Mehta is an accomplished geophysicist with experience in the oil and gas industry and works on technical projects in different geologic settings including the Gulf of Mexico, Oman, Borneo / Brunei, and offshore Nigeria. He works towards generating value towards integrated subsurface characterization in exploration, development, and production stages of the project, by providing high-quality seismic interpretation (structural and quantitative) and time-depth conversion. He has been an active SEG member since 2003 and has been publishing and (recently) reviewing articles for “Geophysics” and “The Leading Edge” since he was a graduate student (2004). In terms of the IMAGE technical program committee, he has been the focal point for the “Time-Lapse seismic” section since 2020. To build on his association with the SEG, he is currently a guest editor for the TLE special section on Carbon Management (Nov 2023), and the chair of CUSP (Committee of University and Students Program).
Stephen Perkins
Stephen Perkins serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the American Conservation Coalition, a national nonprofit that engages youth on climate and environmental conservation. Prior to ACC, Stephen crafted the digital engagement strategies of more than 50 local, statewide, and federal campaigns and advocacy organizations over three campaign cycles. Other previous work includes marketing consulting, advocacy training, and leadership coaching for national political and education organizations. A graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington’s Political Science program, he enjoys helping emerging leaders at the intersection of politics and public service.
David Redpath
David holds a PhD in Earth Science and Engineering from Imperial College London during which he held internships with Equinor and bp in their Norway and London headquarters. He joined ExxonMobil in 2023 and currently works in the Geohazards and Site Investigation team where he conducts data adequacy assessments and makes recommendations for the acquisition and/or reprocessing of geophysical day to meet regular requirements for projects across the world. He leverages this geophysical data to identify and mitigate geohazards and ensure safe operations during well planning and execution for projects ranging from single exploration wells to multi-billion dollar development projects. He is absolutely sure his life’s greatest joy and achievements lie in his Family made up of His wife Paesha and his daughter and the faith they share in God
Ivan Salas
Ivan Salas has been selected to be the new manager of the Injection-Storage Permits Unit in Austin. Ivan comes to the Oil & Gas Division from the Critical Infrastructure Division. Prior to that, Ivan has more than 20 years of industry petroleum engineering experience with a number of upstream and midstream companies (El Paso Corporation, Anadarko Petroleum, & Equinor ASA). Ivan has a Mechanical Engineering degree from UT Austin.
Brandon Shuck
Dr. Brandon Shuck is a solid-earth geophysicist interested in the structure and evolution of the Earth’s lithosphere at tectonic plate boundaries. Brandon’s research primarily uses active-source seismic imaging and inversion to constrain the in situ properties of the lithosphere and integrates a wide-range of other techniques to holistically study tectonic processes at subduction zones, rifts and rifted margins, transform boundaries, and mid-ocean ridges. Brandon grew up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and obtained Bachelor degrees in Geology and Mathematics from Western Colorado University. He then pursued his PhD in Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics. Currently, Brandon is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York. Brandon is passionate about multidisciplinary collaborative research, science communication and educating the next generation of geoscientists, and increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences.