Bureau of Economic Geology

September 21, 2008

On August 8, Shirley Dutton gave the keynote address in a session on compaction processes at the International Geological Congress in Oslo, Norway. The session was a tribute to Knut Bjorlykke, a professor at the University of Oslo. Shirley presented "Controls on Evolution of Porosity and Permeability in Lower Tertiary Wilcox Sandstones from 200 to 6,700 Meters of Burial," which was based on work by co-author Bob Loucks and her for the Bureau's Deep Shelf Gas project.

The Bureau congratulates Contracts and Grants Specialist Cory Welch on his national accreditation from the Research Administrator's Certification Council (RACC) as a Certified Research Administrator (CRA). Cory joins only 22 other UT Austin staff members who have achieved CRA certification, which shows that the holder has not only met the RACC's eligibility requirements but has also gone through rigorous training necessary to become a professional research or sponsored programs administrator.

The Houston Research Center will host a half-day field trip on Tuesday, October 7th. An entry fee of $50 covers a tour of the facility, which houses 600,000+ boxes of core and cuttings from all over the world, and an opportunity to examine some of the spectacular core samples, such as deep-water mass transport deposits, paleokarsts, valley fills, fluvial and shelf sandstones,

and Cretaceous reefs. For more information please contact Beverly DeJarnett at the Houston Research Center at 713-983-9420.

The Quantitative Clastics Laboratory Industrial Associates program will hold its annual meeting September 22 - 26 in New Mexico. Scheduled activities include a day of talks at the Tamaya Resort in Albuquerque, New Mexico, followed by a core workshop and field trip in the San Juan Basin so that participants can observe shelf sand reservoirs of the area.

The annual FRAC student and alumni event and picnic is set for Saturday, September 20. Anyone with an interest in fractures or diagenesis is welcome to attend. Contact the graduate student organizing committee - Maggie Ellis, Pete Hargrove, and Brandon Barber.