12 continue to try to blend industry interests with academic pursuits for the group as it helps both realms improve their work. My company, Aestus, LLC, continues evaluate contaminated sites using OSU intellectual property developed in my lab. This has been another busy year and growth seems like it will continue. The company continues to add employees and may finally get a new website. On the home front, the Halihan home continues to host parties for the department. I discovered the origin of the blind valley on the property this year with a 40 gpm intermittent spring flowing from the top of the Garber sandstone. Martha is teaching over at OSU Chemistry and enjoying about 300 undergrads per semester. My son, Maclain, is eight now and is interested in Lego sets. The Lego Corporation has a tremendous marketing capability unfortunately. Dr. Mary Hileman This is now my sixth year as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Boone Pickens School of Geology. Last fall I became a fulltime faculty, teaching a total of 5 courses during the academic year 2013-2014. I teach GEOL 3413, Petroleum Geology for Engineers every semester. This is the initial core course for the Minor in Petroleum Engineering. It is an entry-level geology course for engineering students who have no prior training in Geology. Although the course starts with the basics of rocks and minerals, Earth structure and plate tectonics, the topics quickly move on to basic well log analysis, sedimentary depositional systems, sequence stratigraphy, drilling and completion techniques, horizontal drilling, geophysics, hydrocarbon geochemistry, basics of hydrocarbon reservoirs, well economics and risk analysis. The lab each week gives students hands-on experience with rocks, well log interpretation, structural and stratigraphic mapping. A field trip provides students the opportunity to observe channel sandstones and use a portable natural gamma-ray spectrometer to record values across an outcrop that later are graphed and compared with nearby well logs. There is a term project, where students work in teams to prepare a prospect package that includes: cross-sections, net pay isopach and structure maps, geologic interpretation, economic evaluation and a proposed drilling package. Each team makes a formal power point presentation and are evaluated for logic of their proposed deal. Based on demand, the class has grown from 22 to 26 students, with others asking to enroll. In the Fall, I teach Geology of the National Parks (GEOL 3043). This is a very popular elective Geology course for Junior and Senior non-science majors. The enrollment increased from 45 students in the fall of 2012 to 75 students in 2013. The focus for this course is to understand basic geologic concepts using 22 U. S. National Parks as examples. The influence of plate tectonics on the development of North America is a central theme for this course. In addition to 3 exams, students are required to write a five to seven page term paper that is a Guidebook to the Geology of a National Park or National Monument of their choice that is not covered in lecture. This spring I am teaching “Advanced Well Log Interpretation” once again. During the development of the Minor in Petroleum Engineering, Advanced Well Log Analysis (GEOL 4323) became a core course and is the final Geology course required for this Minor. This course is an expansion of the popular course for graduate students (GEOL 5353) that has been taught for many years. The combined GEOL 4323/5353 meets once a week, for a 2 ½ hour evening lecture, discussion and problem solving session. During the first half of the semester students evaluate the standard suite of vertical open hole, wireline logs, and learn to integrate logs with petrophysical data (cores, seismic, well test data). During the second half of the course, the information concentrates on evaluation of lateral holes (LWD/MWD). Guest speakers from industry cover types of logging tools used in lateral holes, petrophysical evaluation of this data and information display. Another guest speaker from industry will present micro-imaging technology and give students an opportunity to do interpretation of these logs. Finally, lectures by School of Geology faculty (Drs. Grammar, Pashin, and Puckette) will each provided a 3 hour lecture on their current research on unconventional reservoirs. In addition to lectures and discussion, nine homework assignments provide opportunities for students to become capable of independent, fundamental, reliable analysis of standard open hole, wireline logs and to use principles of evaluation to solve subsurface geological problems. This class seems to have a good fit between undergraduate Engineering students who have completed GEOL 3413 and graduate Geology students who have some industry experience. Both groups have had exposure to well log interpretation, but need to move toward a more petrophysical centered approach. The homework problems provided for graduate students (GEOL 5353) are more challenging, and require additional analysis and critical thinking. This spring there are 35 Engineering students enrolled in GEOL 4323 and 16 Geology graduate students enrolled in GEOL 5353. At the time GEOL 4323 was created for the Engineering Minor, it was opened as well to upper division Geology majors. I discovered last spring that none of the Geology majors had any prior experience with or exposure to well logs. Therefore, they needed a slower paced, basic well log course first. Therefore, this spring I am teaching a new course: “Introduction Well Log Analysis” (GEOL 4990.369). This class is similar to the Asquith and Krygowski’s AAPG “Basic Well Log Analysis” course. This new class, which meets twice a week for a total of 3 hours, has 12 homework assignments, time for discussion and in-class practice of techniques and 3 exams. There are 17 students currently enrolled in this course. Currently, I serve on a Geology Masters Thesis Committee for Brett Miller. I also serve on an English Ph.D. Committee for Jenna Bazzell. Dr. Priyank Jaiswal 2013 was an eye opener. In 2012, Halliburton gave me a grant to run a training program for high school teachers. Toni Ivey, Dept. of Education, helped me form a plan and get the word out. We hand-picked eight teachers from high schools in rural Oklahoma. Six department faculty joined hands and we prepared a week-long, comprehensive program such that the teachers are introduced to the latest trend in geology and geophysics. We recruited three TAs – Brandy Michaels, Valina Sefa and
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