17 researching nitrogen isotopes as paleoenvironmental proxies in sedimentary systems, including specific projects investigating the K-Pg mass extinction and nitrogen isotope dynamics in petroleum systems. In addition to my continuing graduate student, Brad Beckwith, a new Master’s student, Aaron Prock, arrived in the Fall to work on the Black Warrior Basin produced water project. Four undergraduate students also got some research experience working on projects in the geochemistry lab. This summer, the BPSoG also hired a new geochemistry technician, Dr. Tao Wu, whose job is to assist maintaining scientific instruments, facilitating sample measurement, and training students to do their own analyses. He is already assisting Natascha Riedinger, Javier Vilcaez, Eliot Atekwana, and myself with our research and instrumentation, and will expand his responsibilities as he settles into the School. The increase in the number of geology majors resulted in my teaching Mineralogy in the Spring as well as in the Fall. It was a bit of a challenge to squeeze the class into the Spring course schedule, but it allowed me to have a smaller number of students each semester and therefore a better environment for both learning and teaching. I also had several enthusiastic graduate students in my Marine Biogeochemical Cycles course, which resulted in many interesting discussions about the biochemical signals that geological events leave behind and how to interpret these signals in the rock record. In other news, the BPSoG hosted the 2015 South-Central GSA meeting this past spring, and from all accounts, it was a great success. Thanks to so many people and companies who helped organize and sponsor the meeting. I think we might have had the highest number of student volunteers for a regional conference, most of whom came from OSU and got to see the wide range and possibilities in terms of current scientific research. Jim Puckette and I also offered another course in Oklahoma Geology for OSU’s Grandparent University last summer, and plan to do it again this summer. Best wishes to everyone in 2016! Dr. Natascha Riedinger Assistant Professor; Marine Systems; Sedimentary Geochemistry; Biogeochemical Cycles This is already my second year at the Boone Pickens School of Geology – time is running – and I have been quite busy this last year to set up my research lab and get everything started. Though the lab is not yet completely ready, two master students and four undergraduate students are already working in it. The main projects we are working on at the moment are the identification and reconstruction of chemical conditions (e.g., oxygen depletion, sulfide occurrence) in the past ocean water column from shale and carbonate depositional systems. For this purpose, we apply various analytical methods such as iron and sulfur speciation, and use redox sensitive trace metal. For example, my Master student Jessica Cofrancesco, who started in January last year, had the chance to go to Namibia, West Africa, to collect marine sediment samples offshore of the Namibian Coast. This modern upwelling system, with high amounts of organic matter accumulation, is considered an analogue for many Mesozoic black shale deposits. The focus of Jessica’s research project is to study the potential impact of the depositional dynamics on paleo-redox proxies – the relationship between metal distribution and lateral re-deposition related organic matter accumulation. I am also still involved with some projects at my former University in California-Riverside, where I co-advise one PhD and one Master student. In 2015, I also continued with my research from past expeditions and established collaborations; for example, as part of a Scientific Drilling Expedition Team we were able to identify the deepest so far reported microbial activity in sediments, about 2500 m below the ocean floor, associated with coal beds. These finding were published last year in Science, discussing active microbial production of methane in sediments, millions of years after deposition. In another study, my colleagues and I were able to link reactivation of organic matter in deeply buried sediments to tectonic activity; the onset of methane production several hundreds of meters below the seafloor related to recent earthquakes. Last year I was able to established new (national and international) collaborations through the participation of various workshops; I attended several teaching and early career workshops and participated in research workshops, such as the Argentine Basin Scientific Drilling Proposals workshop. In addition to my research and participation in outreach programs, I thought the physical geology class (Geol 1114) in Spring and Marine Geology (Geol 4513/5513) in Fall 2015. Dr. Javier Vilcaez Assistant Professor; Computational Modeling; Earth Resources; Environment Already one and a half year since I had the privilege of joining OSU. Truly time flies, as people says, just a wink of an eye. I can’t complain though as things went relatively well in terms publications and conference presentations. I published three refereed papers as first author in the Journal of CO2 Utilization, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, and the Austin Journal of Earth Science. I made two oral presentations, one at the American
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