18 Chemical Society (249th ACS) national meeting held in Denver and another at the Geological Society of America (GSA 2015) national meeting held in Baltimore. Actually three oral presentations since I accepted my own abstract for an oral presentation in the session titled “Advances in groundwater modeling” that Dr. Todd Halihan and I chaired at the GSA 2015 conference. Most of my time last year was spent preparing for classes, writing papers and research proposals and setting up my lab. The Geofluids lab, which sometimes I call Petroleum Hydrogeology lab depending on the audience, has finally started to produce some experimental results. That gives me hopes since now I will have more time to do some research by myself which in addition to the research done by the two PhD and four MS students working with me will translate into new publications and eventually research grants. I must confess that what worries me the most are the research grants. I submitted four pre-proposals and two fullproposals last year and none of them got funded. Nonetheless, I was awarded two internal grants last year which allowed me to attend a NSF CAREER Proposal Writing Workshop held in Boston, and a Workshop for Early Career Geosciences Faculty held in Williamsburg. Very useful experiences, one of them included a visit to the National Science Foundation (NSF) where I met program officers with whom I was exchanging emails regarding potential research topics and directions. I taught two graduate courses in 2015: Groundwater modeling and Geochemistry. The research in my lab continues to focus on the sustainable exploitation of hydrocarbon, mineral and groundwater resources with emphasis on the following topics: 1) microbial enhanced hydrocarbon recovery (MEHR), 2) geological CO2 storage and 3) environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing operations. The objective of the first topic on which Joshua York is working is to develop a new microbial enhanced oil recovery method which combines the injection of CO2 and stimulating nutrients to microbially convert dissolved organic matter and CO2 to CH4. We call this method CO2-MEHR. The objectives of the second topic on which Kyle Obenberger and Tristan Seabeck are working is to determine the effect of CO2 injection on the petrophysical properties of clay bearing porous media, and to simulate the reactive transport of CO2 in depleted oil reservoirs targeted for CO2-MEHR. Babak Shabani is working on the development of a new equation of estate and source code to simulate CO2MEHR. The objective of the third topic on which Pouyan Ebrahimi and Jesse Blumenthal are working is to assess the impact of organic hydraulic fracturing additives on the transport of dissolved heavy metal ions when brine migrates from fractured and wastewater disposal wells to shallow aquifers due to failures of well integrity. The newest member in our group is Toby Williams, a senior undergraduate student with a lot of field experience in oil production. I’m still surprised by the number of both oil/gas producing and depleted wells and wastewater disposal wells in Oklahoma. That in addition to the geological expertise of other colleagues at the BPSoG makes me feel I’m in the right place to do this type of research which can provide next generation geologist diverse skills to succeed in a variety of employment sectors. NEWS FROM THE STAFF Dr. Tao Wu Geochemistry Lab Coordinator Greetings Everyone! I joined the Boone Pickens School of Geology (BPSoG) as the geochemistry lab coordinator July 1st 2015. I graduated from Nanjing University (China) with BS and MS degrees in geochemistry and PhD from the University of Wisconsin Madison. My PhD focused on microbial iron reduction in subsurface sediments. During my studies, I acquired hands-on experience on different analytical instruments, like ICP-OES, XRD, spectrophotometer, GC, IC, etc. I love working with these analytical instruments. So, after finishing my PhD in geoscience, I enrolled in a MS degree in Chemistry for a year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing on analytical chemistry. This provided me with a solid knowledge in chromatography and mass spectrometry and gave me the experience needed to operate and maintain the major instruments in the geochemistry lab in the BPSoG. As a lab coordinator, I maintain lab equipment performance as well as keep contact with faculty, postdocs and students to solve operating problems of instruments in the geochemistry lab and their own labs. I train graduate and undergraduate students on the correct use of lab equipment, and advice and tutor them on their experimental design. On the home front, we have a two-year old daughter and another that is less than a month as of this writing. This semester will be quite busy for me on both the family side and work side. But I enjoy this life! The following is an introduction of Geochemistry lab in BPSoG. This lab is open to all of you. So, if you want to analyze your samples, feel free to give us a call or email. The Geochemistry lab is well equipped with instruments that support faculty and students research. Isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) coupled with a combustion elemental analyzer (EA), high temperature conversion elemental analyzer (TC/EA), and a Gas Bench is a major analytical instrument set in our lab. It is for collecting stable isotopes (C, N, O, H) and concentrations. There have been more than 500 samples analyzed via the IRMS in four months after a major maintenance and adjustment. Now, it is fully functional. We also have several chromatography instruments to meet your purpose. Ion chromatography is designed to measure the cation and
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