14 continue to create, revise, and submit my research proposals in the hopes of obtaining future funding. Three of my graduate students, Salman Abbasi (PhD student), Josh Bedell, and William Neely (MS students) have received 3D3C seismic volumes over the STACK Play in Oklahoma donated by Devon to use in their thesis research. William Neely is working on PP- ‐PS joint seismic interpretation to improve seismic characterization of the play, Salman Abbasi is working on PP- ‐PS joint inversion to resolve fluid saturation type in key formations within the play, and Josh Bedell is working on the seismic detection of fractures within the “Mississippian” carbonate sequence of the STACK. The three students are working together and forming a promising multicomponent seismic research group. The other two graduate students who defended their research proposals, Xtian Aneke and Evin Fetkovich (MS students) are making good progress on their research that utilizes high- ‐resolution P and S- ‐wave seismic reflection for characterizing a complex glacial aquifer in Illinois. They will likely defend their thesis and graduate this year. For undergraduate research, I was fortunate enough to supervise the research of five undergraduate students including, Ryan Thomas, Kenneth Preston, William Neely, William Mynatt and Nicholas Johnson. Working on undergraduate research is a great experience because projects are small and have short- ‐term project time frames that allow you to see the product of the research faster. I enjoyed teaching these students some basics of the scientific research method and I enjoyed having them develop interest in graduate research. Dr. Priyank Jaiswal Associate Professor; Seismology, Inverse Theory, Petroleum Systems; Gas Hydrates 2017 went fast between papers, proposal and teaching. Two events in particular were very exciting. First was my visit to Italy for a continental drilling workshop organized by a group of researchers who have been wanting to drill into the Moho transition zone at the foothills of Alps in Northern Italy (Ivrea- ‐ Verbano Zone). It was not the unique geophysical setting of this zone but the multidimensional approach of the organizers that impressed and inspired me. The scientific goals were meant to advance not only the geophysical characterization frontier but also the overall understanding of physical, chemical and microbiological processes in the deep crust. After three days of discussions and debates, the participants agreed to drill a shallow hole of ~1000m, and a deep hole of ~4000m to best address the multidisciplinary nature of the research questions with the amount of monies that will be potentially available. The spirit of comradery and cooperation between the participants was truly amazing. I am now working with a German group on designing a deep seismic experiment for placing the two boreholes appropriately. A part of me wants to bring the experience back home and drill into Oklahoma’s basement. After all, there is a lot that we do not know about our own backyard. The other exciting part was being able to see how nanopores can effect seismic velocities. A rock property dataset put together by one of Mike students, Beth, had fascinated me since her PhD defense. With Mike’s help, my PhD student, Rohit, and I started digging into it in early 2017. After a few failed attempts, we came up with a finding that might have a huge impact on the interpretation of seismic velocities in unconventional reservoirs. We put a paper together and sent it for review for a SEPM special volume on rock properties. We also got Devon excited on this topic and received a small grant from them to examine if nanopores are affecting seismic velocities in one of their producing reservoirs. I was pleased that our paper “Effect of capillary pressure on seismic velocities,” delivered by PhD student Khemraj Shukla made it to the top 39 papers in the 2017 SEG annual meeting in Houston (https://seg.org/Annual-‐Meeting-‐ 2017/Top-‐39). Hope 2018 will be as exciting, if not more. Dr. Grammer ‘s students, current and past, enjoying the vistas at Canyonlands National Park.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAxMjk=