Event Student-Led Since Its Founding in 1988

Each year, Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) student volunteers organize and plan the annual EAS Student Research Conference at the University of Houston.

The 2022 Student Research Conference was held virtually for the second year in a row on April 29 via Zoom, after the COVID pandemic canceled the conference in 2020 and pushed it online for the first time last year. While this year’s conference was also held virtually, poster presentations were reintroduced to the online setting for the first time.

The spirit of the event is for the students to come together and share their research with faculty, EAS alumni, and industry experts and practice their presentation skills. Additionally, the student committee responsible for the conference gains experience organizing all aspects of a large event.

This year’s event had a virtual attendance, including members of the EAS department, EAS alumni, and visitors from Houston-based oil and environmental industries. There were 24 presentations on Zoom, all by M.S. and Ph.D. students. Additionally, there were 19 poster presentations, with six by undergraduate students and 13 by M.S. and Ph.D. students. All of the presentations came from students in geology, geophysics, and atmospheric science. A team of 28 EAS faculty, EAS alumni, and industry experts judged the talks and posters.

Dr. Jonny Wu, assistant professor of structural geology, tectonics, and mantle structure, gave the keynote address. His 30-minute talk was entitled Unsubducting Lost Tectonic Plates in Earth’s Mantle to Rewind Deep Time and included a memorable TikTok, a first for the conference.

The 2022 abstracts and conference program, along with information on conferences in past years, can be viewed here.

Meeting Organizers

• Madeline Statkewicz, Conference Chair & Content Creator
• Michael Martinez, Assistant Conference Chair & Judging Coordinator
• Ana Vielma, Assistant Judging Coordinator
• Veronica Guzman, NSMIT Liaison
• Morshad Ahmed, Assistant to NSMIT Liaison
• Sara Rojas, Organization of Materials
• Tanzina Akther, Oral Session Host
• Tabitha Lee, Oral Session Host & Atmospheric Science Representative

Oral Presentation Awards

Senior Ph.D. Oral Presentation Judging Category

First Place ($850 prize): Md Nahidul Hasan: Estimating Thermal Stress and Expelled Hydrocarbons from Mesozoic-Cenozoic Source Rocks of Southern Gulf of Mexico

Second Place ($650 prize): Claire Ong: Analysis of PFAS in the Edwards Aquifer

Third Place ($450 prize): Tabitha Lee: Identifying Unreported NO2 Hotspots in Satellite Data

M.S. and Early Ph.D. Oral Presentations Judging Category

First Place ($750 prize): Juan Pablo Ramos: Coniacian-Santonian-Sourced Petroleum System Along the Deepwater Caribbean Margin of Colombia

Second Place ($500 prize): Sara Rojas: Quantifying Vegetation and Land Cover Changes about the Path of Hurricane Harvey

Poster Presentation Awards

M.S. and Ph.D. Poster Judging Category

First Place ($500 prize): Rachel Clark: Sediment Transport and Accumulation in the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica

Second Place ($400 prize): Aydin Shahtakhtinskiy: Quantifying the Impact of Hurricane Harvey on Barrier Island Systems of the Central Texas Coast and Their Recovery: An Example from Mustang Island

Third Place ($300 prize): Michael Comas: Sedimentary Record of Recent Retreat of Pine Island Glacier, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica

Undergraduate Poster Judging Category

First Place ($750 prize): Steven Ramirez: Searching for Slabs within the Earth’s Mantle through Tomographic Analysis of the North Pacific Basin

Special Thanks to the Judging Panel

A special thanks to our Student Research Conference Committee members, Michael Martinez and Ana Vielma, EAS faculty judging coordinator, Dr. Daniel Hauptvogel, and the distinguished panel of 28 EAS faculty and industry judges who volunteered their time and expertise to judge the student oral presentations.

Nine EAS Faculty Judges

• Lorenzo Colli
• Sharon Cornelius
• Xun Jiang
• Minako Righter
• Jinny Sisson
• Robert Stewart
• Jiajia Sun
• Ny Riavo Voarintsoa
• Yingcai Zheng

Nineteen Industry and EAS Alumni Judges

• Irene Arango, Chevron
• Elizabeth Baker, Shell
• Humberto Carvajal-Ortiz, Core Laboratories
• Fernando Castillo, Q-Spectrums Solutions
• Aya El Attar, ConocoPhillips
• Rosemarie Geetan, Bifrost Energy
• Gary Guthrie, Roxanna Oil
• Stephanie Hari, Hess Corporation
• Lillian Jones, Geophysical Society of Houston
• Chinaemerem Kanu, Jasco Applied Sciences
• Sanja Knezevic Antonijevic, Occidental
• Kaas Koster, Occidental
• Kristie McLin, ConocoPhillips
• David Meaux, BP, Retired
• Javier Miranda, De Golyer & MacNaughton
• Duane Pierce, Black Stone Minerals, Retired
• Mark Richardson, ExxonMobil, Retired
• Linda Stembach, Star Creek Energy
• Ye Wang, ConocoPhillips