Six Students Recognized for Research and Presentation Excellence at Sheriff Lecture


Student Poster Session Part of Annual Event

Six Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences students were recognized for research and presentation excellence by a panel of volunteer judges from EAS and the Houston oil and environmental industry. The poster session was part of the annual EAS-Houston Geological Society Robert E. Sheriff Lecture, held at the Norris Conference Center.

EAS Student Awardees
EAS student awardees from left: Paige Given (undergrad), Amanda Pascali (undergrad), Elizabeth Davis (Ph.D. candidate), Sean Romito (Ph.D. candidate), Dr. Tom Lapen (EAS department chair), Carlos Andrade (Ph.D. candidate), and Joshua Flores (Ph.D. candidate). Photo Courtesy of Dr. Regina Capuano.

The student poster session featured 44 student poster presentations at the undergraduate, M.S. and Ph.D. levels. It preceded the annual Sheriff lecture that featured Dr. Julia Wellner, associate professor in EAS. Wellner presented a one-hour lecture on “The Sedimentary Record of Antarctica’s Contribution to Sea-Level Changes.”

During the event, Dr. Patricia Persaud, a UH geophysics undergraduate in 1998 and now an assistant professor in geophysics at Louisiana State University, was recognized as the 2019 Outstanding EAS Alumna.

The Sheriff Lecture was fully subscribed with 100 registered attendees.

Results of Student Poster Competition

Advanced Ph.D. Category

First Place (Prize: $650)
Carlos Andrade, Paragenesis of Silicified Corals - Evidence from Petrography and Silicon Isotopic Analyses

Second Place (Prize: $350)
Joshua Flores, Is a New Microplate with a Forearc Spreading Center Forming at the Southern Termination of the Mariana Arc?

Second-Year M.S./Early Ph.D. Category

First Place (Prize: $500)
Elizabeth Davis, Effects of Contemporaneous Orogenesis on Sedimentation in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, Northern Utah and Southwestern Wyoming

Second Place (Prize: $250)
Sean Romito, Caribbean Basement Terranes: Boundaries, Depth, and Flexural Effects on Hydrocarbons

Undergraduate/First-Year M.S Category

First Place (Prize: $350)
Paige Given, Strong Correlation between the Trace and the CLVD Component of the Deep Earthquake Moment Tensors in Tonga

Second Place (Prize: $150)
Amanda Pascali, The Importance of XRF Core Scanning in Reconstructing the History of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet