Strong Employment Reported for 2020 EAS PhD and MS Graduates


Twenty-eight of 32 Graduating in Spring/Summer 2020 Got Jobs at Time of Graduation

Company Logos

Of the 32 graduate students completing their degrees in Spring/Summer 2020 at University of Houston’s Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, 28 had been hired at the time of graduation. There were 14 Ph.D. graduates and 18 M.S. graduates.

Most of the recent graduates’ jobs are in industry at energy and mining companies, both upstream and midstream. In addition, three students accepted postdoctoral positions at Caltech, University of Alaska, and UH.

Jae Deok Kim will begin his Ph.D. study at the MIT/WHOI joint program after completing his M.S. at UH. Ph.D. graduate Aaron Studwell founded a weather service company, ExoConsulting, located in Norman, OK.

Among the 28, five students graduated from the EAS Professional Master’s Program.

Congratulations to all of these young professionals on starting their careers! Best wishes to the other graduates who are still looking for/negotiating jobs or applying to graduate schools.

Ph.D. Graduates in 2020

Atmospheric Sciences Ph.D.

Ebrahim Eslami, HARC (Houston Advanced Research Center)
Dissertation Title: Applications of Deep Learning in Atmospheric Sciences: Air Quality Forecasting, Post Processing, and Hurricane Tracking

Aaron Studwell, Founder of ExoConsulting, Norman, OK.
Dissertation Title: Spatiotemporal Variations of Saturn's Zonal Winds Based on Cassini Long-term (2004-2017) Multi-Instrument Observations

Geology Ph.D.

Xueze Chen, Ian Martin contracted for Enbridge GIS Analyst II, Canada
Dissertation Title: Investigations of Light Hydrocarbon Formation at Elevated Temperatures and Pressures: Generation Kinetics and Its Implication

Jack Kenning, ConocoPhillips (Houston)
Dissertation Title: Mesozoic-Cenozoic Tectonic Controls On Basin Formation and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Deep-water, Mexican Sector of the Gulf of Mexico Basin

Stephen Leslie, Repsol, Woodlands, TX
Dissertation Title: Structure, Stratigraphy, and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Colombian Caribbean Margin and Tsunamigenic Hazards in the Caribbean and South China Seas

Marcus Zinecker, BP Houston
Dissertation Title: Structural and Stratigraphic Evolution of Three Mesozoic, Rifted-passive Margins: Guinea Plateau, Demerara Rise, and the Southeastern Gulf of Mexico

Geophysics Ph.D.

Suresh Dande, ESG Solutions
Dissertation Title: The Effect of Proppant and Fluid Saturation on the Elastic Properties of 3D-printed Rock Models and Eagle Ford Shale

Marwa Hussein, Lecturer at Ain Shams University in Egypt
Dissertation Title: Machine Learning for Reservoir Characterization and Time-lapse Seismic Analyses

Jiaxuan Li, Postdoc, Caltech
Dissertation Title: Inverting In-situ Anisotropy in Global Subduction Slabs Using Deep Earthquakes and Imaging Binary Mixtures and Fractures

Yuan Tian, Postdoc, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Dissertation Title: Investigation of Tidal-Seismic Resonance Using 3-D Boundary Element Method

Yang Wang, Postdoc, RPL/UH
Dissertation Title: Dynamic and Static Elastic Properties of Sedimentary Rocks

Wenyuan Zhang, Pioneer Resources
Dissertation Title: Using Full Waveform Inversion and Deep Learning with Crosswell Seismic Data to Estimate Subsurface Anomalies

Master’s Graduates in 2020

Geology M.S.

Tarek Galhom, Apache Corp (Khalda), Cairo, Egypt
Thesis Title: Jurassic-Recent Structure, Stratigraphy and Hydrocarbon Prospectively of the Rifted-passive Margin of Southern Morocco

John Teske, Sempra LNG
Thesis title: Source and Migration of Oil Reservoired in the Wilcox Group of the Southeast Texas Gulf Coast

Geophysics M.S.

Jae Deok Kim, Ph.D. student at MIT/WHOI
Thesis Title: Regional Scale Mineral Exploration Through Joint Inversion and Geology Differentiation Based On Multi-physics Geoscientific Data

Andrew Koller, Shell, non-thesis M.S.

Nicholas McDaniel, ExxonMobil
Thesis Title: The Effect of Low Frequencies on Seismic Data in Theory and a West Texas Case Study

Felicia Nurindrawati, TCarta Colorado working on machine learning/AI engineer
Thesis Title: Predicting Magnetization Direction Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Regan Robinson, TGS
Thesis title: Shear Wave Splitting Analyses in West Texas

Daniel Rusinek, Science Systems and Applications Inc., Maryland
Thesis Title: Analyzing the Effects of Hurricane Harvey on Dune Morphology and Coastline Loss Using a Terrestrial Laser Scanner: A Case Study of Bryan Beach

Matthew Storey, TGS Houston
Thesis title: Tectonic Setting, Structure, and Seismic Stratigraphy of the Apalachicola Rift and its Overlying Sag Basin in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico

Fanbo Zhou, Graduate student at NYU
Thesis Title: Current Land Subsidence and Groundwater Level Relationships in Montgomery County, Texas (2005-2019)

Professional Master’s Program Graduates in 2020

Specialization in Petroleum Geology

Andrew Boyd, Hilcorp Houston

Jake Brewer, Occidental

Colin Legge, Empressa Operating

Reed Rightmer, Hilcorp

Maria Wedding, EnerVest Houston and Dallas