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Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies (2013)

Chapter: Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
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APPENDIX A

Committee and Staff Biographies

COMMITTEE BIOGRAPHIES

Murray W. Hitzman (Chair) has been with Colorado School of Mines since 1996 as the Fogarty Professor of Economic Geology. In 2002 he was named Head of the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering. Prior to coming to academia he spent 11 years in the minerals industry. In addition to discovering the carbonate-hosted Lisheen Zn-Pb-Ag deposit in Ireland, he worked on porphyry copper and other intrusive-related deposits, precious metal systems, volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits, sediment-hosted Zn-Pb and Cu deposits, and iron oxide Cu-U-Au-LREE deposits throughout the world. He spent 2½ years in Washington, D.C., working first in the U.S. Senate and later in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on environmental and natural resource issues. He has received numerous awards and has published approximately 100 papers. His current interest focuses on deposit- and district-scale studies of metallic ore systems and on social license issues in mining. Dr. Hitzman was a member of the National Research Council’s Panel on Technologies for the Mining Industries, and he was a member of Committee on Earth Resources for two 3-year terms prior to becoming chair for a 3-year term in 2004. He received his Ph.D. in geology from Stanford University in 1983.

Donald D. Clarke has worked for the past 6 years as a geological consultant for a variety of private firms and city governments in Southern California, focusing on geological evaluations of oil fields. Part of his current portfolio also includes a CO2 sequestration project. Prior to establishing his consultancy, he worked for more than 2 decades with the Department of Oil Properties of the City of Long Beach, California, retiring from his position as Division Engineer and Chief Geologist in 2004. During his time with the City of Long Beach, he worked extensively on the giant Wilmington oil field and the California offshore. Mr. Clarke began his career in 1974 as an energy and mineral resources engineer with the California State Lands Commission. His strong interests in community outreach and education have been demonstrated over the years through his teaching geology at Compton Community College, serving on the board of directors for the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council, and serving on and chairing numerous advisory councils and committees of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). A member of AAPG since 1986, he served as Pacific Section AAPG President, was elected to be Chair-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×

man of the AAPG House of Delegates, and has received numerous AAPG awards, including the Distinguished Service Award in 2002. He also served on the National Research Council committee that produced the 2002 report Geoscience Data and Collections: National Resources in Peril. In the last year he appeared and served as an advisor for the Swiss movie, A Crude Awakening; the National Geographic show, Gallon of Gas (part of the Man Made Series); and the VBS TV show LA’s Hidden Wells. This past summer he was interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Spiegel Television (Germany) about oil development in the Los Angeles area. Mr. Clarke has published or presented more than 50 technical papers on topics that include computer mapping, sequence stratigraphy, horizontal drilling, structural geology, and reservoir evaluation, and he has been recognized by the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering as a fellow. He received his B.S. in geology from California State University, Northridge, with additional graduate study at California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles, and Long Beach.

Emmanuel Detournay is a professor of geomechanics in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He also holds a joint appointment with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Earth Science and Resource Engineering, where he leads the Drilling Mechanics Group. Prior to his current positions, he was senior research scientist at Schlumberger Cambridge Research in England. His expertise is in petroleum geomechanics with two current areas of focus: mechanics of hydraulic fractures and drilling mechanics. He has authored about 160 papers. He also has been awarded six U.S. patents and has received several scientific awards for his work. Dr. Detournay received his M.S. and Ph.D. in geoengineering from the University of Minnesota.

James H. Dieterich (NAS) is a distinguished professor of geophysics at the University of California, Riverside. His research has led to a new understanding of the Earth’s crust. He is an internationally renowned authority in rock mechanics, seismology, and volcanology. His pioneering studies in the theory, measurement, and application of frictional processes in rocks have had major implications for predicting fault instability and earthquake nucleation. His previous work on the rate- and state-dependent representation of fault constitutive properties is now being applied in modeling of seismicity, including aftershocks and triggering of earthquakes, and in inverse models that use earthquake rates to map stress changes in space and time. Dr. Dieterich recently launched a new effort to investigate fault slip and earthquake processes in geometrically complex fault systems, which includes development of large-scale quasidynamic simulations of seismicity in fault systems, and investigation of the physical interactions and stressing conditions that control system-level phenomena. Dr. Dieterich received his Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from Yale University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×

David K. Dillon is the principal of David K. Dillon PE, LLC, a petroleum engineering consulting firm located in Centennial, Colorado. He holds a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1974). He is a licensed professional engineer in Colorado (#19171) and Wyoming (#12530) and has been a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers for over 35 years. Before starting his career as a consulting engineer, Mr. Dillon worked in the private oil and gas industry for 20 years as a drilling engineer, a production engineer, and a reservoir engineer. He has extensive experience in optimizing production from existing oil and gas fields, secondary recovery operations, and the calculation of oil and gas reserves. Mr. Dillon was also an Engineering Supervisor and the Engineering Manager for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for over 15 years. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is the regulating body for oil and gas drilling and production in the state of Colorado. As the Engineering Manager he was instrumental in the drafting and adoption of new rules by the Commission and the review and approval of underground injection permits for the State of Colorado. Mr. Dillon has offered expert testimony before the oil and gas commissions of several states.

Sidney J. Green (NAE) is research professor at the University of Utah, where he holds a dual appointment in mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering. He is also a Schlumberger Senior Advisor and was one of the founders and former President and Chief Executive Officer of TerraTek, a geomechanics engineering firm, which was acquired by Schlumberger in 2006. Mr. Green has worked in the area of geomechanics for nearly 5 decades. He has published numerous papers and reports, holds a number of patents, has given many presentations on geomechanics, and has received a number of rock mechanics and geomechanics recognitions. He has served on government committees and on many university and national laboratory advisory boards, and he has testified at a number of congressional hearings. He has served as member of the board of directors for a number of businesses. He received the Outstanding Engineer award and the Entrepreneur of the Year award from Utah, and the Distinguished Alumni Award (1976) and the Professional Degree recognition (1998) from the former Missouri School of Mines. He received the 1989 Honorary Alumni Award and the 2009 Engineering Achievement Award from the University of Utah. He is a past member of the Greater Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors and was recently elected a Fellow of the American Rock Mechanics Association. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He most recently served as a member of the NRC Committee on Assessment of the Department of Energy’s Methane Hydrate Research and Development Program: Evaluating Methane Hydrate as a Future Energy Resource. Mr. Green has a B.S. from the former Missouri School of Mines and an M.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, both in mechanical engineering. He attended 1 year at Pennsylvania State University graduate school and 2 years at Stanford University, where he received the degree of engineer in engineering mechanics.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×

Robert M. Habiger worked for ConocoPhillips for over 28 years in various scientific and management capacities in the disciplines of petrophysics and geophysics. While there, he held various positions in research and development and in international exploration, including Manager for Seismic Technology in the Houston corporate offices. He joined Spectraseis as Chief Technology Officer in February 2007, where he is responsible for all technical aspects of the company’s research and commercial offerings in passive seismic technology. These programs and products include both hydrocarbon reservoir fluids monitoring from low-frequency passive seismic and microseismic monitoring associated with hydraulic fracturing and fluid injection/removal. Rob is the Director of the Low Frequency Seismic Partnership, an industrial research consortium studying the application of low-frequency passive seismic methods to hydrocarbon fluid mapping. He holds bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in physics.

Robin K. McGuire (NAE) is a consulting engineer specializing in earthquake engineering, risk analysis, and decision analysis. His experience includes directing projects to determine earthquake design requirements for new nuclear power plants in the central and eastern United States; making recommendations to the Electric Power Research Institute and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on seismic design requirements; consulting for the National Committee on Property Insurance on earthquake matters and making recommendations to the California Department of Insurance; serving as lead consultant on probabilistic performance assessment of the Yucca Mountain site as a possible high-level waste repository; and consulting on numerous U.S. and overseas studies of seismic and environmental risk for utilities, insurance groups, and commercial clients. Dr. McGuire was president of the Seismological Society of America (SSA) in 1991-1992, authored the book Seismic Hazard and Risk Analysis in 2004, and was the Joyner Lecturer in 2009 for the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the SSA. Dr. McGuire received his S.B. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his M.S. in structural engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in structural engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

James K. Mitchell (NAS/NAE) is currently University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and Consulting Geotechnical Engineer. Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 1994, he served on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1958, holding the Edward G. Cahill and John R. Cahill Chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering there at the time of his retirement in 1993. Concurrent to his tenure at UC Berkeley, he was Chairman of Civil Engineering from 1979 to 1984. His primary research activities have focused on experimental and analytical studies of soil behavior related to geotechnical problems, admixture stabilization of soils, soil improvement and ground reinforcement,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×

physicochemical phenomena in soils, environmental geotechnics, time-dependent behavior of soils, in situ measurement of soil properties, and mitigation of ground failure risk during earthquakes. He has authored more than 375 publications, including the graduate-level text and geotechnical reference Fundamentals of Soil Behavior. A licensed civil engineer and geotechnical engineer in California and professional engineer in Virginia, Dr. Mitchell has served as chairman or officer for numerous national and international organizations. He has chaired the NRC Geotechnical Board and three NRC study committees, and served as a member of several other NRC study committees. He has received numerous awards, including the Norman Medal and the Outstanding Projects and Leaders Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1976 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998. Dr. Mitchell received a bachelor of civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and M.S. and doctor of science degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Julie E. Shemeta is the president and founder of MEQ Geo Inc., a microseismic consulting and services company based in Denver, Colorado. She has worked on microseismic projects in North America, Australia, and India, including hydraulic fracture monitoring in tight gas, shale gas and oil, steam-assisted gravity drainage, and coalbed methane projects. Her background includes deep-water oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, working in the geothermal industry for developments in Indonesia and the Philippines, and working for a microseismic vendor providing data processing and consulting on hydraulic fracture monitoring. Ms. Shemeta has been actively involved with the development of software for both processing and visualization of microseismic throughout her 20-year career. She has served on numerous meeting committees for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and the AAPG. She co-chaired the DGS/RMAG (Denver Geophysical Society and Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists) 3-D Seismic Symposium from 2009 to 2011 and is still active on the committee. She served as the Denver Geophysical Society Treasurer in 2008-2009. She obtained her B.S. in geology at the University of Washington and her M.S. in geophysics with a specialty in earthquake seismology at the University of Utah.

John L. (Bill) Smith is presently a geothermal consultant having recently retired as a senior geologist at the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA). He has 46 years of diversified geologic, geophysical, and geochemical experience in the geothermal and oil and gas industry, including numerous geothermal exploration and development projects in the western United States and Japan. For the past 25 years he has worked at The Geysers, first designing, permitting, and evaluating steam production and water injection wells to initially supply a 220 MW power project, and then for more than the past decade monitoring the induced

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×

seismicity that occurs both within the NCPA area of operations and throughout the entire Geysers field. Prior to joining The Geysers, Dr. Smith worked for 10 years as an oil and gas exploration geologist and geophysicist (seismologist) for Standard Oil of California (Chevron), then for 11 years as Vice President of Exploration for Republic Geothermal, which included geothermal exploration and development projects throughout California, Nevada, Utah, and Japan. Dr. Smith received his A.B. in geology from Middlebury College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in geological sciences from Indiana University.

STAFF BIOGRAPHIES

Elizabeth A. Eide is director of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources at the NRC. Prior to joining the NRC as a staff officer in 2005, she served as a researcher, team leader, and laboratory manager for 12 years at the Geological Survey of Norway in Trondheim. In Norway her research included basic and applied projects related to isotope geochronology, mineralogy and petrology, and crustal processes. Her publications include more than 40 journal articles and book chapters, and 10 Geological Survey reports. She has overseen 10 NRC studies. She completed a Ph.D. in geology at Stanford University and received a B.A. in geology from Franklin and Marshall College.

Courtney Gibbs is a program associate with the NRC Board on Earth Sciences and Resources. She received her degree in graphic design from the Pittsburgh Technical Institute in 2000 and began working for the National Academies in 2004. Prior to her work with the board, Ms. Gibbs supported the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board and the former Board on Radiation Effects Research.

Jason R. Ortego is a research associate with the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources at the National Academies. He received a B.A. in English from Louisiana State University in 2004 and an M.A. in international affairs from George Washington University in 2008. He began working for the National Academies in 2008 with the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, and in 2009 he joined the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources.

Nicholas D. Rogers is a financial and research associate with the National Research Council Board on Earth Sciences and Resources. He received a B.A. in history, with a focus on the history of science and early American history, from Western Connecticut State University in 2004. He began working for the National Academies in 2006 and has primarily supported the board on a broad array of Earth resources, mapping, and geographical sciences issues.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×
Page 181
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×
Page 182
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×
Page 183
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×
Page 184
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×
Page 185
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2013. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13355.
×
Page 186
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In the past several years, some energy technologies that inject or extract fluid from the Earth, such as oil and gas development and geothermal energy development, have been found or suspected to cause seismic events, drawing heightened public attention.

Although only a very small fraction of injection and extraction activities among the hundreds of thousands of energy development sites in the United States have induced seismicity at levels noticeable to the public, understanding the potential for inducing felt seismic events and for limiting their occurrence and impacts is desirable for state and federal agencies, industry, and the public at large. To better understand, limit, and respond to induced seismic events, work is needed to build robust prediction models, to assess potential hazards, and to help relevant agencies coordinate to address them.

Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies identifies gaps in knowledge and research needed to advance the understanding of induced seismicity; identify gaps in induced seismic hazard assessment methodologies and the research to close those gaps; and assess options for steps toward best practices with regard to energy development and induced seismicity potential.

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