The Permian Basin Research Lab at UT Dallas

Abstract

The Permian Basin is increasingly important to the Texas and New Mexico economies and US energy independence but many geoscience faculty and students know little about it. The basin is densely drilled for hydrocarbons but there remains much that we do not know about its formation and evolution. In order to better understand the geologic history of this basin and to inform the next generation of geoscientists, we have established the Permian Basin Research Lab (PBRL) in the Geoscience Dept. at UTD. The Permian Basin Research Lab is committed to advancing our understanding of all geologic aspects of the Permian Basin. We emphasize teaching and making the results of our work open and available to all interested parties, from the general public to students at all levels to industry and government. Our efforts to date have included teaching a graduate course on the Permian Basin (Fall 2017), engaging graduate students in research about the Permian Basin, organizing workshops designed to stimulate collaborative research (April 2018), and making videos about the Permian basin https://youtu.be/zksQ89aPigE. Our research is intended to be shared via presentations at scientific meetings and publications in the peer-reviewed literature. To better ensure that university and industrial geoscientists communicate and understand the expectations of limitations of their respective cultures, the PBRL is co-directed by a UTD professor (Stern) and an experienced industry geoscientist (Waite). We are in the early stages of developing the lab but are interested to recruit associates from industry, academia, and government. There are no fees or other restrictions to become involved, just a willingness to share information and data and an interest to help educate the next generation of geoscientists and inform our community. Please drop by our poster and let’s discuss what we might do together.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90343 ©2019 AAPG Southwest Section Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas, April 6-9, 2019