Geoscience grad students place second in regional competitions
March 25, 2014
A team of University of Alaska Fairbanks geoscience graduate students won second place
and $500 at a regional Imperial Barrel Awards competition recently in California.
Five graduate students from the geology and geophysics department within the College
of Natural Science and Mathematics make up UAF’s winning team: Seth Hooper, Demi Mixon,
April Knox, Sarah Albert and Peter Illig. Associate Professor Catherine Hanks is their
advisor.
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists sponsors the competition, which draws
geoscience graduate students from universities around the world. Teams can have up
to five students, a faculty advisor and two industry professionals, who serve as consultants.
The AAPG gives the teams a data set about a real place, including information on its
geology and geophysics. Students have eight weeks to analyze the data and determine
the gas and oil potential of the area before presenting their findings to a panel
of industry judges at the regional competition.
UAF competed against five other universities in the competition within the Pacific
section of the United States.
BP provided two professional consultants for the team, geologists Daniel Yancey and
Ashley Siks.
This is the third year that the geology and geophysics department has entered the
IBA competition. Each time they have placed in the top three at the regional competition.