(front row, l-r) Lynette Crocker, Brian Eslick (back row, l-r) Shane Carley, Erik Day	Graduate Students Win AAPG "IBA" Competition       Congratulations to Lynnette Crocker, Shane Carley, Erik Day, and Brian Eslick on their recent winning of the Imperial Barrel Award competition for the AAPG UTEP Chapter, Southwest Section of the United States!  They will now move on to the National competition at the AAPG meeting in Denver in June!  This was the first time UTEP had participated in the IBA!       The IBA program is designed to allow teams of students the chance to evaluate the petroleum potential of a sedimentary basin and to test their creative geological interpretations. This is all done within strict time limits of five-to-six weeks, with the results presented to – and judged by – an independent panel of petroleum industry experts.
Geology student spends summer on top of the world When students return to the UTEP campus next week and compare their summer experiences, Hector Zamora will have the coolest stories, hands down. The senior geology major from El Paso spent his summer break from UTEP at the top of the world. He traveled to a mountainous region near the North Pole and spent his days in a skiff at the edge of a massive glacier and rubbed elbows with some of the world’s top polar scientists. “It was the best experience I have had in my life.  Being able to work with two of the top scientists studying polar warming issues as well as the amazing group of undergraduate colleagues I got to work with, and in such a beautiful place is a priceless experience”, says Hector. His one regret: He didn't get to see a polar bear nor walrus. Northern Illinois University Professor Ross Powell and University of Massachusetts Professor Julie Brigham-Grette asked Hector to join of a select team of 6 Juniors from across the country to take part in a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, funded by the National Science Foundation. REU programs aim to cultivate future scientists by involving students in ongoing research projects. The team, who named themselves TUSK (Training Undergraduate Scientists in Kongsfjorden), spent five weeks in late July and early August in an old coal-mining settlement, now a prime Arctic research center, known as Ny-Ålesund, in the Norwegian island territory of Svalbard. Replete with glaciers and wildlife—including exotic birds, reindeer and Arctic ice seals—the islands are just 10 degrees away from the North Pole. Ny-Ålesund is the northernmost settlement on the islands—and on the planet. The settlement also is the site of a marine research facility operated for the Norwegian government by Kings Bay, the former coal-mining company, and financially supported in part by the US National Science foundation. The Norwegian Polar Institute and the Norwegian University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) also provided support for this US research effort. As part of his/her orientation to Ny-Ålesund, Hector was given safety instruction in the use of a rifle and flare gun in the event of an encounter with a polar bear. He also had to learn how to swim in a bright orange survival suit, mandatory training for researchers on the Arctic Ocean, where seawater temperatures, even during the summer, are near freezing. The UTEP student had little difficulty acclimatizing to the weather, with summer temperatures reaching above 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but he did need to adjust to 24 hours of daylight. Hector spent most of his days aboard small aluminum skiffs. The scientists and students ventured into the waters of a Kongsfjord littered with chunks of ice that frequently break away, or calve, from the glacier. The face of the glacier rises about 180 feet above sea level but continues another 180 ft down below sea level to its grounding line on the sea floor. It stretches for more than a mile across the head of the fjord. “House-size or even larger chunks of ice the size of city blocks, routinely break off the glacier face”, says Hector.  When icebergs calve, they plunge into the water, churning the sea. Hector said he watched as many large icebergs fracture from the glacier, often producing waves up to 30-foot-high. “As the icebergs break off, the small ones sound like gunshots, and the big ones like thunder,” he said. “You don’t want to get too close to the glacier.” This REU effort working in the marine setting was part of a larger program that also focuses on lake studies, and which is being run by Professor Steve Roof at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. The ultimate goal of the REU program is to interest more students in pursuing exciting careers in the Earth Sciences, but especially in the polar regions. The research team set out sediment traps to collect samples of the mud being produced by the glacier today.  They also collected samples of mud from the sea floor to determine what had been deposited in the recent past.   Data about the topography of the sea floor and the temperature and saltiness of the sea in front of the glacier will help them understand the interactions among ocean currents, streams and the glacier itself. They also set out sensors to measure the timing of iceberg calving through the waves they produce. As with most glaciers worldwide, those on Svalbard are retreating and shrinking because of global warming. The group research will help shed light on the physical processes during glacial retreat and the factors that influence the rate of retreat. That will help scientists to better predict what will happen with glaciers in the future.  “The REU program is as much about the scientific outcome as it is about providing an outstanding research experience for undergraduate students.  It starts with asking scientific questions and then requires learning how to design a field-based study, collect the data, and put it all together for publication”, says, Powell. He and colleague Julie Brigham-Grette, are among the world’s top scientists studying global warming issues as they relate to polar regions. Sediment and water samples collected during the expedition are being shipped to the US for further study by each of the participating students. Brigham-Grette explained that Hector is expected to write a senior thesis based on his summer research experience. Hector will present his analyses at the annual Arctic Workshop, where scientists from around the world gather early next year to exchange information about their arctic research results, especially on effects of global warming. “I was honored that I was selected by the REU program and that I got a chance to work with the team in the field,” Hector said. “Ny-Ålesund is an international research center, so I also got to meet scientists from around the world doing a wide variety of research projects.
Graduate Student Interns at NASA   William Clarke (M.S., Geology), was an intern during the summer of 2008 at NASA where he determined the extent of bio leaching of grains of ilmenite (FeTiO4); cyanobacteria (as do most bacteria ) excrete organic acids.  With these acids, minerals can be dissolved to release metallic elements into solution.  The overall goal was to test how much of these metals are released over time, and find a viable way to extract the metals from solution before the bacteria utilize them for themselves. The study is being conducted for potential use on the moon as a bio-mining system, that would also produce oxygen (cyanobacteria turn CO2 into O2), to be used on a possible future lunar base or outpost     Bill had to engineer how the flasks would be put together and sealed to remain as a closed system where he learned how to grow and harvest the bacteria for use in the experiments.  He also worked on the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) looking at the surface of each grain used in the experiment.  The SEM analysis resulted in visible bio-leaching signatures, such as small holes, crystal latius degradations, and bacterial shaped grooves etched in the surface.       When he returns during summer 09, he will continue this work to more closely monitor the metal extraction, and devise a method for a continuous flow that would refresh the solution.  This solution would allow the bacteria to continue "mining" the metals (because the previous system would kill the bacteria once the solution was to saturated with elements, cause even essential metals can kill anything if there is too much of it).  This is all with an end goal to produce publishable data.
	Graduate Student Receives GSA Scholarship         Miss Anita Thapalia received a Geological Society of America Award for Spring 2009. The title of her proposal is: Development of Simple Leach Test for Construction Materials.  Her supervisor is Dr. David Borrok.      In addition to this, she also received the Cotton Scholarship Award from UTEP's Graduate School.
	Graduate Student Wins Three Scholarships Hugo Rodriguez, M.S. geophysics student, is the recipient of three 2008-09 scholarships.  These scholarships were established by oil and gas industry-related donors to help students who are pursuing a professional career in geology or geophysics.  Dallas Geophysical Society's Karen Shaw Memorial Scholarship Texas Energy Council Scholarship sponsored by Pitts Oil Company LLS,  Houston Geological Society's W.L. and Florence W. Calvert Memorial Scholarship
	PhD Student Wins "Honorable Mention"   Roberto Velarde received a blue ribbon (honorable mention/ finalist) for best student poster in the symposium "Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXXII" at the Materials Research Society fall meeting last week in Boston, for his poster presentation, Transport of Radionuclide Bearing Dust by Aeolian Processes, Peña Blanca, Chihuahua, Mexico: Preliminary Results authored by Roberto Velarde, Philip Goodel, Minghua Ren and Thomas E Gil.
	PhD Student Wins Poster Contest Mike Feinstein was the Grand Prize winner of the 2008 Student Poster Contest at the 114th Annual Meeting, held in Reno-Sparks, Nevada.  His poster was entitled “An Epithermal Quartz Texture Case-Study: High-Grade District, California”
	Undergraduate Student wins APO Award Teira Solis was this year's recipient of the Alpha Phi Omega Geological Sciences Outstanding Student for 2009 Award; along with two Engineering students, Teira received a plaque from President Natalicio at the APO's 90th Aniversary Celebration on St. Patrick's Day.