Geoscience grad students place second in regional competitions

March 25, 2014

University Relations

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.