The Kimbell School of Geosciences

Jonathan Price, Chair (Bolin Hall 102B)

The Kimbell School of Geosciences

Professor: Meddaugh
Associate Professors: Carlucci, Dodge, Price
Professor Emeritus: Kocurko

Mission Statement for the Geosciences Program

The Geosciences Program provides students with a comprehensive education that prepares them for a variety of employment opportunities as well as graduate school. Degrees incorporate field and classroom experience, with courses that offer the most current technology, information, and research techniques available. Students graduate with skills that enable them to utilize equipment, think critically, and interact effectively.

Distinguished Professorship

Prothro Distinguished Professorship of Geological Science

The Prothro Distinguished Professorship of Geological Science was established in 1986 to support the work and research of a professor in the Geosciences program.

In 2015, Dr. Jonathan D. Price was awarded this professorship in recognition of his teaching, research, and administrative efforts. Dr. Price’s research interests lie in high-temperature geochemistry and igneous petrology and their application to tectonism. He studies Earth processes that affect the development of continental crust, particularly those surrounding magmatism in extensional settings. These interests are applied to geologic problems both globally and regionally, including an emphasis on the processes that shaped north Texas and southern Oklahoma and the Texas Trans Pecos. As a course of his research, Dr. Price has fostered numerous undergraduate research endeavors; he has been annually involved in the UGROW summer research experience and has mentored several EURECA projects. The results of his research have been presented at national and international meetings and published in extensively-cited scientific journal articles.

Robert L. Bolin Distinguished Professorship of Petroleum Geology

The Robert L. Bolin Distinguished Professorship of Petroleum Geology was established in 2012 by Ms. Beverly Bolin to honor her husband, Mr. Robert L. Bolin. The professorship will be used to support the work and research of a professor in the field of Petroleum Geology.

Dr. W. Scott Meddaugh, the professor holding this position, is a recognized international expert in the fields of petroleum reservoir characterization, modeling, and forecasting. Dr. Meddaugh joined Midwestern State University in 2013. He has over 32 years of major oil company experience with Chevron and Gulf including many years of supervisory and technical project management experience, including international major capital projects. In 2012, he received a Chevron award for career Excellence in Reservoir Management. He has worked on major reservoir projects worldwide including projects in the Permian Basin, California, Louisiana, Texas, and Wyoming as well as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Angola, Nigeria, the North Sea, Canada, and Australia. He has led numerous public and internal short courses in geostatistics, reservoir geomodeling, uncertainty analysis, and reservoir simulation. He received a PhD in geology from Harvard University in 1983.

Dr. Meddaugh is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the European Association of Geologists and Engineers (EAGE), the Geological Society of America, and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. He serves as an Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Evaluation Journal and is a technical editor for several other leading industry journals. In 2014, he received a Distinguished Technical Editor award for his work on another peer-reviewed SPE journal, the SPE Economics & Management Journal. He served on the program committees for the 2011 SPE Forum on Uncertainty Management and Risk Mitigation over Asset Lifecycles, the 2012 EAGE Innovation in Reservoir Modeling Conference: Integrating Data for Optimum Reservoir Management, and the 2014 Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Gussow Conference on Geomodeling. He has authored or co-authored over 30 peer reviewed and SPE technical papers on industry topics ranging from reservoir characterization and modeling to oil shale characterization; from soft rock to hard rock geology, as well as isotope geochemistry, and ore deposits. He has presented over 100 technical talks at AAPG, EAGE, and SPE national and international meetings and has chaired numerous technical sessions for AAPG, EAGE, and SPE conferences. In 2013, he was appointed to the Energy Sector, Critical Infrastructure Working Group of the Texas Office of Homeland Security. In 2014, he served as a preliminary judge for the earth sciences for the 2014 Jackson Hole Science Media Awards.

General Science

Courses in general science are offered to students who are pursuing their teacher certification with a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies or a Bachelor of Science (with a science major) with secondary certification. (See Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies and Secondary Teacher Certification .)

Programs

Major

Geosciences, B.S.

Minor

Geosciences Minor