Erin Camp
Graduate Student, Ph.D. ’17
Camp is a former graduate student who researched and modeled the sensitivity of the price of geothermal electricity to advancements in various technologies, culminating in a list of critical technologies to recommend for future research funding. She designed and implemented three data-driven renewable energy research projects on low-temperature geothermal energy exploration.
Franklin G. Horowitz
Horowitz studied large scale subsurface structures underneath Cornell and Ithaca through geophysical tools such as aeromagnetics and gravity studies. Earlier, for the New York – Pennsylvania – West Virginia Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis, he led the geophysical analysis of seismic risk and was an integral part of the assessment of spatial variability of thermal gradients.
Calvin Whealton
Graduate Student, M.S. ’15, Ph.D. ’17
Whealton is a former graduate student who developed data sets with which to correct raw Bottom Hole Temperature data to estimates of temperature at depth for archival borehole data in the Appalachian Basin (M.S. thesis, 2015). In his doctoral study, among other things he developed an integrated risk assessment of the potential to develop direct use heating across the Appalachian basin, inclusive of heat, reservoir quality, risk of induced seismicity, and population density.
T. Ming Khan
B.S. ’18, Staff 2018-2019
Khan was involved in multiple assignments to characterize the geology underneath Ithaca’s campus using geophysical, remote sensing, and field observations. She worked with gravity and seismic methods, and LiDAR data to identify structures such as fractures. She also was the original manager of the Deep Geothermal Heat Research website.
Jood Al Aswad
Former Graduate Student, M.S. ’19
Al Aswad’s research as a Masters student primarily focused on evaluating the in-situ geothermal reservoir quality of the Cambro-Ordovician strata below the Knox unconformity at Cornell University. This involved the use of data from wells around Cornell University, such as well logs and cuttings, to interpolate depths, thicknesses and petrophysical qualities of the potential reservoirs.
Daniel May
B.S. ’18, Staff 2018-2019
May’s role in this project involved using the data collected during Cornell’s 2018 seismic reflection survey, as well as earlier industry surveys, in order to generate images of the geologic structures in the subsurface. These profiles continue to be used to illuminate the suitability of multiple locations on campus for geothermal test well sites.
Jared Smith
M.S. ’16; Ph.D. ’19
Smith received his M.S. based on thermal modeling of the subsurface of the Appalachian Basin. As a Ph.D. student in Environmental and Water Resources Systems Engineering, his research focused on geothermal resource assessment for the Ithaca region and Morgantown, WV. He modeled potential geothermal reservoirs for the Cornell campus.
Christopher Galantino
Galantino used a background in Environmental and Systems Engineering to conduct research in support of Earth Source Heat. His work focused on the further development and optimization of a comprehensive simulation tool that served to represent the overall performance of a future geothermal system under various technologies and configurations.
Jane Suhey
B.S. 2020, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
As a senior, Jane Suhey spent 2019-2020 helping to install and maintain the CorNET21 seismic network with Weston Geophysical Group and then wrote a report describing the results from the first 9 months of operations.
Richard W. Allmendinger
Emeritus Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Rick Allmendinger is a structural geologist focused on understanding brittle upper crustal deformation during earthquakes as well as longer-term, finite deformation. His research focuses on structural geology and tectonics, earthquake-related fracturing, structural geodesy, numerical kinematic modeling, interpretation of seismic reflection profiles, etc.
Jacob Paul
Jake Paul utilized his dual training in geological sciences and mechanical engineering in analysis of the natural brittle fractures in crystalline basement rocks exposed in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. The properties of those fracture sets at multiple spatial scales are currently the best analogue available for the plausible fracture sets in an ESH basement reservoir.
Nicolás Rangel Jurado
M.S. 2021
Rangel Jurado completed research focused on on the heat productivity of closed-loop systems, and on short-circuited flow paths in geothermal reservoirs.
Faculty
Brown is the Sidney Kaufman Professor in Geophysics. His research focuses on the application of multichannel seismic reflection methods for the exploration of the continental lithosphere.
Lauren McLeod
Former doctoral student
McLeod completed a Ph.D. candidate in Physics, with a research focus in seismology. She analyzed the seismic activity recorded during a one year deployment of seismometers, during 2015, in the region around Ithaca.
Former Undergraduate
Zhang worked with Zachary Katz, Professor Matthew Pritchard, Jane Suehy and Weston Geophysical to create a comprehensive report on the 2020 – 2021 CorNET21 data. Among other things, she examined event distribution, velocity models, and possible anthropogenic events with the goal of informing the public on accomplished work and future steps.