Paul Mann Senior Research Scientist Ph.D., State University of New York at Albany, 1983 B.A., Oberlin College, 1978 Telephone: 512-471-0452 email: paulm@ig.utexas.edu Office number: 3.110F   Paul's CV

Research interests. My research interests include the tectonics of late Cenozoic deformation plate boundary zones, the geology and geophysics of strike-slip plate boundaries, structural styles of strike-slip, thrust and rift boundaries as expressed on seismic reflection data; and the tectonic settings of giant oil and gas fields found worldwide. For these studies I use mainly subsurface data that is either collected from NSF-fuded field-based programs or is donated by oil companies and used with their permission. Other forms of data used in my studies include field observations and mapping, remote sensing, seismic refraction data, sidescan and multibeam data, magnetics and gravity data, GPS-based geodesy, and fault trenching.

Since 2002, much of the support for my research has come from the oil industry. I have co-led two multi-year projects funded by a consortia of oil companies. From 2002-2006, Lesli Wood (UT Bureau of Economic Geology) and I led the DM2 project that focused on the Trinidad area. From 2005 to the present, Alejandro Escalona (UT PhD, 2003, now Associate Professor, University of Stavanger, Norway) and I are leading the Caribbean Basins, Tectonics, and Hydrocarbons Project (CBTH) that covers a much larger geographic area of the Caribbean region: http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/cbth/

My primary ERG affiliation at the Jackson School. Each researcher or faculty member at the Jackson School of Geosciences has an affiliation to an “Education Research Group” or “ERG”. My primary affiliation is Energy Geoscience which is the newest erg approved by the Jackson School in 2008. My secondary affiliations include: Structure geology and tectonics, sedimentology, and marine geology and geophysics. For a complete list of ERG affiliations of UTIG researchers see:
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/committees.htm

Collaborations with other oil industry consortia at the Jackson School of Geosciences. At the Institute for Geophysics, our group works in close collaboration with other consortia funded by the oil industry including:

PLATES Project: http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/plates/

Gulf of Mexico Basin Depositional Syntheis (GBDS): http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/gbds/gbds.htm

We also work in collaboration with other consortia at the UT Bureau of Economic Geology which is located in a building connected to our building at the Pickle Research Center:

QCL project of Dr. Lesli Wood at the Bureau of Econonic Geology:
http://www.beg.utexas.edu//indassoc/dm2/index.htm

Completed examples of my work. In all of my previous work, I attempt to tie various data types into a completely consistent regional tectonic interpretation. For examples of completed regional studies, please refer to the Geological Society of America Special Papers that I have either edited or co-edited on different segments of the Caribbean plate boundaries. These include: GSA Special Papers 262 (1991), 295 (1995), 326 (1999), 385 (2005), 428 (2007), as well as Caribbean Basins, volume 4 of Elsevier’s Basins of the World series (Elsevier, 1999); a review article on giant oil and gas fields of the world (2003 AAPG Memoir 78); Tectonophysics Special Issue on the Solomon Islands (v. 389, 2005), the AAPG Bulletin Special Issue on the Maracaibo Basin, western Venezuela (v. 90, 2006; the 2007 Geological Society of London Special Publication Tectonics of Strike-slip Restraining and Releasing Bends co-edited by Dickson Cunningham (UT PhD, 1991) and myself;and a special issue in press in Marine and Petroleum Geology on the petroleum geology of the southeastern Caribbean. In addition to these more regional studies, I have coauthored many papers with students that are more focused geographically on their study areas.

Over the past 26 years I have worked either onland or at sea in the following tectonic environments. Most of this work has been done collaboratively with BS, MS, PhD, or post-doctoral level researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (cf. list of graduated students).

Potential sources of data for theses and dissertations: The source of data for these studies varies from original field data collected at outcrops, original geophysical data collected during NSF-supported marine surveys, and data provided to us by the oil industry. In recent years, most of my time is spent working with subsurface data either collected as part of NSF-funded surveys on academic research vessels or using geophysical and well data provided by the two oil industry consortia. However, ideas by students for outcrop-based studies to solve tectonic problems of regional significance are always welcome.

Graduate student opportunities: I am always looking for self-motivated and hard working students who are both interested in the field of tectonics and willing to go the extra mile and include "one more data set" in their thesis or dissertation study. This type of training is valuable both to those wanting to go to careers in the oil industry and also for those interested in academic research and teaching. Once you get to industry you will be zoomed in on prospect sized areas. Our program provides students a good opportunity to understand the regional scale which you may never have the opportunity to learn once you are within the industry.

For master's students, I expect a high degree of professionalism and maturity during an intensive, 110%, two-year commitment to their science that will include field-related travel, reporting of results at a minimum of one national or international meeting, and at least one published paper resulting from their thesis. This paper needs to be submitted by the time of their graduation date. Highly motivated master’s students complete more than one publication (the current record number of first-authored publications from a single MS thesis I supervised is four: Heubeck, MS, 1988).

I ask that master's students devote the summer following their first year of classes to their research rather than taking a summer internship with an oil company. The reason for this is that the summer is essential to making the type of progress needed to complete one or more publications in two years (and take classes during the academic semesters).

For PhD students, You will need to make a longer five year committment that will culminate with you leaving here as a globally-recognized expert on whatever topic you chose. Your path will include: 1) extensive field work (either at land or sea or both, or here using office-based geophysical data); 2) frequent presentations at national and international meetings such as AGU, GSA, and AAPG; 3) development of a network of colleagues outside of the University of Texas especially since you will need that network to find a job, and 4) producing a minimum of three published papers resulting from your study. These papers need to be accepted by the time of their graduation date. The current record for first-authored publications from a single PhD dissertation is five and is shared by two students (Rogers, PhD, 2001; Escalona, PhD, 2002). Castillo (PhD, 2001) produced three publications and was only a PhD student here in Austin for three years.

Should I sign up for a MS or PhD? To keep focused and productive for the five-year funding window provided by the Jackson School for PhDs, you would need to have a passion for the science, a highly developed work ethic, and be a self-starter who can manage a multi-year project and complete it in the allotted time.

I’m commonly asked by students: should I do a MS or PhD? If there is any uncertainty, I recommend that the student completes the two-year MS first and then reevaluates his or her’s next step. If you were passionate about the two years of MS work, the two years flew by, and you ended with an excellent research product accepted for publication, then I would advise that you continue into the PhD. If the work seemed like work and the two years crept by, then you are probably ready to start a “normal” job in the “real” world.

To those, who say: "I plan to finish my MS, get a normal job then come back to complete a PhD”, I would be skeptical and say: “This rarely happens as planned". Academia tends to be a one-way valve: once you leave, its hard to get back in. Moreover, as you age into your late 20s and 30s, your changing personal and financial situation may evolve to the point of making graduate school impractical.

Thesis and dissertation topics. From Day One, Year One as an entering graduate student, I will start to quiz you about developing your topic and will expect you to devote time to this each week (rather than taking two semesters of courses and an internship and then reappearing “ready to start” a full year later). Many of the students come with firm ideas and data to work on (eg, they have been given a specific data set from an oil company), but others don’t have it so easy and have to find their own data or find a field area that addresses a significant problem. To facilitate slow and steady progress, our group has weekly meetings where each student makes an oral presentation of the progress they have made that week on their research topic and their plans for the following week. This steady, forward motion is essential to keeping on track for completing research that is of publishable quality in as little as two years.

Teaching in the Energy Geosciences curriculum at the Jackson School. In the fall semester, I co-teach one graduate level course with Dr. Lorena Moscardelli called: "Introduction to subsurface mapping and petroleum workstations" (GEO 384G). Each student works with a partner on a 3D seismic data set from a petroliferous basin and goes from learning how to use the workstation to preparing a class presentation on their area. Along the way, they would need to review/learn the many aspects of basin analysis, structure, petroleum geology, and tectonics that is needed for a complete understanding of the basin and its petroleum potential. This course is ideal for entering students with some background in basin analysis but no previous experience in subsurface geology. Many of the methodologies can be applied directly to your own thesis data set.

Dr. Lorena Moscardelli at the BEG: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/personnel_ext.php?id=58

A follow-on course taught by Dr. Chris Zahm of the Bureau of Economic Geology is Petroleum basin evaluation that is linked to the Annual AAPG Imperial Barrel Competition. Each year UT graduate students taking this course will be given data from AAPG with instructions on putting together a petroleum evaluation that is judged in regional and international competitions.

Dr. Chris Zahm at the BEG: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/personnel_ext.php?id=80

The payoff of all this work, planning, and close supervision. A list of students I have worked with who have won awards for presentations at national and international meetings can be found here. Their present jobs are listed on the list of graduated students.

Post-doctoral opportunities: I am also looking for post-docs to hire for our industry consortium that is focused on a regional synthesis of the Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico (cf. web page at http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/cbth/). Since this project mainly deals with subsurface data (seismic, wells) and regional geology/tectonics, expertise in both areas is required. The duration of the post-doctoral position is two years. My expectations for post-docs include that they are completely self-motivated and are able to devise their own research program within the confines of our data and mandate from the industry sponsors. Their work is expected to satisfy both the goals of the project but also be publishable in leading journals.

UT undergraduate opportunities. I have two types of undergraduates working for our projects. One type is engaged in support work such as scanning, making maps in GIS, or updating reference lists. The other type is conducting research projects that could be used as part of a senior thesis project (if you meet those criteria established by the Department of Geological Sciences). If you don’t meet those criteria then the goal is to present the results at a national meeting and possibly publish the results. Some of our undergraduates of the second type are conducting work that is equivalent to a MS degree.

Visit us! The best way to see if this program is a good fit for you is to visit us in person here in Austin, Texas. Please contact me or plan a one or two day visit to the Institute for Geophysics to discuss how you might develop your topic into a UT thesis or dissertation study. We can arrange for you to stay with one of the grad students working on a topic that may interest you (see list of current graduate students.

Note that we are located at the Pickle Research Center located 10 miles north the main UT campus and Department of Geological Sciences. Your visit should include visiting with the Graduate Coordinator and the faculty members of the UT Graduate Admissions committee. Map to UTIG:
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/about/directions.htm

Applying to UT. Graduate applications are handled on campus through Phillip Guerrero, the graduate coordinator, who can answer any questions you might have about the application and support policies of the Jackson School. Please follow the detailed instructions posted at the UT website. Note that applications that are not complete are not considered for admission, so start your application process months early rather than waiting for the last minute to submit your materials, GRE scores, etc. Starting early applies especially to international studies whose materials can take longer to reach UT and be processed.

Phillip Guerrero, UT graduate coordinator: http://www.geo.utexas.edu/grad/admissions.html

Mann’s completed and Currently Funded Research Projects

Other areas of current research interest:
- Active continental extension of eastern Papua New Guinea (with Brian Horton)
- Tertiary tectonics and sedimentation in the Bohai basin, China
- Restraining and releasing bends in active and ancient strike-slip zones
- High-resolution seismic surveys of active faults and submarine slides in the circum-Caribbean area (with Matt Hornbach)
- Tectonic setting and database of the world's giant oil fields (with Mike Horn)

Short courses offered through AAPG or by special arrangement: 1) Jurassic-Recent subsurface geology, paleogeography, and regional tectonics of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean region (with A. Escalona and W. Galloway, 3 days).
http://www.aapg.org/education/fec/details.cfm?ID=83

2) Overview of the subsurface petroleum geology of northern South America: From mature onland supergiants to offshore frontiers (with A. Escalona, 2 days).

3) Giant oil and gas fields: Global inventories, tectonic settings, stratigraphic framework, and predictive parameters (with M. Horn, 2 days).

Paul's UTIG Contributions (Publications)
Some of Paul's field guides are available on-line.