An Introduction to Dr Ellen Gilliland; Assistant Professor of Mining and Minerals Engineering
Back in high school, my physics teacher
required all students to sign up for one of several lunchtime lecture
series. I was annoyed to give up my
open-campus lunch break (great, another hour of education!), but I signed up
for a series on geophysics because it was the only topic I hadn’t heard of and
it turned out to be a serendipitous experience.
The series was taught by a professor from the local university who was
passionate about teaching and involving students (even high schoolers) in field
work. We took several field trips around
the state (Oklahoma), using geophysical tools to explore and image the
subsurface of the earth. We went to
Tulsa to investigate an eyewitness account of a mass grave constructed during
the Greenwood race riot of 1921, to a remote cave system in Johnston County to
search for outlaws’ lost treasure, and to the University of Oklahoma campus to
map utility tunnels. I was fascinated by
the ability of geophysical technologies to characterize the subsurface “without
digging” and by the potential to apply these technologies toward solving a
variety of real-world problems.
I enrolled at the University of Oklahoma
and majored in Geophysics, earning my B.S. in 2006. I loved the undergraduate program at OU,
which was both challenging and fun. Along
the way, I had several more opportunities for field work and travel, including
a three-week archeological study in Greece and a semester abroad in Glasgow,
Scotland. I decided I needed a change of
scenery for graduate school and settled on Virginia Tech for my M.S.
program. Although Oklahoma has long been
a hub for the oil and gas industries, it was during my early years at Virginia
Tech that I was introduced to the role of geophysics in exploring and
developing energy resources. My graduate
research involved characterizing the sources of error on micro-earthquake locations
recorded during a hydraulic fracturing treatment. By monitoring and analyzing the effectiveness
of well treatments, operators can optimize the parameters of those treatments
and reduce the number of wells they need to drill in order to produce the
resource.
Following my M.S. degree, I accepted a
position with a natural gas operator, mapping reservoirs in 3D (and 4D!) and
planning new directional wells in the Marcellus shale play. I enjoyed many aspects of the work— using
cutting-edge software to analyze beautiful high-resolution data sets, sweating
my way through million-dollar decisions, and flying on the NetJet—but,
ultimately, I missed doing research.
I left my position in industry in 2011 to
head back to Virginia Tech and join the staff of the Virginia Center for Coal
and Energy Research (VCCER). As a
research associate, I worked on projects related to carbon sequestration and
management, including a field project to use captured carbon emissions to
enhance gas recovery from stacked coalbed methane seams, and a characterization
project to assess the geology of the offshore Atlantic margin for carbon
storage and/or utilization operations, both sponsored by the U.S. Department of
Energy. I also worked on an Alpha
Foundation project to test an ultra-low frequency, through-the-earth
communication system for underground mining emergencies. These projects were managed by faculty of the
Mining and Minerals Engineering Department, and I learned a lot about the
department as a result. I was impressed
with the diverse research conducted by mining engineers and the departmental
focus on developing sustainable practices, “green” technologies, and improved
standards for human and environmental safety within the energy and minerals
industries. I joined the department as a
PhD student, conducting research to design and implement a monitoring program
for a carbon storage/ enhanced coalbed methane recovery field test in southwestern
Virginia. One key outcome of that work
was successful microseismic imaging of formation water evacuating a CO2
injection wellbore in the early days of the test. This was significant because the recorded data
included no micro-earthquakes which are typically used to map “hotspots” of
reservoir activity, only low-level acoustic emissions from fluids mobilized in
the reservoir.
I completed my Ph.D. in the fall of 2016
and started my current position later that year. I have enjoyed my new role teaching undergraduate
and graduate students, and I am excited to be involved in two new carbon
management projects. Additionally, this
summer I fulfilled a dream to travel to China, where I presented a paper at the
8th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Minerals
Industry (SDIMI 2017) in Beijing. In my
new position, I hope to continue using geophysical and remote sensing methods
to monitor activities in the energy and minerals industries, characterize their
impacts, and improve the sustainable development of energy and mineral
resources. I also hope to explore
additional research and professional interests, including global and domestic
energy policy, corporate-public engagement, and diversity in STEM fields and
academia.  |
| Showing UK colleagues around the coal bed methane site in Virginia |
Energy researchers often refer to the
“grand challenge” to achieve the secure supply, affordability, and
sustainability of energy resources. It
is a global challenge, and the partnership between VCCER and GERC provides a
unique opportunity for collaborative, international research efforts to address
it. I have enjoyed meeting several GERC
staff on their visits to Virginia Tech and on a visit I made to the University
of Nottingham as a student in 2015. I am
excited to have joined the GERC team and look forward to working with the
talented GERC staff in the coming years.
*You can keep up to date with GERC activities on our social media channels*
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