James M. DeGraff

Biography

My goal is to make significant contributions to science and society by conducting and publishing geologic research in collaboration with other investigators, by training new scientists, and by communicating the meaning and value of science to the public.

I began my education at Michigan Tech and have a strong attachment to the area.  Here I learned to combine geological and geophysical methods to understand  geologic structures and to extrapolate this knowledge to the subsurface.  Afterward, I spent three years with the Peace Corps teaching applied geophysics, field geology, and independent studies at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción in Paraguay, and assisting a government agency to drill water wells for small rural communities.  While at Purdue, I focused on fracture processes in volcanic rocks during cooling and solidification, and developed thermal and rock mechanical skills to model formation of fracture networks based on measurements throughout the western USA.

My career has been mostly in the hydrocarbon industry with ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas.  During that time, I focused on geologic aspects of fracture reservoirs, traveling widely to work on these challenging reservoirs and collaborating with reservoir engineers to understand how fracture networks affect fluid flow.  Technical activities included core description, image-log interpretation, outcrop description, seismic interpretation, drilling data, statistical data analysis, and prospect assessment to determine the value of hydrocarbon accumulations and how to develop them.  Later I led small teams in applied research and advised work groups about appropriate data, technology, and methods to address reservoir issues.

I am pleased and excited to return to the university where I started and to contribute to the excellent work that is done here.