Scholarships

Gary Babcock Memorial Scholarship

The Gary Babcock Memorial Scholarship is for graduate students only and has no restrictions or requirements. Two scholarships are awarded. The RMAG Foundation welcomes applications in any field of geoscience. The scholarship was created in 2007 in memory of Gary Babcock who is remembered not only for his successful, 40-year career in petroleum exploration and development, but for his kind spirit, caring nature, and his positive influence on others in the geologic community.

The 2023 Gary Babcock Memorial Scholarship was awarded to:

David Nworie

David Nworie, Ph.D. candidate, Geology, Colorado School of Mines

David’s dissertation topic is “Carbonate sediment-gravity flow experiments: how do particle characteristics affect flow structure, deposit texture, and reservoir quality in deep-marine settings?” David’s work is under the direction of Dr. Zane Jobe. David will collect naturally occurring sediments from Florida Bay and perform grain size analysis and dynamic image analysis using facilities at the University of Utah Particle Size and Surface Charge Lab. He will then use the experimental facilities at the Density Currents Research Center at the Universidade Federale do Rio Grande Sul, Brazil to produce realistic sediment gravity flow deposits. He intends to quantify flow rheology and the resultant deposit geometry, texture, and grain size distributions. These parameters will help predict reservoir presence and quality in mixed sediment gravity flow deposits.

David has a M.S. in Petroleum Science and Engineering from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil and a B.S. in Geology and Exploration Geophysics from Ebonyi State University, Nigeria.

The 2022 Gary Babcock Memorial Scholarships were awarded to:

Christophe Simbo, PhD candidate, Colorado State University
“Sedimentological and geochemical factors influencing the viability of aquifer storage and recovery in the Edwards aquifer, New Braunfels, Texas”

Jacob Slawson, PhD candidate, Colorado School of Mines
“Using Paleogene stratigraphy to predict future hydrologic change”