Scholarships

Robert M. Cluff Memorial Scholarship for Petrophysical and/or Reservoir Characterization Studies

The Robert M. Cluff Memorial Scholarship is awarded to a graduate student enrolled at any accredited college or university who is incorporating petrophysical and/or reservoir characterization analyses to his/her research.  It was established in memory of Robert (Bob) Cluff, a greatly admired geoscientist who founded a petrophysical consulting company, The Discovery Group, with his wife Sue. Bob was involved in numerous local and national professional societies, serving in leadership roles in the Denver community. He was a much beloved geologist who shared his technical knowledge with young professionals and students.

The 2025 Robert M. Cluff Memorial Scholarship was awarded to:

Maureen James, PhD Candidate, Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines

Maureen’s dissertation topic is “Advancing Subsurface Carbon Storage and Reservoir Characterization through Experimental, Numerical, and Machine Learning Approaches.” She uses multiphysics experimental techniques (including an analysis of CO2 diffusion coefficients, changes in seismic wave properties, and changes in pore structure and mineralogy), advanced geochemical modeling, reservoir-scale numerical simulations, and machine learning.
Using the results from these experimental, modeling, and numerical studies, her work addresses the following key research areas:

1. Diffusion mechanisms of CO2 into porous rock systems, influenced by pore structure, mineralogy, and brine composition, are critical to assessing seal integrity and storage capacity over storage times.
2. Changes in acoustic and seismic wave velocities resulting from CO2 injection and fluid substitution are critical for quantifying saturation variations and tracking the evolution of the CO2 plume within the reservoir.
3. Geochemical reactions between CO2, brine, and the host rock result in significant alterations to porosity, permeability, and seismic properties, impacting long-term storage security and hydrocarbon recovery.
4. Machine learning models trained on integrated datasets that combine seismic, petrophysical, and reservoir simulation results, can provide more accurate and scalable predictions of CO2 migration, fluid saturation, and reservoir behavior compared to traditional methods.

Maureen’s work is supervised by Dr. Manika Prasad.

Maureen has a MS in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines and a BS in Geophysics from the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Delta, Nigeria

Recent winners of the Robert M. Cluff Memorial Scholarship:

2024 Eric Stautberg, Colorado School of Mines

2023 Maximiliano Miguez, Colorado School of Mines

2022 Shadya Taleb, University of Texas at Austin