04/02/2021
eGeos: Bringing Our Talents to the Emerging Energy Economy
by Rachelle Kernen* & Edith Newton Wilson**
* PhD, Honorary Research Fellow (postdoc) at the University of Adelaide Australian School of Petroleum and Energy Resources.
** PhD, Owner of Rock Whisperer LLC
eGeos is a virtual forum designed to help energy geoscientists bring their skills and talents to the new, emerging energy economy. The need is compelling for each of us to continue working to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. We are not a professional society, but rather a community of colleagues learning from each other and helping each other with our career endeavors. Our structure is 100% volunteer-based, virtual, agile, and easy to access. If you are interested in being a volunteer or would like to be interviewed for a Podcast, please send us an email at [email protected].
eGeos are geologists, geographers, geophysicists, geochemists, geological engineers, earth scientists, and environmental scientists who desire to meet others and share ideas and opportunities. eGeos are honest, inclusive, diverse, innovative, curious, collaborative, and full of energy. The eGeos community aspires to be trustworthy, open, agile, and free from bureaucracy. We are, above all else, scientists who aspire to change the world through critical thinking, optimistic problem-solving, and generosity in thought and deed. eGeos recognize that by communicating rapidly with our fellow eGeos, we create an ever-lengthening sustainable supply chain of human resources. eGeos are dedicated to helping each other by sharing opportunities for new jobs and projects as well as looking to our network of skills and expertise to refer our colleagues to available openings in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.
Because the new, emerging energy economy is rapidly changing, it’s really important to have a positive network of individuals to lean on. Individuals who are in the middle of their graduate studies need to think quickly about how to modify their degree program so they can find a job upon graduating. Courses in data science, sustainability, carbon-capture and storage, geothermal energy, and social justice are just a few of the emerging fields and disciplines. Mid-career and late-career individuals will need to consider which short courses or training they can take to remain relevant and competitive in an increasingly technology-driven profession. We offer a platform to allow those conversations to take place and share ideas and suggestions for transforming one’s career in a desirable direction.
We advocate for JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) and BLM (Black Lives Matter) while being a supporter of ethical behavior and honesty. We build our goals around United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7): to provide affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy to all. We are supportive of new ideas and initiatives, so if you think you have something to contribute or propose, please send us an email or contact us directly through any of our social media platforms. We strive to be the largest and most welcoming virtual connection platform for geoscientists navigating the Energy Transition.
eGeos is a virtual community that is free to join: https://linktr.ee/eGeos.
Co-Founder: Dr Edith Newton Wilson
Edith is the owner of Rock Whisperer LLC, where she works to engage emerging professionals in energy solutions for a changing world and consults on renewable energy and climate mitigation projects. Edith is a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists and the Geological Society of London, a member of the American Geophysical Union, and a founding member of the Geosciences Advisory Board at the University of Arkansas. In 2018-2019, she chaired the ad hoc Committee on Climate Change for the AAPG. She received her BA in Geology from Dartmouth College in 1982, and her MA and PHD in Carbonate Sedimentology from Johns Hopkins University in 1988. Her career in the energy industry began in Houston where she was an international explorer, negotiator and manager with Amoco and bp. In Oklahoma, Edith worked with Phillips Petroleum on global new ventures, ConocoPhillips on leadership development, Samson Resources on domestic shale gas projects, and in 2008 co-founded TallGrass Energy. Edith has traveled throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa - where she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2004 - and is conversant in French, Italian and Portuguese.
Co-Founder: Dr Rachelle Kernen
Rachelle is an Honorary Research Fellow (postdoc) at the University of Adelaide Australian School of Petroleum and Energy Resources. She completed her PhD in Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (December 2019) with a specialty in salt tectonics and energy exploration. During her MSc and PhD, she was a researcher for the Salt-Sediment Interaction Research Consortium (Institute of Tectonic Studies) and the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. Rachelle has five years of professional experience working in the petroleum industry including internships with Samson Resources (2011) and BP Americas (2018). She also worked in exploration as a seismic interpreter in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean with Royal Dutch Shell (2011-2015) while completing the Shell Graduate Program. Rachelle Co-Chairs the AAPG’s Women’s Network and serves as Co-Chair and Co-Founder of AAPG’s Salt Basins Technical Interest Group. Rachelle is passionate about hosting workshops and designing courses in collaboration with industry, government, and non-profit geological societies in which she focuses on advancing the overall technical contribution and understanding of specific research questions.
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Other articles published in the IAPG Blog:
http://www.geoethics.org/articles-from-iapg-blog
IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics
http://www.geoethics.org
The IAPG is a multidisciplinary, scientific platform for widening the discussion on problems of geoethics.
