Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences Faculty

Dr. Hind A. Al-Abadleh

Professor and Department Chair
Rm GEOL 101 A
haalabadleh@utep.edu
Research Interests: (1) air quality, public health, and environmental justice, (2) atmospheric aerosol chemistry, climate change, ocean health, and (3) environmental/health impacts, catalysis by and recovery of rare earth elements (REEs).
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Dr. James Kubicki

Professor
Rm GEOL 217
Jdkubicki@utep.edu
Research Interests: Mineral-water interactions, organic and nutrient adsorption onto soils, C and H isotopes in organic compounds, cellulose and lignin chemistry, thermodynamics, spectroscopy and reaction mechanisms in geochemical systems.
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Dr. Laura Alvarez

Assistant Professor
alvarez@utep.edu
Research Interests: Fluvial geomorphology, fluid mechanics, autonomous systems, development of computational, fluid dynamics models, turbulence and sediment transport modeling and prediction, geomorphologic changes in large-scale rivers, development of autonomous surface vehicles
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Dr. Antonio Arribas

Professor
Rm GEOL 302 A
aarribas@utep.edu
Research Interests: Geology of ore deposits, ore-forming processes, mineral exploration, history of mining, applied isotope geochemistry, geoscience teaching, analytical techniques
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Dr. Benjamin Brunner

Associate Professor
Rm GEOL 404
bbrunner@utep.edu
Research Interests: Stable isotope biogeochemistry, Geomicrobiology, Sulfur cycle, Isotope fractionation, Authigenic minerals
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Dr. James B. Chapman

Assistant Professor
Rm GEOL 319
jbchapmanv@utep.edu

Dr. Julien Chaput

Assistant Professor
Rm GEOL 207
jachaput@utep.edu
Research Interests: Wavefield imaging, Cryosphere seismology (Antarctica), Ionosphere mapping, Ultrasonic medical imaging, Inverse theory, Bayesian methods
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Dr. Mark Engle

Professor
Rm GEOL 302 A
maengle@utep.edu
Research Interests: Hydrogeology of geologic basins, geochemistry, multivariate data analysis, petroleum systems, water resources
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Dr. Katherine Giles

Professor and Director of Salt-Sediment Interaction Research Consortium
Rm GEOL 201 A
kagiles@utep.edu
Research Interests: Salt Tectonics, Carbonate Petrology, Sequence Stratigraphy, Microbialites
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Dr. Thomas Gill

Professor
Rm GEOL 401 A
tegill@utep.edu
Research Interests: The interaction of the atmosphere with the other parts of the earth system: the generation and transport of dust and sand by the wind, and the effects of these materials on the environment and humans
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Dr. Philip Goodell

Professor
Rm GEOL 223
goodell@utep.edu
Research Interests: Geochemistry, economic geology, mineralogy, Mexico, semi-metal and sulfosalt geochemistry, economic geology, uranium in volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks
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Dr. Hugo Gutierrez

Associate Professor
Rm GEOL 227 A
hagutierrez@utep.edu
Research Interests: Surface and groundwater hydrology, ecohydrology, GIS and remote sensing applications for water resources studies, hydrometeorology, hydrogeophysics, geomorphology, and field experiments for predicting and quantifying climatic-vegetation effects on the water cycle and their impacts on ecosystems
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Dr. Jose Hurtado

Professor
Rm GEOL 301 A
jhurtado@utep.edu
Research Interests: Earthquake hazards and geomorphology in the El Paso region; planetary geology and geophysics of the Moon; planetary field exploration science and human space flight; computing and data collection technologies for field geologic applications
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Dr. Lixin Jin

Professor
Rm GEOL 221 A Research Interests: Continental weathering and global elemental cycles; interaction of water, air, biota and rocks in the Critical Zone (soils)
ljin2@utep.edu
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Dr. Marianne Karplus

Associate Professor
Rm GEOL 317
mkarplus@utep.edu
Research Interests: Lithospheric structure and tectonics, active-source and passive-source seismic methods, tectonic evolution and geohazards of the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, tectonic evolution and geohazards of the Sumatra Subduction Zone
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Dr. Richard Langford

Professor
Rm GEOL 401 B
langford@utep.edu
Research Interests: Studies of modern and ancient desert surface processes and sediments; surface and subsurface studies of sandstone oil reservoirs
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Dr. Lin Ma

Professor
Rm GEOL 219
lma@utep.edu
Research Interests: Low temperature geochemistry and hydrogeology, applications of isotopes (e.g., U-series and noble gases) to hydrological and environmental problems
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Dr. Hernan A Moreno

Associate Professor
moreno@utep.edu
Research Interests: Water sustainability under change, drought prediction, flood forecasting, post-fire hydrology, evapotranspiration processes and partitioning, fundamentals of computational hydrology learning, modeling and forecasting, radar and remote sensing hydrology, artificial intelligence in earth science and engineering

Dr. Deana Pennington

Associate Professor and Associate Director Cyber-Share Center of Excellence
Rm GEOL 305 C
ddpennington@utep.edu
Research Interests: GIST Certification Program, Earth and environmental informatics, knowledge representation, geospatial modeling and analysis, land cover change, surface processes, socio-environmental systems
GIST
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Dr. Jason Ricketts

Associate Professor
Professor Rm GEOL 405
jricketts@utep.edu
Research Interests: Structural geology, tectonics, low-temperature thermochronology, and fluid-fault interactions; brittle tectonics in Earth's upper crust; development of the Rio Grande rift of Colorado, New Mexico, western Texas, and northern Mexico
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Dr. Haitao Shang

Assistant Professor
Rm GEOL 305C
hshang@utep.edu

Dr. Hongyu Sun

Assistant Professor
Rm GEOL 305C
hsun2@utep.edu
Research Interests: Geophysics, Seismology, Geohazards, Earth Resources, Energy Transition, Environmental Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science
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Dr. Aaron Velasco

Professor
Rm GEOL 227 B
aavelasco@utep.edu
Research Interests: Earthquake source modeling, triggering, and hazards; seismotectonics, nuclear treaty monitoring; military applications of seismology
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Dr. David J. Young

Associate Professor
Rm GEOL 317
djyoung2@utep.edu
Research Interests: Structural geology; petrochronology; EBSD; continental collision in Scandinavia and Bhutan; deformation in the mantle lithosphere

Research and Instructional Faculty

Galen Kaip

Director National Seismic Source Facility
Rm GEOL 109
gkaip@utep.edu
Research Interests: Shallow to crustal seismology, Active seismic sources, project design, engineering and execution. Gravity, magnetics, conductivity, resistivity, GPR and GPS.
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Nila Matsler

Grants and Contracts Specialist II
Rm GEOL 201 B
nbmatsler@utep.edu
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Dr. Vicki Harder

Lecturer
vmharder@utep.edu
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Dr. Musa Hussein

Associate Professor of Instruction
mjhussein@utep.edu
Rm GEOL 306 B
Research Interests: Tectonics, subsurface, subsurface modeling, rift valleys development and rifting processes, 3D inversion of gravity and magnetic data, and geophysical and geological data integration.
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