Spring 2021: UT Hydrology Newsletter

April 20, 2021

West Texas Report

Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton were not flowing on 14 April 2021. Locals reported that it had been flowing at the end of March so irrigation has started.

Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park (12 April 2021). The Rio Grande was flowing and ankle deep in Santa Elena so it was easy to walk across it to the Mexican side.

Boquillas Canyon in Big Bend National Park (12 April 2021).

Alumni & Faculty News

• William Asquith (PhD, 2003) recently published a paper in Environmental Modelling & Software entitled “Methods to quality assure, plot, summarize, interpolate, and extend groundwater-level information – examples for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer”. William is a Research Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Lubbock, Texas. Both of his children are students at Texas Tech.
• Pat Bobeck (MA, 1985; PhD, 2017) is consulting in Austin. She is also a Certified FR-EN Translator, of the American Translators Association. Her translating firm is DBA Geotechnical Translations
• James Bene (MS, 2000) is with R.W. Harden & Associates, Inc., in Austin.
• James Brady Carmichael (BS, 2007) has been accepted into the graduate program at Colorado School of Mines.
• Hunter Danque (BS, 2003; MS, 2008) recently received a MS from the Colorado School of Mines in Space Resources and is continuing at Mines as a Ph.D. student in Space Resources. His goal is to quantify and risk volatile and regolith resources from the Moon and near Earth asteroids. He says that he enjoyed his first career as an industry exploration geophysicist and is looking forward to his second career as a planetary geoscientist.
• Stephen Ferencz (PhD, 2020) is a postdoc in the energy water group at Sandia National Labs. He is working in a large interdisciplinary team that is modeling water availability scenarios in the Colorado Basin under climate change scenarios.
• Patrick Ferrell (BS, 2011) has a new position as a construction auditor at Townsend & Associates, LLC. He says that he and Danica are well and that he has found that “moving from the environmental consulting world into this new role is quite a leap.”
• Graham Fogg (PhD, 1986) became emeritus at UC Davis as of July 2020, but he is busy with research, writing, and some consulting. He reports that he and wife, Patrice, are now fully vaccinated.
• Sarah Zanoff Fortin (BS, 2006) moved to California in 2009 and now works in international television distribution at MGM!
• Kimberly Gilbert (PhD, 2015) is with Beyond Limits in Austin.
• Katie Markovich (BS, 2012) is with INTERA in Albuquerque.
• Kyle Meyer (MS, 2012) is a postdoctoral researcher at Portland State University.
• Beatriz Garcia-Fresca (MS, 2004; PhD, 2009) is Principal Engineer Project Control Analysis at Equinor in France.
• Justin Thompson (PhD student) Presented his dissertation research, Exploring groundwater Recovery in Texas, at the recent WCE Seminar.
• Robin Weatherl (BA, 2013) recently completed her hydrogeology PhD with Mario Schirmer at ETH – Zurich. She has accepted a position at INTERA in Austin.
• Quinn Wenning (BS, 2012) has been promoted to Operations Manager and Researcher at ETH Zürich.
• Barbara Wortham (BS, 2013) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Earth Science Department at UC Davis.

Lost Alumni

We are seeking email addresses for the following alums (if you have a contact email for any of them, please let Dr. Sharp know):

Cary Betz (BS, 1982)
Jennifer Denbow (BS, 2007)
Briana Ferrari (BS, 2020)
Ron Fiesler (BA, 1979)
Steve Graham (PhD, 2000)
Katie Gravel (BS, 1983)
Desi Sweet Halsor (BS, 2007)
Kelley Keese Blackwood (BS, 2001; MS, 2005) Chris Krejci (BS, 2007)
Justin Midura (BS, 2012)
Eric North (BS, 2000)
John Snatic (BS, 2002; MS, 2013)
Eric Swanson (BS, 2012)
Phil Teas (BS, 1991)
Christi Weissmantel Gell (BS, 1996)
Matt Wilson (BS, 1991)
Kyle Winn (BS, 1987)
Julianne Wooten (BS, 2012)

The Hydrology Newsletter is compiled by Dr. Jack Sharp. If you have news that you would like to share or would like to receive the newsletter in your inbox, please email: jmssharp@jsg.utexas.edu .

Note: Because Dr. Sharp is emeritus and also because of COVID, newsletters are now more irregular and not nearly monthly as had been done since 1985.