Distinguished Lecturer Awards

The Geological Society of America’s Continental Scientific Drilling Division Distinguished Lecturer awardees are outstanding scientists who highlight the outstanding discoveries and science undertaken through continental drilling, through a series of lectures at academic institutions, GSA events, and the public during the year of the award.   

How to Nominate a Candidate or Apply:

If you would like to apply or nominate a candidate for the award, please submit:

  • the name of your nominee
  • a 2-3 sentence justification for their selection
  • the nominee's CV

Send nominations to the Chair of the Division Nominating Committee. Self-nominations are also welcome. The final selection will be made by the Division Management Board. 

CSD Distinguished Lecturers should be outstanding researchers with a history of leadership and engagement in continental scientific drilling projects. Lecture topics will focus on results from CSD research, and should be broadly accessible and of interest to the geosciences. 

Structure of the Lectures and Award:

The award will pay for part or all of the travel costs (depending on institutional need) for the awardee to give lectures on their research, with the option for remote/virtual lectures. Similar to other distinguished lectureships, the lectures will be advertised widely. We anticipate the awardee will give 6-10 lectures per year. 

How to apply to host a lecturer:

The CSD Division and GSA will advertise the lecturer and their research, and interested institutions or events should contact the lecturer directly. The lecturer will work with the institution to schedule the lecture and determine funding levels, with input from the Division as needed. Preference for funding will be given to smaller institutions. 

The Continental Scientific Drilling Division is proud to announce its 2025-2026 Distinguished Lecturer, Kristine Pankow.

To schedule a lecture, please email the lecturer directly (Kris.Pankow@utah.edu). The Division can cover a portion of transportation costs for in-person talks. Remote talks are also welcome. 

Kristine Pankow, University of Utah: “Utah FORGE: A Field-Scale Geothermal Laboratory”

Abstract: The Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) is a U.S. Department of Energy funded project to de-risk technologies necessary to make Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) commercially viable. Utah FORGE will not generate energy, instead Utah FORGE is a field-scale laboratory for testing new technologies and hypotheses. No other similar field-scale laboratory exists elsewhere in the world.
The laboratory consists of a highly deviated injection and production well pair drilled into granitic and metamorphic basement rocks at temperatures of ~220°C; four additional deep boreholes that bottom in the basement rocks, three near reservoir depths (~3 km and temperatures up to 241°C); and an extensive local seismic network consisting of three shallow (~300 m) seismic monitoring boreholes, six seismic monitoring postholes (30 – 40 m deep), and eleven seismic stations located on the surface.

Building Utah FORGE has led to technological advances in drilling into hot, low permeability basement rock with drill times improving with each new well. Analysis of stimulation pressures and rates, microseismic, strain, temperature and production data, and fluid and rock samples have provided insight into fracture creation and fluid-rock interactions. New technologies, including fiber optic sensing (DAS, DSS), enhanced microseismic processing, and seismic network design have improved monitoring of reservoir fracture development.

This talk will highlight findings and advancements made at Utah FORGE with an emphasis on how seismic monitoring with deep instrumented boreholes and near-surface modeling is providing important details on geothermal reservoir development, strategies for mitigating risks related to induced seismicity, and seismic forecasting utilizing adaptive traffic light systems. 

Dr. Kristine Pankow received her Ph.D. in Earth Science with a Geophysics specialty from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1999. Since 2000, she has worked as a seismologist at the University of Utah. She is the Associate Director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, is a Research Professor in the Geology and Geophysics Department, and is the Technical Expert on Seismic Monitoring and Imaging for the Utah FORGE project. She is also the Advanced National Seismic System, Regional Coordinator for the Intermountain Region, the Board Secretary for the Seismological Society of America, and is a member of the Utah Mine Safety Technical Advisory Council. Dr. Pankow has over 20 years of experience in monitoring and analyzing seismicity and seismotectonics in the eastern Great Basin. She has a well-established research program studying seismic sequences, including natural, triggered, and induced sequences. She and her research group are currently integrating artificial intelligence models to extend detection thresholds for microseismicity, are exploring algorithms to determine source properties of small earthquakes, and are performing detailed analyses of swarm and triggered seismic sequences to better understand the physical processes that lead to these sequences.

Drilling equipment in Utah.
Drill site for Utah FORGE Well 16A.
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Past Distinguished Lecturers
2024 - Mattia Pistone, University of Georgia: "Moho Mission to the Foundation of Continents: The ICDP DIVE Drilling Project"
2023 - Brandy Toner, University of Minnesota: "Investigating microbial life in rock fractures within the continental deep biosphere"
2023 - Jefferson Tester, Cornell University: "How advances in subsurface science and engineering will accelerate the development of geothermal district heating"
2022 - Sarah Ivory, Penn State University: “Muds and models: insights from scientific drilling for addressing future global environmental challenges”

2022 - Sean Gulick, University of Texas at Austin: “Life and Death by Impact: Drilling for Clues”

2021 - Gerilyn S. Soreghan, University of Oklahoma: “Using scientific drilling to test the controversial hypothesis of glaciation in late Paleozoic equatorial Pangaea”

2021 - Andrew S. Cohen, University of Arizona: “Scientific drilling in ancient African lakes: Unlocking the history of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems”

2020 - Julie Brigham-Grette, University of Massachusetts, Amherst: “The Impact of Lake El’gygytgyn, NE Russia, on our Knowledge of Polar Climate: this changes everything”

2020 - John Eichelberger, U. Alaska Fairbanks: “Drilling to Magma”