Rick Gibson

Associate Professor

Biography:

Richard L. Gibson, Jr. received his B.Sc. (1985, geology) from Baylor University and a Ph.D. (1991, geophysics) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He had a post-doctoral appointment at the Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique (Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France) and at MIT, where he became a Research Scientist. Since 1997, he has been on the faculty of Texas A&M University, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Geophysics. His research interests include theoretical and computational seismology, reservoir characterization, anisotropy and imaging.

Research:

• 3-D Born Modeling Applied to Viscoelastic Fractured Reservoir Simulations: Extensions and Improvements.
  This goal of this project is to develop fast and accurate methods for simulating 3-D seismic surveys using irregular reservoir grid models. Existing methods are either too slow or cannot be used with the non-Cartesian grids applied in reservoir flow simulations. Funding comes from Total Exploration Production company, and Richard Gibson is the sole investigator.
• Time-lapse Seismic Monitoring and Performance of Assessment of CO2  Sequestration in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs.
  Carbon dioxide sequestration remains a compelling topic as a potential approach for mitigating the effects of greenhouse gases on global warming. In this project, we are working to develop techniques for improving seismic monitoring and assessment of sequestration projects.  Funding is provided by the Basic Energy Sciences division of the U.S. Department of Energy.  Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta (Dept. of Petroleum Engineering) is Principal Investigator, and Richard Gibson is Co-Investigator.
• Value of Information (VOI) Quantification of the Value of Seismic Data.
  Petroleum industry service companies are creating new and innovative technologies to acquire seismic data for imaging hydrocarbon reservoirs.  In this project, we are working to quantify the economic value of such technology considering also uncertainties and nonuniqueness inherent in seismic imaging methods.  Funding is provided by WesternGeco.  Dr. Eric Bickel (Dept. of Industrial Engineering) is Principal Investigator, and Dr. Duane McVay (Dept. of Petroleum Engineering) and Richard GIbson are Co-Investigators.

Projects:

• 3-D Born Modeling Applied to Viscoelastic Fractured Reservoir Simulations: Extensions and Improvements
  This goal of this project is to develop fast and accurate methods for simulating 3-D seismic surveys using irregular reservoir grid models.  Existing methods are either too slow or cannot be used with the non-Cartesian grids applied in reservoir flow simulations.  Funding comes from Total Exploration Production company, and Richard Gibson is the sole investigator.
• Time-lapse Seismic Monitoring and Performance of Assessment of CO2  Sequestration in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs
  Carbon dioxide sequestration remains a compelling topic as a potential approach for mitigating the effects of greenhouse gases on global warming. In this project, we are working to develop techniques for improving seismic monitoring and assessment of sequestration projects.  Funding is provided by the Basic Energy Sciences division of the U.S. Department of Energy.  Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta (Dept. of Petroleum Engineering) is Principal Investigator, and Richard Gibson is Co-Investigator.
• Value of Information (VOI) Quantification of the Value of Seismic Data
  Petroleum industry service companies are creating new and innovative technologies to acquire seismic data for imaging hydrocarbon reservoirs.  In this project, we are working to quantify the economic value of such technology considering also uncertainties and nonuniqueness inherent in seismic imaging methods.  Funding is provided by WesternGeco.  Dr. Eric Bickel (Dept. of Industrial Engineering) is Principal Investigator, and Dr. Duane McVay (Dept. of Petroleum Engineering) and Richard GIbson are Co-Investigators.

Experience:

• Texas A&M University
  Associate Professor (9/2000-present)
  Assistant Professor (1/1997-8/1999)
• Earth Resources Laboratory, M.I.T.
  Research Scientist (1994-1996) Group leader for wave propagation research.
• Post-doctoral Associate (1992-1994)
• Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble, France) Post-doctoral Researcher (1991-1992)
• Department Of Earth, Atmospheric, And Planetary Sciences, M.I.T.
  Research Assistant (1985-1991)
• Mobil Research And Development Corporation Research Assistant (Summer, 1988) Production Geophysics Group.
• Arco Oil And Gas
  Research Assistant (Summer, 1987)

Publications:

• K.J. Lee, and Gibson, Jr., R. L., 2007. An improved mesh generation scheme for the wavefront construction
  method: Geophysics, 72(1), T1–T8.
• Gibson, Jr., R. L., Vincent Durussel, and Kyoung-Jin Lee, 2005. Modeling and velocity analysis with
  a wavefront-construction algorithm for anisotropic media: Geophysics, 70(4), T63–T74.
• Gibson, Jr., R. L., and Tzimeas, C., 2004. Reply by the authors to discussion by G. J. O. Vermeer of
  “Quantitative measures of image resolution for seismic survey design”: Geophysics, 69, 619–623.
• Gibson, Jr., R. L., and Tzimeas, C., 2002. Quantitative measures for seismic survey design: Geophysics,
  67, 1844–1852.
• Gibson, Jr., R. L., Theophanis, S., and Toks¨oz, M. N., 2000. Physical and numerical modeling of tuning and
  diffraction in azimuthally anisotropic media: Geophysics, 65, 1613–1621.

Awards:

• 2006 Practice Award
  The Decision Analysis Society of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, to E. Bickel, R.L. Gibson, D.A. McVay, S.C. Pickering, and J.R. Waggoner for WesternGeco Uses Decision Analysis to Communicate the Value of Seismic Surveys to Potential Clients
• College-Level Distinguished Teaching Award, Texas A&M Association of Former Students (2004) A.I. Levorsen Award, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies (2000)
  Best paper award for the presentation Distinguishing water saturation changes from porosity or clay content changes using multicomponent seismic data, by F. Zhu, R.L. Gibson, Jr., J. Watkins and S.H. Yuh

Affiliations:

• Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Member of Research Committee) American Geophysical Union Seismological Society of America Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics

News:

The Decision Analysis Society of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences gave their 2006 Practice Award to E. Bickel, R.L. Gibson, D.A. McVay, S.C. Pickering, and J.R. Waggoner for a paper entitled "WesternGeco Uses Decision Analysis to Communicate the Value of Seismic Surveys to Potential Clients".  The first three awardees are Texas A&M faculty, while the last two are colleagues who work at WesternGeco.

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