Graduate Programs

Visit the links below to learn more about the graduate degrees offered by the School of Geology & Geological Engineering including admission requirements, tuition and fees, and how to apply.

Areas of Research and Scholarly Activity

Hydrogeology, snow hydrology, wetlands and restoration, remote sensing of water resources
Environmental geology
Petroleum geology, petrophysics, enhanced energy recovery, and hydrogen storage
Geomechanics, geotechnical engineering, energy geotechnics, soil reclamation and slope stability
Sedimentology, stratigraphy, and paleontology
Geomorphology, glacial geology, past climate change
Petrology and geochemistry
Geophysics, tectonics, geothermal energy
Interdisciplinary geological projects involving several research areas, including: integrated basin analysis

Current Research Activities

Taufique Mahmood has more graduate students than anyone else in the department. They are investigating the impacts of recent climatic shifts on the cold region hydrology, aquifer recharge, and water quality in the Northern Great Plain and Rocky Mountain Range. They use field-based and remotely sensed observations and high resolution physically-based modeling for their investigations. Dr. Mahmood also collaborates with Native American communities across North Dakota and works with Native American graduate students and tribal college students, helping coordinate NATURE summer camps.
Will Gosnold and graduate students Moones Alammooti, Nnaemeka Ngobidi, Jude Uzuegbu, Emmanuel Giymah and Sara Vashaghian are studying several problems related to producing electrical power from hot formation waters in the Williston Basin. The research, which involves Dongmei Wang (HHSGGE) and Hossein Salehfar (SEESS), is supported by a grant from the North Dakota Industrial Comission and includes industry collaborators: Baker Hughes, GeothermEx, ElectraTherm, Neset Consulting, and Transitional Energy. Burke Brunson is working on a thermal model of the brittle crust above the Yellowstone magma chamber.
I-Hsuan Ho and students are still investigating energy geotechnics including heated pavement using renewable energy and geothermal foundations, landslide studies, load reduction methods (soil arching) and creep evolution for deeply buried structures/culverts/pipes, and big data analysis for pavement management and resilient infrastructure.
Dongmei Wang and graduate student Shane Namie are working on research related to enhanced energy recovery (EOR) from Alaska’s North Slope, paying particular attention to the effects that EOR might have on permafrost stability. Additional studies on an effective method of enhancing sweep efficiency from geothermal reservoirs, and hydrogen interaction with various formation rocks are also ongoing.
Steve Nordeng, along with graduate students Chioma Onwumelu, Amy Nygaard, and Mauricio Vasquez-Pinto continues with petroleum-related research, most specifically studies of the Bakken Formation and associated oil deposits. Part of the focus of their studies is on basin analysis and the origin and nature of lithium in formation waters.
Sven Egenhoff currently has nine graduate students working on Williston Basin sedimentology and stratigraphy plus petroleum engineering aspects. The focus of the studies is on the Bakken and the Duperow Formations (Devonian-Mississippian), and on the Inyan Kara Formation (Cretaceous). The goal of this research is to understand how sedimentary systems work in intracratonic settings, and which units (and which parts of them) are suitable for storage of produced water within the Williston Basin succession.
Ron Matheney and Nessa Mahmood are studying diatoms and using stable isotopes to construct a paleoclimate record at sea and on land spanning the Cenozoic Era.
Jaakko Putkonen and recently graduated PhD student Marie Bergelin have discovered what might be the world’s oldest ice. It is in the Ong Valley of Antarctica. Ron Matheney contributed stable isotope data as part of the investigations. The studies in Antarctica continue. Other students working with Jaakko are studying hillside erosion and sediment budgets in moraines near Yosemite Valley, California, and at the Grinnel Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana. They are also beginning study of permafrost in Alaska.
Joseph Hartman is currently wrapping up long-term projects and adding to some he wishes would end. Anna Crowell (graduate student) and Joseph are working on all things Hydrobiidae (small snails) in the fossil record of western North America. Joseph also has ongoing projects with alums Ed Murphy, Tim Kroeger, and Matt Burton Kelly. These include studying the Paleocene/Eocene mollusks of the Golden Valley Formation, finishing a major paper on the Paleocene Cannonball Formation, a paper on the mussels of the Hell Creek Formation, and continued work on viviparid snails. Joseph was a coauthor with Thomas Neubauer and others on the diversity of fossil freshwater gastropods of North America.
Paul Ullmann and his graduate student Skylor Booth are working together to investigate how original cells, soft tissues, and proteins can be preserved in fossil bones. They are using a new partial skeleton of the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus as a case study to explore the mechanics of bone fossilization as well as chemical alteration pathways that can lead to the exceptional preservation of soft tissues and biologic molecules in vertebrate fossils. This research involves integration of cutting-edge techniques from molecular biology, geochemistry, and traditional paleontology. Dr. Ullmann is also working with colleagues from Rowan University and Villanova University to create a virtual paleontology expedition for high school and early college students.