OSCMS 2010 Scholarship Award Winner

My name is Lori Wood and I am a senior at the University of Tulsa. I grew up in Jenks, Oklahoma and went to Jenks High School. I originally planned to major in Earth and Environmental Science. For the E&ES degree, I had to take mostly geology courses. 3 Semesters ago, I took Mineralogy and Sedimentary rocks and upon completion of these courses, I knew that I wanted to be a geologist! So I switched majors even though I knew it would delay my graduation a semester. Looking back, it was the best decision I could have made. With my graduation date quickly approaching, I am still not completely sure what I plan to do in my future. However, I do know that I love working with GIS and Petra. Last summer I participated in TURC (Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge) at TU and had my first encounter with these programs and I really enjoyed them. TURC is a summer research program at TU students must apply for. As a participant, you are given a research opportunity related to your major to pursue over the course the summer. My research consisted of learning GIS/Petra, which are two commonly used computer programs that can perform many different means of geological interpretation. Petra is the program I used the most this summer. I helped graduate student Molly Simpson (previous award recipient) with some of her research. I took uploaded well log data from a specified region, and from that data, I was able to create a geological cross section of the specified area on the computer. I would love to be able to work with GIS (Geographic Information Systems)/Petra (geological interpretation computer programs) in the future. I also enjoy structural geology and glacial geology. This coming summer I am going to field camp, I chose to do field camp with The University of Nevada – Reno, which has a short segment on glacial geology. I love going to class everyday and learning about things that truly interest me. I am happy that I found something that I love and that I found a career path that I can be passionate about. I look forward to bright future with Geology.♦