My name is Alejandra Santiago Torres and I am from Ponce, Puerto Rico. I earned my B.S. degree in Geology with a minor in Gender Studies at the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez (RUM) in January of 2017 with high honors which include the Harry H. Hess award. As an undergraduate student, I did research on various fields of geology that range from volcanology, structural geology, and carbonate sedimentology. My two undergraduate thesis projects are what sparked my passion and interest in carbonate sedimentology and carbonate reservoir characterization. In my first undergraduate thesis I worked with Holocene ooids from four oolitic shoals in the Little Bahama Bank Platform to try and identify trends in these shoals in order to comprehend the character of ancient oolitic shoals that are often very good reservoirs. In my second undergraduate thesis I did a sedimentological analysis where I characterized and compared the texture and composition as well as identified early stages of diagenesis in Holocene beachrock deposits and Pleistocene eolian dune deposits in a beach from northern Puerto Rico. From these undergraduate theses my interest in learning more about carbonate diagenesis and how this might be applied to the oil and gas industry grew and led me to continue graduate studies at Oklahoma State University under the supervision of Dr. Grammer.

My Master’s thesis project is titled “Significance of Early Marine Cementation on Reservoir Development and Evolution in Silurian Forereef Slope Deposits at Pipe Creek Jr. Quarry, Indiana-Applications for the Michigan Basin”. I will be working on the significance and timing of syndepositional marine cementation (abiotic and microbially mediated) in the early stages of stabilization and lithification of steep Silurian forereef slope deposits exposed at Pipe Creek Jr. Quarry (IN). I will also be assessing the effect of this syndepositional marine cementation on the reduction of initial porosity and permeability as well as modifications in the initial pore system architecture. During my first year as a M.S. student I have received a grant from the AAPG Grants- in- Aid Program (2018) and will be presenting my preliminary observations at AAPG- ACE 2018 in Salt Lake City Utah. I will also be working as a geoscience intern with ExxonMobil in Houston during this summer (2018).