Richard Denne has been named the new program director for the Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis (GBDS) program at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. GBDS is a long-running research partnership with the energy industry.

Prior to his role at GBDS, Denne was an industry geologist for over 25 years before joining Texas Christian University in 2016 as the Hunter Enis Chair in Petroleum Geology. He was also director of the TCU Energy Institute. As an energy geologist, Denne held senior positions at major oil and gas companies, including Exxon and Marathon Oil, where he worked on exploration and production of wells in deep water basins — including the Gulf of Mexico — and unconventional shale plays in Texas.

Denne has published extensively, including research on sedimentary deposits left behind by the Chicxulub impact. His current research focuses on organic-rich sediments from the Cretaceous and applying biostratigraphy to investigate Cenozoic and Mesozoic marine systems.

For 30 years, GBDS has been the go-to regional resource for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Denne takes the helm as the program expands its research offerings to include carbon storage, geothermal, critical minerals and hydrogen storage. Denne also plans to build on the program’s already impressive cohort of undergraduate and graduate researchers.

Denne takes over from John Snedden, who led GBDS for 14 years until his recent semi-retirement.

Denne can be reached at richard.denne@jsg.utexas.edu, or on his LinkedIn page.

For more information, contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, 512-574-7376
Anton Caputo, Jackson School of Geosciences, 210-602-2085
Monica Kortsha, Jackson School of Geosciences, 512-471-2241.