[music]
Hi this is Burns Hargis here for another edition of Inside OSU. Today we're in the beautiful Noble 
Research Center,
which houses the T. Boone Pickens School of Geology
and the Devon Energy Geology Lab.
This lab and others are a perfect example
of the kinds of corporate partnerships that OSU establishes to provide our students with a great foundation 
for a successful future
and our faculty with the facilities they need
to do research
and to instruct.
Let's go meet some of the real rock stars of OSU.
We're inside one of the many labs that Devon has filled with state-of-the-art equipment for our a geology program. 
With me is the head of the
school of geology Jay Gregg and of course a professor here as well and this is Patrick Kamann,
who's an OSU graduate and a graduate of this the school of geology. 
Jay, talk a little bit about the general mission of our geology department.
We have a very broad
educational mission to teach the students as much as possible about the whole range of geological issues. Once a
student moves on to graduate school, which is more or less the professional aspect of the program, the student will
be focused more into the areas where we specialize. We specialize in 2 areas. The first is petroleum, which
being in Oklahoma that's reasonable, but the other area that we specialize in and we train students is in
environmental and water resources. Talk about the
importance of
Devon's role in the mission of our school. Well the donation that Devon made
to the Boone Pickens school of geology was transformative.
It's just changed the way that we
teach from the Smart boards and the equipment we have. When I was a student here, we didn't have anything like this.
To tell you the truth I don't think I could go back to teaching the old way with the chalkboard 
Now I need a computer and one of these screens like the one behind you there. The microscopes we have for
students are
just excellent. Some of the other equipment that we have in the laboratories allow students to learn hands on.
So you couldn't do what you do without this equipment
Devon has provided? That's right. One of your products is Patrick Kamann who graduated in 2006
and actually works for Devon.
Talk about your career here at OSU. Did you go
undergraduate and graduate school? I actually grew up in Ohio and went to undergrad out there
and just went to graduate school here at Oklahoma State. How'd you find OSU?
I was looking online for petroleum schools,
schools that
focus on petroleum industry and OSU was one of the schools I came across and really enjoyed the faculty when I
came to visit so
I ended up here.
Talk about your training here. You've actually used all this equipment.
Correct, OSU's school of geology has some great professors that give you actual problems in classrooms
and I was able to use that knowledge
right away going to Devon to look for oil and natural gas.
Tell us about,
from your perspective, the importance of this school for Devon
and Devon for this school.
From my perspective,
Devon is committed to giving back to the community in which we operate or where our employees
live and work.
And so
giving to OSU is really a big part of that commitment,
whether it's money for labs or money for research or money for students to have scholarships.
That makes the geology program better at Oklahoma State.
Do students intern with Devon?
Yes.
Every year we come into OSU and we recruit students and that really is key because
if we help the university make a better geology program,
they make better students and
we benefit as well. So it's kind of a win win for both parties. Are there a lot of OSU students at Devon?
Yes there's quite a few.
It's probably upwards of 30 or 40 just geologists.
Well we're gonna go see some of this equipment.
I know the first time I saw it it was kind of Star Wars like.
As you described it in the old days it was kind of pick and shovel and
now its computers and lasers. Geology's changed. It has indeed.
Let's go have a look.
Now we're here in the chemistry lab and with me is Professor Anna Cruse,
a professor in the school of geology.
How are you? I'm good. We've got a lot of high-tech looking stuff around here. It's a chemistry lab, it should be.
Everyone thinks geology is just rocks, hammers and dirt, but we do a lot of really high-tech stuff around here.
Devon has provided this equipment.
They have. This is a coulometer.
When you have a rock,
one of the things you're interested in terms of its oil and gas potential is how much organic carbon is in it. The rocks
we're really interested in right now are
shale, which this is a sample of one. This rock forms
from mud. If you take mud that's deposited on the bottom of the ocean that's buried,
you get that kind of rock. You squish it and you get a shale.
The black part you see is organic material that
started as phytoplankton living in the ocean and it got buried and converted into this
organic carbon that's in that rock and it turns out that that's the primary ingredient for making
oil and gas, or petroleum. This is just a small portion of the equipment that Devon has provided.
There's a lot of
whizbang state-of-the-art stuff around here.
We have a ton of it in here.
Maybe it's obvious, but
what is the real benefit of that to the students? Our students don't just sit in a classroom and get numbers and read 
papers, they actually have to go out and find rocks, they touch them and analyze them and they're working with the
equipment and they get that real-world experience that's
essentially that first day on-the-job training, but they come out of OSU with that already in place.
Let's talk to a couple of these students. We have a couple who've been running the instrument today and I'm sure they can 
show you what it's doing. Fantastic.
Here are two students in our school of geology. We've got Riter Berryman. Riter nice to see you.
And Trey Boardman.
Both of you are from Stillwater I understand. Yes sir.
What attracted you to this school of geology?
Well I've always been drawn to science but never found a niche until I found geology
and the Boone Pickens school of geology is very well known in geological circles.
Well I know the boone pickens school of geology has a long line of
oil and gas influence in their students
and oil and gas has been a big passion of mine for a long time. You guys are graduate students.
Both in your first year of your master's? Yes sir.
You've been around the school a long time and I take it you've had the opportunity to work with a lot of the equipment 
that Devon energy has provided? Yes sir.
Talk about the benefits because this is actually used in industry? Not just this equipment, but
all over these labs.
This equipment here traditionally  will be done by a technician not a geologist, but being a
geologist training on this will help
give us insight into interpreting
the data that we get from it.
Professor Cruse told us why we use these to figure out how much organic material is in a shale,
but tell me exactly how you do that. How does this machine actually work? It has a furnace and we heat
the sample up to a very high temperature and
it releases the carbon. Does it turn into a gas?  
Yes, CO2 vapor.
It runs through a number of filters to remove any other elements that we're not
testing for
and is injected into a fluid and it changes the color and we actually use a laser to
measure the degree of color change.
Which indicates the amount of organic material and inorganic material right?
Yes.
I've got it, I'm ready for the exam.
So if a technician does this in the industry, why do you 
need to know how to do it?
As a geologist getting to use the equipment that's going to produce data for you will only help you interpret 
the data you're getting. So Trey, do you plan on going into the industry? Yes sir.
Maybe Devon?
That's a big possibility.
How about you Riter? I want to be in the Oklahoma oil and gas industry.
Well that's great. We're glad you're here. Thanks for a updating us and
educating us on this. We thank you very much.
That's another edition of Inside OSU. Hope
you'll tune in next time and I hope you've enjoyed
seeing the Devon energy geology lab and
some real rock stars here. What is this by the way Anna?
This is an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer. Well that's great. You want to try it?
This is the one that could really take off. Oh wow let's get with it then.
See you next time.
