Written by , Italy University of Perugia Geophysical Society – Society of Exploration Geophysicists University of Perugia 2022 Student Chapter’s President. The year that is approaching to finish, 2022, started full of positive hopes to be back doing congresses and seminars in presence and, finally, met people and professionals constrained to meet only online due to the worldwide spreading pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The Chapter is composed by newly joined students and more experienced ones who composed the previous boards. Those preserved the worthwhile aspects from the pandemic work time, such as the flexibility and efficiency resulting from different time zones where each member comes from, and pushed the From December 2021, new Officers have been elected with a list of aims to train throughout the year of the charge.

The SEG UniPG 2022 Chapter’s officers. From left to right: Valeria Ferrandino (President), Andikan C. William (Vice President), Gulnaz Taganayeva (Secretary), Rocio Martinez Menendez (Social Manager), Onat Yakisik (Treasurer).

For the fourth time in a row, a team from the University of Perugia has been selected to join the SEG Evolve Program (https://seg.org/SEGEVOLVE) alongside with other 9 teams from high level academic centres, such as Universities of Oklahoma and Houston, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Instituto Politécnico Nacional of Mexico, Instituto Superior Técnico- University of Lisbon, Bandung Institute of Technology & University of Brawijaya of Indonesia, and others. The UniPG team, named The Flintstone, worked for about eight months on a given dataset of Southern North Sea area with the aim to find the best investment opportunity. All the students are from Geology for Energy Resources Master Degree, four out of five enrolled at the first year of the master.

The Flintstones Italy Team participating to SEG EVOLVE 2022 Program. From left to right: Gulnaz Taganayeva (stratigraphy, seismic interpretation, ccs), Elham Safarzadeh (regional setting, ccs, seismic interpretation), Rocio M. Menendez (GIS, petrophysics), Valeria Ferrandino (psm, ccus), Andikan C. William (seismic interpretation, psm, economics).

Rocio, from Spain, tells: “SEG was the best experience for me, as I could connect with my classmates and learn about exploration. I learned how to work in a team with an important project, and how to be a professional in the field of petrophysics. It was my first time, and I’m so happy for this experience. Also, SEG gave me the opportunity to participate to the IMAGE meeting in Houston and met the other teams, making strong friendship.” The program is highly intensive and rich in highs and downs which lead to let you learn how to also manage your emotions. Andikan, from Nigeria, describes: “The SEG EVOLVE program was an amazing experience for me because I got to learn the theory coupled with practical skills applied in the oil and gas industry. I got to be mentored by industry experts throughout the project. This project has given me experience that can’t be gotten through a university degree alone.” Everything developed from January up to the final project presentation in June has also been presented at the International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy (IMAGE) 2022 in Houston, Texas. SEG provided the travel grants for three team members, while the fourth member got the travel grant for the Chevron Student Leadership Symposium, so being able to participate to both Evolve and SLS activities. The experience in Houston has left a mark in our carriers. For all of us it represented the first of many things: the first time in USA, the first time in an international convention, the first time on a stage in front of experts and the first time meeting our mentors: Dr Jim DiSiena and Dr Rocco Detomo. To them, we would like to address once again our deepest gratitude for the help and the support, being always willing to explain what was unknown or incorrectly done. Finally, we all have been able to meet students with whom we cooperated for the Evolve program, but also to create connections, share thoughts and look for a PhD project and/or internships in oil companies.

As usual, Each team was awarded by the mentors, experts, and managers of the program. The UniPG Team work has been awarded for the carbon mitigation scenarios presented for the Southern North Sea area.

The team experience has been coordinated all along the months by the University Advisors of our Chapter: Dr Maurizio Ercoli, Professor Giorgio Minelli, and the precious experience of Assel Akimbekova, who participated to the Evolve 2019 edition. Following Assel’s example, the chapter decided to apply also to the student leadership symposium, where only fifty students from all over the world are selected to be trained for a whole day by a Chevron team, including of different professionals from different areas, such as exploration, production, economics. I, Valeria, as President and as a member of the Chapter, was selected and got the privilege to also talk about the activities our association keeps active in front of leaders committee from Chevron and colleagues from other student chapters. Our aim is to inspire more students to join us, to take advantage of what the SEG offers throughout the year, as seminars and as scholarships. All these opportunities are truly unique for young geoscientists facing the professional world just after the end of the studies. The Society of Exploration Geophysicists led us have a full year of intensive training of team building, communication, and problem-solving activities, with highly experienced managers. For all these opportunities, we are thankful and grateful to University of Perugia and to the organization Society of Exploration Geophysicists- SEG.