Laudon named chair of geological sciences and engineering department

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On July 17, 2006

Dr. Robert Laudon, professor of geological sciences and engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, has been named chair of UMR’s department of geological sciences and engineering. Laudon replaces Dr. Jeffrey Cawlfield, who was recently named director of freshman engineering at UMR.

Laudon has been with the university since 1980, when he joined the faculty as an associate professor of geology and geophysics. In 2004, he became associate dean of the UMR School of Materials, Energy and Earth Resources. For the past 26 years, Laudon has helped to coordinate and direct UMR’s geology summer field program in Utah. Laudon has also co-directed a field course in South Africa as part of the UM-South Africa Exchange Program. He is the author or co-author of several papers on computer mapping techniques and fluid flow in the subsurface. In 1996, Prentice Hall published Laudon’s Principles of Petroleum Development Geology.

Prior to joining UMR, Laudon served as a geologist and vice president of petroleum for DeGolyer and MacNaughton, a consultant company. He was also employed by Shell Oil Co. as a geological engineer. While at Shell, Laudon worked with teams of engineers, geologists and geophysicists to design, locate and set offshore platforms in the South Marsh Island area of the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Laudon received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1965 and 1968, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Texas-Austin in 1975. His Ph.D. dissertation was on previously unmapped salt domes and Cretaceous delta systems in northern Mexico.

Laudon’s professional affiliations include the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Association of Missouri Geologists (AMG) and American Association of Professional Geologists (AIPG). Laudon is past president of both the AMG and Missouri section of the AIPG. At UMR, he is also the faculty advisor to the student chapter of a geological society.

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On July 17, 2006. Posted in News