An international geoscientist, Dr Ben Kneller, has returned to the University of Aberdeen as part of the institution’s highly successful international recruitment campaign. Dr Kneller has been appointed as a Reader and is strengthening the research base of the Department of Geology & Petroleum Geology within the School of Geosciences, as part of the Chairs for the Sixth Century campaign.
Just weeks after joining the University, Dr Kneller has secured a significant award of funding from BG International Ltd (British Gas) and a consortium of companies in the oil industry.
Previously with the University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr Kneller is delighted to be back in Aberdeen after more than 20 years of international work. Speaking on his new appointment, he said: “Returning to the University of Aberdeen some 20 years after studying here for my PhD, I find it academically transformed. It is clearly a time of challenge for higher education in the UK, but also one of immense opportunity. It is exciting to be a part of that, in a particularly dynamic and forward-looking College, and in a University that is clearly one of the bright spots on the current UK academic scene.”
Dr Kneller’s academic interests are largely in modelling gravity-driven processes of sediment movement, and in describing and understanding the resulting depositional systems in the deep sea the majority of the Earth’s surface, and its last great physical frontier. They are significant in that they constitute the largest accumulations of sediment on the planet, include many of the world's hydrocarbon reservoirs, and also contain a long-term record of past climate change that will contribute to a fuller understanding of the Earth's climate system.
After a series of post-docs in the UK, followed by a lectureship in Leeds, Dr Kneller migrated to a research post at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Professor Albert Rodger, Head of the College of Physical Sciences, welcomed Dr Kneller’s new appointment, which is strengthening the academic expertise within the Department of Geology & Petroleum Geology. He said: “I am delighted that Dr Ben Kneller has been appointed by the University of Aberdeen. It shows that the University is attracting exceptional staff of the highest quality. He is an accomplished deep-sea sedimentologist with ‘outstanding academic credentials’ and I am looking forward to working closely with him in building on our achievements to date.”
Following his recent appointment, Dr Kneller has been awarded £367,486 from BG International Ltd (formerly the exploration and production division of British Gas) to support a research project aimed at understanding the development of large deltas on ocean margins, and of the sedimentary environments of the adjacent continental slope and deep sea floor. Such environments form an important habitat for hydrocarbons. The applied aspects of the work will enable BG to identify characteristics which discriminate the delta-slope-basin floor systems with hydrocarbon reservoirs from those without – in other words to identify prospective areas more precisely and better inform their decision on acreage acquisition.
Speaking about the three-year research project, Dr Kneller explained: “I am extremely grateful to British Gas for this major funding. We shall be looking at a number of large delta systems, each of which has been active for several millions of years, including the Nile Delta and the Indus, amongst several others. We will be using three-dimensional seismic surveys provided by BG to look at the growth of these delta systems in the past, specifically to try to understand where sand is deposited in the deep-sea off these deltas, as these are what form the hydrocarbon reservoirs.”
The funding will cover Dr Kneller’s salary for the next three years, along with the costs associated with two PhD students and computer equipment for interpretation of the seismic data. The team from the University will be working closely with colleagues within British Gas.
Dr Kneller has also secured £615,000 for a project to understand the evolution of continental slopes, and the sedimentary processes that occur on them. This project is supported by a consortium of oil companies which includes BP, BHP-Billiton, Amerada Hess, Marathon, Murphy, Norsk Hydro, Petrobras and Unocal. It involves the interpretation and modeling of data from large, three dimensional seismic surveys of modern continental slopes (provided by the industry sponsors), mathematical modeling of the sedimentary processes occurring on the continental slope (in collaboration with Eckart Meiburg of the Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara), and fieldwork on outcrops of ancient continental slope deposits in Mexico, Argentina, New Zealand and Italy (in collaboration with Mike Gardner in the Department of Geology, Montana State University).
Two PhD students have been appointed to assist Dr Kneller with these research projects - Vanessa Kertznus and Philip Thompson. Vanessa, a Venezualan national, has been working in Houston since graduating from Universidad Central de Venezuela. She recently won a prestigious award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists for her undergraduate work. Philip, a graduate of the University of Liverpool, has recently completed a Masters degree at the University of Leeds. Both joined the University of Aberdeen in February.
The team will firstly begin the process of collating the seismic data, and over the next few months will carry out fieldwork in Mexico and Argentina. Dr Kneller said: “It is important for a sedimentologist to look at sediments and sedimentary rocks as well as interpreting them from seismic data - seeing the relationships as they really are.” He added: “This is a unique opportunity to carry out some fundamental science, using data that until recently would have been unavailable to the academic community due to the cost. Each seismic survey costs several millions of pounds – beyond the reach of individual institutions. At the University of Aberdeen, this is the first time we have had the opportunity to look at some major components of the earth’s surface sedimentary system in this way.”