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Our team of structural geologists whose objective is to make the deals and provide the answer. Are you interested in joining our team? View our current vacant positions.
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- Ahmed Saeed, MSc - Structural Geologist
Ahmed joined Midland Valley in 2007 in a geotechnical support role on a work experience programme and then as an Intern. He worked in support of the consulting and knowledge teams on a range of internal projects including building 3d models of analogue experiments.
In 2008 Midland Valley provided Ahmed with sponsorship to undertake a masters degree in Petroleum Geoscience (Basin Analysis) at the University of London - Royal Holloway College. Ahmed’s thesis was about the interaction of salt tectonics and deposition in the Scotian passive margin. The aims of the project was to determine the relationship between salt withdrawal and the extension in the area and understand the post rift tectono-stratigraphic and growth history. With his MSc complete, and new interests in lithosphere extension and salt deformation, he has recently rejoined our team as a Structural Geologist.
Before coming to Glasgow Ahmed studied for a BSc in Geology (2000) and an MSc. in Geophysics (2004) at Mosul University, Iraq. His MSc thesis looked at Geoelectrical Surveys, using vertical electrical sounding (Schlumberger configuration) to determine underground aquifers in sheikh Ibrahim plain North West Iraq. In his spare time, he writes code, plays tennis and enjoys outdoor activities.
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- Dr Alan Gibbs - Technical Director
The founder of Midland Valley, Alan deals with global leadership and strategy along with MVE's technical profile and business objectives.
Alan has worked as an academic, senior specialist in a state company and is founder and director of Midland Valley. He is responsible for a number of seminal publications in the application of structural geology to oil and gas exploration and production.
Over the last 25 years he has been involved in global projects, in many cases seeing them through several technical and commercial cycles. As a decision maker he has steered technical and commercial development of an international technical group and in managing change.
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- Dr Anne Domzig - Structural Geologist
Anne joined Midland Valley in September 2008 after 2 years at the University of Nantes (France) as a teacher and research assistant. She completed a PhD in Marine Geosciences in 2006 at the University of Brest (France), during which she worked on Miocene to present-day tectonics along the submarine Algerian margin, and on the regional Cenozoic geodynamics of the south-western Western Mediterranean Sea region.
She was particularly interested in active folds and thrusts, and their interaction with recent sedimentation, mainly using seismics, high-resolution DEM, and various other geophysical data.
Anne loves to travel, read, and enjoys Scottish dances.
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- Dr Armelle Kloppenburg - Senior Structural Geologist
Armelle joined Midland Valley in May 2001 as a consultant structural geologist based in Glasgow. Since then she has worked on Oil and Gas related projects around the world, across the full range of tectonic settings, with project in both early exploration and enhanced recovering stages. Recently, Armelle has been involved in applying structural geology to optimise exploration strategy in the mining industry, with projects in Uzbekistan and the Tien Shan, China.
With this experience and with her ‘hard rock’ research background and interests she is now involved in diversifying Midland Valley activities to serve the non-petroleum extractive industry. Before Armelle joined MV she was part of the Structural Geology & Tectonics group at Utrecht University where she studied the structural development and geochronology of the 3.5 billion year old Pilbara Craton in Western Australia. This largely field based research ranged in scale from satellite imagery interpretation to electron microscope geochronology.
Armelle is now based in The Hague, the Netherlands, but when in Scotland, she is into scrambling the Highlands and drinking whisky. Her favourite addiction is chocolate-covered coffee beans.
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- Dr Arne Scherrenberg - Structural Geologist
Arne joined Midland Valley in January 2009 after completing his doctorate in Structural Geology and Exploration Tectonics at the University of Queensland (Australia). His PhD project, sponsored by a mining major, involved studying the structural framework of mineralisation in the Marañón Fold-Thrust Belt, Peru. This largely field-based research project ranged in approach from satellite imagery interpretation to low-temperature thermochronology, and utilised GIS to construct geological maps and MVE’s 2DMove software to construct balanced cross sections.
Prior to his PhD, Arne undertook his undergraduate degree in Geology and M.Sc. degree in Structural Geology and Tectonics at Utrecht University (The Netherlands). For his M.Sc. project he conducted extensive fieldwork in the Archaean Pilbara craton in Western Australia, where he studied the structural setting of three gold mines and the relative timing of events responsible for the gold mineralisation.
With this background, Arne is helping to expand Midland Valley’s portfolio of mining-related structural geology projects and supporting its Knowledge Centre on GIS-related issues. In his spare time Arne loves to travel, play indoor, outdoor and water sports, and watch movies.
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- Dr Clare Bond - Structural Geologist
Clare completed a doctorate at Edinburgh University on deformation and fluid flow in blueschists and has worked on structural projects in Pakistan and Utah. After working as a geologist for Scottish Natural Heritage, she spent 5 years in policy development and implementation.
In November 2005 she joined the Midland Valley team and Glasgow University as a Research Geologist on the Odin project. The Odin Project investigated conceptual uncertainty and constraints in the interpretation of geological data. The project developed new methods to enable assessment of risk from the bias introduced by interpreters from their prior knowledge and training. Clare joined the Midland Valley full time in July 2007 and has developed uncertainty training and worked on structural restoration projects in the North Sea.
Clare continues her links with the University of Glasgow where she holds an honorary Research Fellowship and collaborates on uncertainty research. Click here for further information on the Odin Project.
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- Dr Dominique Similox-Tohon - Structural Geologist
Dominique joined Midland Valley in December 2006. He completed his PhD at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) where he specialized in active tectonics, archaeoseismology and earthquake geology. The aim of his PhD was to evaluate historical seismic activity around the ancient city of Sagalassos (SW Turkey). Based on a multidisciplinary study (archaeoseismology, remote sensing, structural geology, geophysics and palaeoseismology) he was able to identify a seismically active normal fault which passes through the ancient city itself.
Before joining Midland Valley, Dominique was a Structural Prize winner in 2004. Since joining he has worked on various projects and has given several software trainings to clients held at both Midland Valley’s headquarters and client offices; carried out feild work in Morocco; and is trained in Fault Seal Analysis using TrapTester from our alliance partner Badleys Geosciences.
When he is not doing geological work, you can find him hanging on some piece of rock or ice, defying gravity.
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- Jenny Ellis, MSc - Support Geologist
Jenny joined Midland Valley's Knowledge Centre at the beginning of 2010. She has a BSc(Hons) in Geology from the University of Edinburgh where she became interested in the structural geology of mineral deposits. She went on to obtain an MSc in Mining Geology at the Camborne School of Mines, investigating the effect of small scale geological features on resource estimation at Rössing uranium mine in Namibia.
Jenny also spent five months working for the USGS at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, helping to monitor the ongoing eruption of Kīlauea Volcano. In her spare time she loves travelling, hill walking and climbing.
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- Dr John Grocott - Principal Structural Geologist
John joined MVE in January 2006 from Kingston University, London bringing research and commercial project experience of structural and tectonic styles world-wide particularly in the Andes, Greenland, the North Atlantic shelf and adjacent shield areas, and the Alpine fold belts of Europe and North Africa. His interests cover deformation and process in basement rocks through to upper crustal deformation and fluid systems. As well as applying his experience in structural analysis and restoration to reduce risk in the exploration for oil and gas, John has wide experience of mineral deposit geology - particularly Cordilleran Fe-oxide Cu Au and Cu-porphyry deposits.
In Midland Valley he is developing workflows and applications for mineral exploration, mineral deposit evaluation and geotechnical aspects of mining using structural validation and kinematic analysis to improve predictions of mine scale structures and fracture distributions.
Moving to Glasgow from the UK "deep south" means that John will also be seeking wider horizons in the literal sense with the Highlands on the doorstep for trekking - once it stops raining!
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- Louise Munro - Support Geologist
Having graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Degree in Earth Science in June 2007, Louise has joined Midland Valley's Help Desk and is part of our expansion plans for our help and support services through the Knowledge Centre. She is looking forward to developing her geological career with us.
Louise's main interests are structural and metamorphic geology, and in her spare time likes to be walking up hills and reading.
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Roddy joined MVE in 2006 after seven years with Fugro Robertson Ltd in North Wales, where he was responsible for managing the Geophysics and Structural Geology Group and the Petroleum Training Centre. Before joining Robertson's as a structural geologist, he worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Roddy has a strong background in structural geology, with particular emphasis on the influence of basement structure on basin architecture. In addition, he is an experienced petroleum geologist, having worked on numerous prospect evaluation studies ranging in scale from global deep water basins to detailed license block and field reviews. His primary role at Midland Valley is to help develop new business, and to oversee the successful delivery of technical studies to clients.
Roddy enjoys spending time with his family at home, in the hills or on the water.
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- Rosa Polanco-Ferrer MSc - Structural Geologist
Rosa obtained her degree in Geological Engineering from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where she was also a Teaching Assistant. She moved to France to complete her MSc in Petroleum and Geophysics at Pau University. After that she had been working as Geosciences Consultant in Latin America before joining Midland Valley in 2008.
During the last years she worked on projects which included seismic interpretation, reservoir modelling, remote sensing geology, structural geology, tectonic analysis, structural restoration and analogue modelling.
In 2005 Rosa was one of the winners of the Midland Valley Structural Prize
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- Dr Ruth Wightman - Structural Geologist
Ruth joined Midland Valley in 2008 after completing a two-year post-doc at Durham University where she was using terrestrial laser scan data to build fault and fracture network models of reservoir outcrop analogues. Before that, Ruth was researching her doctorate at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand, on brittle-ductile shear zones exposed in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Ruth’s particular academic interest is the control of rock lithology and rheology on deformation within fault zones.
Away from the office, Ruth is often to be found heading to the hills, playing the piano, or making muffins.
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- Tim Rice, MSc - Structural Geologist
Tim joined Midland Valley in 2008. He has continued developing his specialist interest in palaeo-turbidite distribution systems and delta tectonics which he initially developed though his thesis work for his MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from Royal Holloway College. He has also worked on North Sea tectonics in areas including the Central Viking Graben and the Sole Pit Basin as well as the Fes region of NE Morocco.
Tim's BSc (Hons) in Geology was from Kingston University, London where he gained experience in palaeo-environmental analysis and won prizes for field mapping, economic geology and mineralogy. As part of his broad career he has also been involved in staff training and systems migration and he has spare time interests in palaeontology and technical archaeology.
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- Dr Zsolt Schleder - Structural Geologist
Zsolt joined Midland Valley in 2006 after completing his PhD at he RTWH Aachen University, Germany. Zsolt's PhD research was focussed on deformation, recrystallisation mechanism and rhelogy of naturally deformed rock salt from different tectonic settings. Since joining MVE, he has been involved in software testing, client support and training. He has completed projects in Germany, Azerbaijan, UK, Borneo and enjoyed discussions on geology with the other MVE team mates on many other expoloration areas around the world.
He enjoys outdoor activities such as climbing and hiking.
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