Team

Liam Nell (2025 - )

Liam, originally from South Africa, grew up camping and hiking across the country. He earned his BSc Applied Geology (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of the Western Cape in 2021 and his BScHons Geology from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2022. He began his professional career in 2023 as an exploration geologist and later acted as the lead geologist on gold and HMS exploration programs across Mozambique. While working, he completed an MSc Geology (UCT), focusing on P-wave tomography to investigate the crustal and Moho structure of the Eastern African Rift System in Malawi. In 2025, Liam joined Binghamton University in New York to conduct NASA-funded PhD research. His work leverages geophysical methods, including electrical resistivity tomography and electromagnetic induction imaging, at the Zondletone Spring site in Oklahoma to develop models predicting subsurface habitability on planetary systems. His current research interests include planetary geosciences, geophysics, data science, machine learning, and remote sensing.

Danial Mansourian (2022 - )

Danial studied Geological Engineering at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. After finishing his master's, he started working as a geological engineer (soil mechanics and geophysics) in the industry. He later moved to Belgium and obtained a second master's degree in Physical Land Resources from Ghent University, where he focused on applied geophysics. He is interested in studying the links between the applications of geoengineering and near-surface geophysics. He joined OU to follow his childhood dream of getting a Ph.D. in geoscience. Danial's research is focused on geophysical engineering, where he will be conducting geophysical field surveys, laboratory analysis, and modeling. He intends to establish a link between geophysical electrical signals and geotechnical parameters of soils such as pore pressure and strength, to develop a novel methodology for landslide mitigation, prediction, and analysis.

Cailin Stauffer (2024 - )

Cailin is from Kingston, Oklahoma and has her bachelor’s degree in Geoscience from the University of Tulsa. Her passions in geoscience lie within Environmental Geology and Planetary Science. She enjoys studying surface processes and near-surface environments of terrestrial planets through Earth analog studies that allow her to combine her love for both field and laboratory work, as well as using this knowledge to help decrease anthropogenic contamination to the near surface geology. Her research will use near-surface geophysical techniques to identify abandoned oil and gas wells to prevent continued damage they release into their local geology, biosphere, and atmosphere. Outside of geoscience, she is also passionate about knitting, hiking, classical music, making great coffee, and her cat, Jax!

Leticia Presa (2023)

Leticia Presa has a degree in Geological Engineering (BSc) and a Master's in Mining Engineering (MSc) from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She studied in the last year of her master's degree at the Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza (AGH) University in Poland. After returning in 2019, she started her Ph.D. in Research, Modelling, and Risk Analysis in the Environment. Her research focuses on different non-carbonate natural materials for use as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in cement, mortar, and concrete to reduce the emissions produced during the calcination of calcium carbonate to obtain cement. She has collaborated with institutions such as the Laboratorio Oficial de Ensayos de Materiales de Construcción (LOEMCO) and the Instituto de Catalisis y Petroleoquímica of the CSIC in Spain. She is currently on a research stay at the OU with the aim of developing sustainable cement with natural materials from North America and correlating geophysical parameters with the mechanical properties of mortars through Spectral Induced Polarization (SIP).

John McKnight (2022 - 2024)

John McKnight is from Edmond, Oklahoma, and has wanted to pursue a career in geoscience since his youth. He holds a B.Sc. in geophysics from the University of Oklahoma. His interests include studying near-surface soil with distributed acoustic sensing and electrical resistivity surveys. John's research includes applying electrical resistivity method to study the southwest Oklahoma City area to study the near-surface effects of small magnitude earthquakes. In Oklahoma, fracking may have caused the topsoil to be disrupted; therefore, resistivity surveys, accompanied by seismic data acquired by the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS), may explain the extent of topsoil interference.

Dani Storms (2023 - 2024)

Dani Storms is originally from Lewisville, Texas, and is a recipient of a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of South Florida. Her passion for the field of geophysics was discovered at field camps through performing resistivity, GPR, magnetic, and seismic surveys. Dani will be conducting research at the University of Oklahoma that involves the characterization of pavement drainage using electromagnetic induction imaging and direct analysis. The goal of her research is to help civil engineers better quantify the drainage capacity of roads with indrirect geophysical techniques.

Christian Davila (2023 - 2024)

Christian Davila is from Grand Prairie, TX in the DFW area. His interest in geosciences began during his time as an international baccalaureate student in high school, during which he took environmental science and physics courses and followed earth studies. As an undergraduate senior majoring in geophysics at the University of Oklahoma, his passion for the subject grew through the courses he took, including seismic exploration, remote sensing, and seismology, ultimately discovering methods to study the subsurface via electrical resistivity and magnetic surveys at geophysics field camp. He intends to further his research by studying near-surface geophysics prior to his graduation in spring 2024.

Kylie Sexton (2024)

Kylie Sexton is from Oklahoma City and went to high school at Norman High School. She is graduated from Oklahoma City Community College with an associate in general sciences and is working towards a Bachelor's in Environmental Geology from the University of Oklahoma. Kylie is interested in igneous and metamorphic formations/rocks. Some things that she like to do are biking, camping, and rock climbing. Kylie rock climbs outside every Sunday in Oklahoma. She has a cat with no teeth and can make a darn good latte!