ABOUT
ME
Mike was born and raised in Chicago where he developed a keen interest in science particularly chemistry.
After completing his Masters of Science degree at Michigan Technological University on the CO2-metasomatism of a serpentinized peridotite, he started his career in petroleum geology and geochemistry in 1973 with Shell Oil Company in their New Orleans Offshore Exploration and Production Office studying the relationships between salt diapirism with oil migration and accumulations and microbial gas occurrences in the offshore of the Gulf of Mexico.
After 2.5 years , he joined Amoco Production Company at their Research Center in Tulsa as a petroleum/organic geochemist. It was here that he helped and pioneered hydrous pyrolysis, which simulated natural oil generation and expulsion in the laboratory that provided new insights on stages, thermal maturity and kinetics of petroleum formation. During his time with Amoco, he took a partial leave of absence to obtain his PH. D. at the University of Cincinnati on a dissertation concerning the geochemistry of vanadium and Nickel in sedimentary organic matter and crude oils. During his 3-year leave-of-absence he continued working for them in Tulsa during the summer on various petroleum research projects including coal bed methane, source-rock outcrop weathering, and analytical issues related to oxygen content of kerogens.
He returned to the Amoco Production Company Research Center as a Supervisor of Research Scientist in the Geochemist Group starting in 1978, working on various projects including kerogen characterization, role of water in hydrous pyrolysis, outcrop weathering of petroleum source rocks, and technical service studies on the Cambrian Alum Shale of Scandinavia, petroleum potential of resinites and coals, petroleum potential of offshore lithofacies of the Monterey formation, and source rocks and their petroleum charge from the Brown limestone in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt, generation of organic acids and their role in secondary porosity formation, effects of thermal maturation on stable carbon isotopes and biomarkers of expelled oils, retained bitumen and kerogen, and potential petroleum source rocks in the Truckee formation of the Carson Sink in Nevada and the Woodford Shale of the Anadarko basin, Oklahoma.
After 13 years with Amoco, Mike took a research geochemist position with the Oil and Gas Branch (now called Central Energy Resources Team) of the United States Geological Survey at the Federal center in Denver. In 1991 he established a world-class hydrous pyrolysis laboratory to develop a better understanding of the origin of petroleum with emphasis on stages of formation, their expulsion efficiencies, their relation with thermal maturity indices, and kinetics to determine their timing and extent of formation.
The hydrous pyrolysis laboratory capable of simulating natural petroleum generation attracted collaborators from the Colorado School of Mines on Bakken source rock kinetics, changes in petrophysical properties of maturing source rocks, California Institute of Technology on thermal maturation effects on clumped isotopes in hydrocarbon gases, CNRS(Pau, France) on U-Th and Pb geochronology for dating petroleum generation and source rock, CNRS (Strasbourg, France) on K-Ar dating on smectite illitization of the Kreyenhagen Shale, University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) on oil quality and timing of generation of type I kerogen in Brazilian off shore source rocks, Old Dominion Universityon potential of green algae and Alegaean to generate commercial oil, Caltech on compound specific hydrogen isotopes of lipids in the Green River Formation, Stanford University on the effects of diagenetic silica transformations (Opal-a to quartz), French Petroleum Institute (Paris) on the role of water in thermal maturation and generation of petroleum, Petrobras (CENPES) on establishing a hydrous pyrolysis capability in their laboratories, University of Ilorin (Nigeria) on petroleum potential of Nigeria lignites and associated shales, University of Durham (England) on utility of Os/Re isotopes in oil typing and age dating, French Petroleum Institute (Paris) on bitumen generation in coals as an intermediate to oil generation and expulsion, Yale University on effects of thermal maturation on stable carbon isotopes of individual alkanes, Hebrew University Casali institute (Jerusalem)on partitioning of sulfur and its stable isotopes during thermal maturation, University of Mining and Metallurgy (Krakow, Poland)on establishing a hydrous pyrolysis capability in their laboratory, study whether transition metals of the Kupferschiefer can catalyze gas generation, and the petroleum potential of the Menilite shale of the Polish outer Carpathians, University of Oklahoma on kinetics and composition of oils generated and expelled from source rocks with Type-I kerogen in the Green River Formation (Uinta basin, Utah), Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) on diagenetic transformation of sulfur-bound biomarkers in the Gessoso-Solfifera Formation (Italy), and geological fate and diagenesis of ladderanes, Pennsylvania State University on stable carbon isotopes of organic acids generated from the thermal maturation of petroleum source rocks, Colorado School of Mines on the inhibitory effects of smectite on oil generation and expulsion and experimental insights on pressures associated with oil expulsion, and factors controlling oil cracking to secondary natural gas, Indiana University on isotopic responses and exchange of hydrogen and nitrogen in kerogen during thermal maturation, GeoDesign (London) on sulfur versus API gravity relationships for typing Iraqi oils, and Israel National Oil company and Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Jordan on kinetics and composition of oils and tars generated and expelled from Dead Sea source rocks. Mike retired from the USGS in 2014 but maintained emeritus (Volunteer) status and worked on development of low-temperature hydrous pyrolysis of retained unconventional oil and hydrous pyrolysis of Precambrian oil shale from Pakistan with Dr. Paul Hackley (USGS Reston). Details on these collaborations are given in Mike’s CV under the headings of Partners/Collaborators (pages 39-41) and Published Reports (pages 43-50). In 2023 after 23 years with the USGS, Mike relinquished his emeritus status to devote more time and effort to the Lewan GeoConsulting corporation he started in 2014. His work as a consultant included confidential regional studies and maps of the stages of thermal maturity and stages petroleum systems, interpretation of thermal maturity of existing plays, and evaluation or second interpretations of the petroleum potential of prospects.