Justin Birdwell
My USGS research involves a range of energy-related issues, including: assessing undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in U.S. petroleum systems; evaluating geothermal, critical minerals, and energy storage potential in sedimentary basins; examining environmental impacts of energy development; and researching paleoenvironmental conditions using geochemical methods.
Justin Birdwell is a research engineer and geochemist with the USGS Energy Resources Program’s Gulf Coast Geologic Energy Assessments and Research project. As a Mendenhall Post-doctoral Research Fellow he helped refine previous assessments of Green River oil shale resources, conducted experimental work to evaluate in-situ retorting approaches to oil shave development, and studied the environmental impacts of oil shale utilization. His current work is focused on petroleum resource assessments in Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain basins, geochemical characterization of source rocks and petroleum using standard and advanced methods, evaluation of non-petroleum resource potential in petroliferous sedimentary basins, and development of geochemical reference materials.
Justin is the current Chair of the Geological Society of America’s Energy Geology Division (2024), past-president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Energy Minerals Division (EMD; 2021-2022), an Associate Editor of AAPG Bulletin, Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Coal Geology, a representative of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists in the AAPG House of Delegates, and three-time technical program chair for the AAPG Rocky Mountain Section annual meeting (2022-2024).
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=16174195400
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Birdwell
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=7xr20ZQAAAAJ
Professional Experience
10/2012-2/2024, Research Environmental Engineer, USGS
11/2011-9/2012, General Research Engineer, USGS
10/2009-10/2011, Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Engineer, USGS
1/2008-9/2009, Research Associate, LSU
8/2002-12/2007, Graduate Student/Research & Teaching Assistant, LSU
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, 2007, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Advisor: Louis J. Thibodeaux)
B.S., Chemical Engineering, 2002, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Science and Products
Water–rock interaction and the concentrations of major, trace, and rare earth elements in hydrocarbon-associated produced waters of the United States
Insights on geochemical, isotopic, and volumetric compositions of produced water from hydraulically fractured Williston Basin oil wells
Tracing produced water origins from wells hydraulically fractured with freshwater-based fluids is sometimes predicated on assumptions that (1) each geological formation contains compositionally unique brine and (2) produced water from recently hydraulically fractured wells resembles fresher meteoric water more so than produced water from older wells. These assumptions are not valid in Williston Ba
A review of spatially resolved techniques and applications of organic petrography in shale petroleum systems
Energy and minerals division tight oil and gas committee: Activities and commodity report for 2019-2020
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk and Tokio and Eutaw Formations, U.S. Gulf Coast, 2019
Examination of inertinite within immature Eagle Ford Shale at the nanometer-scale using atomic force microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy
Nanoscale molecular composition of solid bitumen from the Eagle Ford Group across a natural thermal maturity gradient
Trends in thermal maturity indicators for the organic sulfur-rich Eagle Ford Shale
Mineralogy and lithology of the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation determined by hyperspectral core imaging
Biomarker similarities between the saline lacustrine Eocene Green River and the Paleoproterozoic Barney Creek Formations
Assessment of water and proppant quantities associated with petroleum production from the Eagle Ford Group, Gulf Coast, Texas, 2019
Element cycling in the Middle-Late Triassic Shublik Formation: Mineralization vs. recycling of biolimiting nutrients in an unconventional resource play
Mineral Occurrence data for the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance and Uinta Basins
Science and Products
Water–rock interaction and the concentrations of major, trace, and rare earth elements in hydrocarbon-associated produced waters of the United States
Insights on geochemical, isotopic, and volumetric compositions of produced water from hydraulically fractured Williston Basin oil wells
Tracing produced water origins from wells hydraulically fractured with freshwater-based fluids is sometimes predicated on assumptions that (1) each geological formation contains compositionally unique brine and (2) produced water from recently hydraulically fractured wells resembles fresher meteoric water more so than produced water from older wells. These assumptions are not valid in Williston Ba