Keynote Speaker
Prof. Gianreto Manatschal
Professor of Tectonics
Université de Strasbourg, France
Prof. Gianreto Manatschal
Professor of Tectonics
Université de Strasbourg, France

Session 1: Geodynamics: Rift to Drift
Gianreto Manatschal was born in a small rumantsch village (Sta Maria/Val Müstair) in the Alps of SE Switzerland. He received his PhD in geology from the ETH Zürich, Switzerland in 1995. After postdoctoral appointments at the Danish Lithosphere Centre and at ETH Zürich, he moved to Strasbourg (France), where he became full professor in tectonics at the Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre in 2003. His major research interests are related to the formation and reactivation of rifted margins in the Atlantic and Alpine Tethys domains. He participated on ODP Legs 173 and 210 at the Iberia and Newfoundland margins and worked in the Alps, Pyrenees and at many rifted margins in research projects and/or with industry. He is head of the geology group at the University of Strasbourg and supervised or co-supervised 33 Master students, 30 PhD students and 15 Post Docs. He is involved in several research projects financed by national science foundations and companies, holds (together with Nick Kusnir) a consortium with 13 companies (M6 consortium) was and is PI of several big research projects.
Keynote Speaker
Prof. Jonathan Redfern
Director, North Africa Research Group, Manchester University, United Kingdom

Session 2: Regional Geology
Jonathan Redfern graduated from Chelsea College, University of London with a BSc (Hons) in Geology and joined Fina as a geologist working on North Sea exploration. After 3 years he undertook a PhD at Bristol University on the Sedimentology of the Glaciogenic Permo-Carboniferous Grant Group of the Canning Basin, Western Australia. After completing his PhD, he returned to the oil industry for 10 years with Fina and later Amerada Hess, working in the UK, North Africa and S.E Asia. Since 1998 he has been an academic (initially at Oxford Brookes University and since 2004 at the University of Manchester). Jonathan continues to have close links to the oil industry, supervising funded PhDs, running the leading North Africa Reserach Group and as a consultant working with leading companies on a variety of projects. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS), and a member of the AAPG, PESGB, IAS and EAGE. He is also on the editorial board of the AAPG Bulletin and the Journal of Petroleum Geology.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Mark G. Rowan
President, Rowan Consulting, United States of America

Session 3: Stratigraphy & Sedimentology
Mark G. Rowan received a B.S. in biology from CalTech in 1976, an M.S. in geology from Berkeley in 1982, and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991. He worked for Sohio Petroleum Co. (1982–1985), Geo-Logic Systems (1985–1989), and Alastair Beach Associates in Glasgow, Scotland (1989–1992). He then returned to the University of Colorado as a Research Assistant Professor before founding his own company, Rowan Consulting, in 1998. Although Mark's background includes research in many types of tectonic environments, his primary research and consulting interests are focused on the styles and kinematics of salt tectonics, the processes of salt-sediment interaction, the architecture and evolution of passive margins, and the applications to petroleum exploration. In these areas of research, Mark is one of the most visible and well recognized structural geologists in the world. He has collaborated with virtually every other well-known figure in salt tectonics, whether in academia or in the petroleum industry. His work ethic is second to none and his publication record is outstanding as he has been the author or coauthor of approximately 80 peer-reviewed papers and 170 abstracts.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Georgia Pe-Piper
Professor of Geology - Emeritus, St. Mary’s University, Canada

Session 4: Petroleum Systems
Dr. Georgia Pe-Piper’s training and early experience as a geologist involved the mineralogy and geochemistry of volcanic rocks and broadened into interests in granites and the relationship of tectonics to the formation of igneous rocks. “But at the beginning of the 21st century, I realised that there were more opportunities for employment of students in petroleum geology than in mineral exploration, where many of my earlier students had found work,” she says. “So I took on the new challenge of applying my skills in mineralogy and geochemistry to the understanding of the Scotian Basin, offshore Nova Scotia.” Dr. Pe-Piper says she had support as she made the shift from one area of geological focus to another. “I was helped in this transformation by David Brown of the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board, who saw the practical value of the type of work that I could do.” She adds that, “As I come nearer the end of my geological career, I want more than ever to pass on my skills and experience to the next generation.”
Keynote Speaker
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Dr. David J. W. Piper
Senior Research Scientist - Emeritus, Geological Survey of Canada, Canada
Session 5: Deep Water Systems
Dr. David J. W. Piper has worked in recent years for the GSC on marine geohazards and petroleum basins on the eastern and Arctic Canadian continental margins. He started his career as a Lower Paleozoic sedimentologist and is known for contributions using modern marine analogues to interpret ancient deep-water sedimentary successions, notably turbidites and mass-transport deposits. He has worked for many years on the geology of Greece. He was for 16 years co-Editor in Chief of the journal Marine Geology.
Keynote Speaker

Duncan Wallace
Technical Director,
Chariot Limited
Session 6: Exploration and Energy Thinking for the Atlantic Conjugate Margins