Alumni
Bill Schleizer, EADM graduate 2004, was promoted to Associate Director of the Delta Institute in Chicago!
Avanti Tamhane, EADM graduate 2006, was promoted from the URS Houston office to the URS San Francisco office.
Varun Anand, EADM graduate 2006, became engaged to be married in India in 2009.
Takumi Shiraishi, EADM graduate 2008, was married in Kyoto, Japan in September 2008.

Danny Mills and Myriam McChargue, both 2007 graduates of the EADM program, became engaged! Myriam and Danny met during their studies at Rice and are our first Professional Master’s “couple” with a wedding to come in 2009!
Rachelle Petrovik, EADM graduate 2008, took a break from work with Element Markets to spend more time with her family.
JOB UPDATE ON SPRING 2008 GRADUATES
Rachelle Petrovic accepted employment with Element Markets in Houston.
Summer Eidson continued employment with Geosyntec Consultants
Takumi Shiraishi accepted a position with a Japanese company based in Tokyo.
Glennis Claxton will be working for ConocoPhillips in Midland, Texas.
Jeremy Mardembek took a position with ConocoPhillips in Houston.
JOB UPDATE ON FALL 2007 GRADUATES
Danny Reed accepted a position with SHELL Corp. in Houston, Texas
Yi Ye continued working with ExxonMobil, she completed the Subsurface Geoscience Program on a part-time basis.
Adriana Valerio received an offer from Marathon Oil.
JOB UPDATE on SPRING 2007 GRADUATES
Danny Mills accepted a position with HOK Architectural and Engineering Services in Houston, Texas
Myriam McChargue is working for CDM Environmental Consulting in Houston, Texas
Matt Slezak
stayed with his internship provider IVG Green Energy Trading until end
of 2007 when he accepted a new position with BP as Power Risk Analyst.
Ed Miles accepted the offer of his internship provider Quantum Logic Devices and is working for them on full-time in Austin, Texas
Will Lee accepted a position with PROS Revenue Management Consulting in Houston, Texas
Aditya Patel decided to stay with Schlumberger after finishing his internship with them.
JOB UPDATE on SPRING 2006 GRADUATES
(See more detailed bios below)
Varun Anand
familiarized himself with the environmental consulting field during his
internship with CDM, and accepted a full-time position with Trinity
Consulting.
Sylvia Centanni
had participated in an internship with Lynn Inc. in Houston, and
accepted a full-time position with Schlumberger's office in Bryan,
Texas.
Ellice Lin
fulfilled her internship requirement with an Orange County municipal
organization in California. Ellice secured a position as Air Quality
Specialist at Tetra Tech in California, headquartered in Pasadena.
Sarah Mason
pursued her internship with the Houston Wilderness Organization. After
her graduation, she started as Environmental Analyst in the Mayor's
Office of the City of Houston in their Environmental Programming
Department.
Shawna McLallen
interned with Lynn Co. in Houston and accepted a position as a
Geologist with Anadarko in their new Woodlands office. Shawna started a
new job with HydroStatOil Co beginning of 2008.
Avanti Tamhane
worked during her internship with Argent Consulting in Houston. She
accepted a full-time Environmental Consultant position with URS in
Houston.
JOB UPDATE on SPRING 2005 GRADUATES
Four graduates received the M.S. in Environmental Analysis and Decision Making in 2005:
Iain Cowie
interned at the Houston based Groundwater Services Inc. and after
graduation accepted a job offer to start working with the company
full-time as of June 2005. Due to family reasons, Iain relocated to
Brea, California in Spring 2006 and accepted a position with Paulsson
Geo-physical Services, Inc. as an Operations Manager.
Andrea Crumpacker
accepted a temporary job assignment with a Canadian-based consulting
company called Archipelago Ltd based in Victoria, B.C. at one of their
offices in Newport, Oregon. As of November 2005 she has accepted a
position as Environmental Statistician for Weston Solutions in
Carlsbad, California.
Christy Mak started working for Sage Environmental in Houston, Texas after interning with Trinity Consultants in Houston.
Christine Robichaud conducted her
internship at Rice researching the environmental impact of
nanomaterials with Rice professor Dr. Mark Wiesner. She returned from
an assignment as General Manager for American Bio Fuel, Inc back to
Rice to continue her doctoral studies in Spring
2006.
Nd Nebo accepted a temporary work assignment with Burlington Resources, and started working for Pason Systems, USA in Spring 2006.
UPDATES on Fall 2004 Graduates
Padraig Moloney
earned his MS in Nanoscale Physics while simultaneously working at NASA
Johnson Space Center (JSC). He is now leading JSC's NanoMaterials
Applications R&D, which includes work in advanced power and energy
storage, regnerable life support and radiation shielding technologies.
He is pursuing his PhD at Rice at the same time!
Doug Thompson earned his
MS in Environmental Analysis and Decision Making. As owner of a
management consulting firm, Doug plan to focus on developing
sustainability strategies for small and medium-sized companies. He
relocated to Washington D.C. in Summer 2005.
Bill Schleizer,
who graduated with a Master of Science in Environmental Analysis and
Decision Making in May 2004, is now an associate for the Delta
Institute, an environmental nonprofit organization in downtown Chicago.
Natalie Irwin accepted a position with EIP Water Resources Group in California which merged with PBS&J in 2007.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
PSM STUDENT BIOGRAPHIES:
SUBSURFACE GEOSCIENCE
Enrolled in Fall 2003:
Ndubuisi Nebo
Mr. Nebo graduated in 1995 with a B.S. in Electronic Engineering from the University of Nigeria.
Before entering the Professional Master’s Program, he worked as a
database administrator for seven producing and drilling platforms in Nigeria. He intends to focus on Geophysics within the Subsurface Geoscience track.
Enrolled in Fall 2004
Sylvia Centanni
Ms. Centanni earned a
B.S. in Geology in 1975 and a master’s in environmental science in
1999. She comes to Rice with over twenty years experience in domestic
and nternational oil and gas exploration, development geology, and
interpretation geophysics. She seeks to complete her industrial
training in geophysics to round out her education.
Shawna McLallen
Ms. McLallen is our
first student attempting to achieve a five-year combined BS/MS degree
plan. She will finish her B.S. in Geophysics in spring 2005 and started
to take courses required by our PSM program in fall 2004. She graduated
in December 2005 with an M.S. in Subsurface Geoscience. Her ultimate
goal is to find a position in seismic processing.
NANOSCALE PHYSICS
Enrolled in Fall 2002:
Padraig Moloney
Padraig Moloney
graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is
currently working as an aerospace engineer for NASA. He has been fascinated with the broad scientific area of nanotechnology for many years. He has experience with carbon fiber composites and microengines and has been published in Aviation Week (Sept. 6, 1998).
Padraig wanted to use his knowledge of nanotechnology in order to
pursue aerospace applications. He graduated in December 2004 and is now
leading JSC's NanoMaterials Applications R&D, which includes work
in advanced power and energy storage, regenerable life support and
radiation shielding technologies. He is pursuing his PhD at Rice at the
same time.
Enrolled in Fall 2003:
Ilia Geltser
Mr. Geltser graduated with a M.S. in Metal Physics from the Moscow Iron and Steel Institute in 1990.
He continued his studies at the University of British Columbia where he
received his master’s degree in materials engineering in 1993.
He has 10 years experience in equipment for deepwater oil and gas,
petrochemical, power generation and aerospace. He has experience in
metallic materials applications, manufacturing, new product
development, new markets, patent development, and strategy/operational
improvement consulting. He is fluent in English, Russian, Polish, and Czech. His goal was to apply his new knowledge to industrial nanotechnology applications within a start-up company. He graduated in 2004 and has been working as a consultant.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS AND DECISION MAKING
Enrolled in Fall 2002:
Bill Schleizer
Mr. Schleizer graduated
magna cum laude from Tulane University in 2000 with a B.S. in Ecology,
Evolution & Organismal Biology and Environmental Studies. The
interdisciplinary and intrinsically complex nature of environmental
issues has sparked his interest over the past decade. Prior to
entering the Professional Master's Program, he worked as an
environmental consultant tackling compliance issues for many industries
ranging from wastewater treatment to petrochemical transmission.
Current interests include the interactions of government, industry,
and the public in the creation of effective environmental policy; and
the development of sustainable business models. Following his interest
in aiding corporations in the development of sustainable business
practices he accepted a full-time position with the Delta Institute in
Chicago.
Natalie Irwin
Natalie Irwin graduated from UC-Berkeley in 2000 with a BS in Integrative Biology with an emphasis in plant ecology.
She has had an interest in the environmental sciences since high school
when she was involved in a program that restored degraded lands to a
natural state. After graduating from UC-Berkeley, Natalie
worked in the biotechnology industry. She graduated in Spring 2004 and
is now working for EIP Water Resources Group in California.
Enrolled in Fall 2003:
Iain Cowie
Mr. Cowie earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical/electronic engineering in 1989 at Aberdeen University in England.
For the past twelve years he has worked as an acquisition manager and
field engineer for READ Well Services, an oil field service company
specializing in cased hole logging and borehole seismic logging
services. He intended refocus his career toward energy
and the environment. He graduated in 2005 and is now working with
Paulsson Geophysical Services in California.
Andrea Crumpacker
Ms. Crumpacker graduated
from Truman State University in 1999 with a B.S. in Biology. She has
field work experience collecting data related to fishery management.
She intended to focus on advanced computation and was most interested
in how different aspects of statistics may be used to improve resource
management. She is now employed as an Environmental Statistician for
Weston Solutions in California.
Matt Hotze
Mr. Hotze received his
Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Business from the University of
Notre Dame in 2003. He gained work experience with several consulting
companies during semester breaks. He plans to pursue a career related
to business and environmental concerns. Matt decided to pursue a PhD
during the 2nd semester of attending the PSM prorgram.
Christy Mak
Ms. Mak received her
Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science in 1999 from the School of
Environmental Science & Engineering at Sun Yat-sen University. In
addition to working for the Environmental Protection Bureau in
Guangzhou, China, she has been actively involved in the Green Youth
Organization supported by the Guangzhou Municipal Environmental Bureau
and the School of Earth and Environmental Science at Sun Yat-sen
University. Her goal was to work for the Chinese
government in the field of environmental protection. After graduation,
she accepted a position with Sage Environmental in Houston, Texas
Christine Robichaud
Ms. Robichaud
graduated in 2000 from Texas A& M University with a Bachelor of
Science in Industrial Engineering. After graduation she worked as a
business consulted for Arthur Andersen in the energy industry,
identifying and implementing supply chain process improvements. At Rice
she hopes to gain an interdisciplinary view of the policies, economics,
and technological challenges involved with environmental protection,
with the goal of building a business case for sustainable development. Christine graduated from the PSM program in May 2005 and is now pursuing a PhD with Dr. Wiesner.
Douglas Thompson
Mr. Thompson earned his bachelor’s degree in geology in 1976 from Western Michigan University. He continued his education at Pennsylvania University where he earned a M.S. in Mineral Economics in 1980. Mr. Thompson’s professional life as a geologist focused on hydrology studies, geotechnical analysis, and coal mining.
He conducted economic evaluations and financial modeling for mining and
explorations projects at Exxon for 11 years before starting his own
management consulting firm in Houston in 1991. He has
provided strategic planning and organizational design to the
engineering and architectural community. He has also given
presentations and speeches at various national conferences on business
and ethics. His goal was to enhance his consulting practice by working
directly with corporate clients in the development of sustainability
strategies. After graduation, Doug relocated his consulting business to
Washington D.C.
Enrolled in Fall 2004
Varun Anand
Mr. Anand
received his Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) in Chemical Engineering
in May 2004 at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Delhi,
India.He has gained practical work
experience through employment at a nitric acid/ammonia/sewage treatment
plant and The Energy and Resources Institute in India. He was also involved in developing a process for producing single walled carbon nanotubes.
His goal was to start his own environmental consultancy firm, after his
graduation in 2006 he started employment with Trinity Consultants in
Houston, Texas.
Ellice Lin
Ms. Lin graduated from University of California in Irvine with a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2003.
She was interested in environmental policy and laws, and is seeking to
increase her skills in effective water management, natural resource and
environmental management, and preservation. After her graduation in
2006 she intended to return to California to work for a government
agency there.
Sarah Mason
Ms. Mason earned her
Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences at Clemson University, South
Carolina in 2003. Sarah gained practical work experience by working
throughout her undergraduate years. She developed an
interest for environmental protection during her studies at Clemson.
She seeked involvement with industries in developing more sustainable
practices in production and development. Her long-term goal is to
become active in government to assure that sustainable practices become
law. She has accepted an Environmental Analyst position with the
Mayor's Office of the City of Houston.
Avanti Tamhane
Ms. Tamhane received her
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering in 2004 at Rice University
in 2004. During her two internships with BP she gained practical work
experience enhancing her engineering, analyzing and communication
skills. She was interested in learning more about the
decision making processes behind major environmental issues. Avanti
accepted employment with URS in Houston, Texas.