Faculty
Robert Chase
Professor
Dept: Petroleum Engineering
740-376-4776
Office: BRWN 201
Degrees: Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering (Penn State); Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering (Penn State); Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering (Penn State)
Year appointed: 1978
Dr. Robert W. Chase holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from Penn State. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Petroleum Engineering and Geology at Marietta College. He has served in that position since 1978. Prior to coming to Marietta, he served as an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at West Virginia University from 1976 to 1978. He worked previously for Halliburton Services, Gulf Research and Development Company, and the Department of Energy. He has served as a consultant to Columbia Gas, NiSource, Dominion Resources, EQT, Cabot Oil and Gas, and CONSOL Energy/CNX. He has published numerous technical papers in the areas of natural gas engineering and well testing, but his primary devotion has been to undergraduate petroleum engineering education.
Dr. Chase was as a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) from 1991-94. He has served as chair of the Education and Accreditation Committee of SPE, president of the Association of Heads of U.S. Petroleum Engineering Schools, and served one year as SPE's representative on the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET in addition to serving as a visitor on numerous ABET visiting teams. He has been Marietta College's faculty representative to the NCAA and the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) since 1992, and served as President of the OAC from 2002-03. He was appointed by Governor Ted Strickland to serve a five-year term on the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission in 2008.
Dr. Chase received the C. Drew Stahl Distinguished Achievement in Award in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from Penn State in 2006 and was also named a Centennial Fellow by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State in 1996. He received the SPE Distinguished Member Award in 1998, the SPE Distinguished Service Award in 2009, and the SPE Distinguished Faculty Award in 2011. He was inducted into the Marietta College Petroleum Engineering and Geology Hall of Fame in 2010 and received an honorary alumnus award from Marietta College in October 2011.
David Freeman
Associate Professor
Dept: Petroleum Engineering
740-376-4778
Office: BRWN 202
Degrees: Master's in Petroleum Engineering (Oklahoma), 1984; Bachelor's in Chemistry (Marietta), 1982
Year appointed: 1992
Mr. Freeman was employed by the Mobil Oil Corporation from 1984 to 1992. He has worked at Marietta College since then.
He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Ohio and is currently the Marietta College Board Representative for the Ohio State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers & Surveyors Agency.
His teaching and research interests are in the areas of enhanced oil recovery and production engineering.
Frederick Voner
Associate Professor of Geology and Ebenezer Baldwin Andrews Chair of Natural Science
Dept: Geology
740-376-4845
Office: Brown
Degrees: Ph.D. (Miami University); Master of Science (Miami University); Bachelor of Arts (Maine)
Year appointed: 1982
Dr. Voner joined Marietta College in 1982. Every summer he takes students to central Utah in search of dinosaur fossils. A few years ago Dr. Voner and his students discovered an Apatosaurus skull connected to its vertabrae, one of only a few in the world.
David Jeffery
Associate Professor
Dept: Geology
740-376-4844
Office: BRWN 301
Degrees: Ph.D. (Texas A&M); Bachelor of Science (Marietta)
Year appointed: 2003
Benjamin H. Thomas
Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering and Geology
Dept: Petroleum Engineering and Geology
740-376-4846
Office: Brown
Degrees: Ph.D. in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering (West Virginia University), 2002; Master of Science in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering (West Virginia University), 1997; MBA (Ashland University), 1987; Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering (Marietta), 1981; Bachelor of Business Administration (Kent State), 1975
Year appointed: 2002
Dr. Thomas has worked in the oil and gas industry for more than 30 years. His positions have included staff and district engineering positions and various management positions including being the president of Marbel Energy Corporation and a senior vice president at Great Lakes Energy Partners. Dr. Thomas began his career with Quaker State Oil Refining Corporation serving in various engineering positions from 1979-84.
Dr. Thomas is currently the president of Thomas Consulting, which provides consulting services to clients involved in the petroleum and natural gas sectors. He was elected to the board of Trans Energy, Inc., in St. Marys, W.Va., in July of 2011.
Veronica (Rocky) Freeman
Instructor of Geology
Dept: Geology
740-376-4779
Office: BRWN
Degrees: Master of Science in Geology (University of Texas-Arlington); Bachelor of Science in Geology (Southwest Missouri State University)
Year appointed: 1993
Beginning the academic year of 2010-2011, Veronica (Rocky) Freeman accepted the appointment of Instructor of Geology at Marietta College. Prior to this position she was employed as an Adjunct Lecturer of Geology at Marietta College since the fall of 1993. She has taught Historical Geology, Invertebrate Paleontology, Sedimentation & Stratigraphy and co-lead the Demonstration Field Trip. In 2003 she began teaching an introductory course called Dinosaurs. This course provides a prerequisite for non-geology majors to participate in the Geol 306 course when a dinosaur dig site in Utah is the itinerary. A dinosaur lab component was added to the geology curriculum fall semester 2009. This lab course provides hands on experience of preparing dinosaur fossils excavated from the Utah site.
Rocky's previous geologic employment has included hydrocarbon well-logger for CORE Labs in Oklahoma, a uranium grade control geologist for Kerr-McGee in New Mexico, a part-time lab technician for Mobil Research and Development in Dallas, Texas, an assistant to director of the radiocarbon lab at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and a petroleum engineer assistant for MacPherson Oil Company, Bakersfield, CA. Academic degrees include a B.S. in Geology from Southwest Missouri State University and a M.S. in Geology, emphasis paleontology, from University of Texas at Arlington.
Ben Ebenhack
Associate Professor
Dept: Petroleum Engineering
Phone: 4547
Office: BRWN - Brown Petroluem Engineering Building
Degrees: Bachelor of Science in Geology (Marietta College,) Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering (University of Wyoming)
Year appointed: 2010
Ben W. Ebenhack is Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering at Marietta College in Ohio. He teaches courses on Formation Evaluation, Petrophysics, Energy Resources and Utilization and Engineering Ethics and Leadership. In 2008, the Society of Petroleum Engineers selected him as a Distinguished Lecturer, speaking around the world about "Preserving and Extending the Energy Advantage." The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers selected him to receive the 2011 McDonnell Award for service to humanity.
He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of AHEAD Energy Corporation, a public charity that seeks to assist Developing Countries in their energy transitions – particularly working with schools and hospitals in Africa to develop locally produced energy systems. AHEAD has been involved recently in working with the southern African nations of Moçambique and Uganda.
He formerly held several positions with a multi-national petroleum company. He has particular expertise in Formation Evaluation technologies. He holds BS and MS degrees in Petroleum Engineering from Marietta College and the University of Wyoming respectively.
He is the author of the textbook, A Non-technical Guide to Energy Resources: Availability, Use and Impact, from PennWell publishers, in 1994 and authored the "Energy Policy" section of Our Fragile World: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Development, UNESCO, 2001 as well as numerous articles and presentations about energy, development and the environment. He has two books under contract with a publisher on Pathways to Sustainable Energy and Valuing Energy.
Paul Daniell
Assistant Professor
Dept: Petroleum Engineering
4780
Office: BRWN - Brown Petroluem Engineering Building
Degrees:Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (West Virginia University), 1985; Master of Science in Chemical Engineering (West Virginia University), 1983; Bachelor of Science Chemical Engineering (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), 1981;
Year appointed:
Dr. Daniell has worked in the chemical industry for more than 20 years with an emphasis on polyolefin technology. His received several awards for his work on development and scale up of R&D breakthroughs to full scale production. Dr. Daniell led various engineering and research projects, and served as the liaison to numerous overseas licensees. His emphasis is transport phenomena, catalysis, and statistical design. He has co-authored several patents. He has a special interest in astrophysics and astrophotography.
Andrew Grimm
Visiting Assistant Professor
Dept: Physics
740-376-4759
Office: BRWN
Degrees: M.S. Astronautical Engineering (Rocket Science), University of Illinois B.S. Mechanical Engineering, West Virginia University
Year appointed:
Mr. Grimm brings to Marietta College a passion for renewable energy and a broad knowledge of the field. Before joining Marietta College, he and his wife, Kate, developed Grimm's Green Acres: the most modern commercial apple orchard in Ohio. He taught at West Virginia University at Parkersburg for fifteen years primarily in the calculus-based engineering transfer program as well as many technology training courses.
Prior to teaching at WVU-P, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the US Air Force where he was a research and development manager. His USAF projects included exo-atmospheric nuclear weapons effects, satellite development and operations including initial demonstration of the GPS System, small missile manufacturing, advanced strategic missile systems technology development, and finally, advising US negotiators for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1990.
Professor Grimm currently teaches Energy Systems Program and introductory engineering courses for Marietta College.
Wendy Bartlett
Instructor in Geology
Dept: Geology
740-376-4844
Office: BRWN
Degrees: Post-graduate work in Structural Geology (University of California at Santa Barbara); Master of Science in Geology (Texas A&M University); Bachelor of Science in Geology (Marietta College); Bachelor of Arts in History (Marietta College)
Year appointed: 1999
Ms. Bartlett has been at Marietta College since 1999, following a 19-year career in the oil and gas industry and in engineering geology. She worked for Cities Service Oil & Gas Company on offshore California leases, ARCo (Atlantic Richfield Oil Company) doing structural geology research in the Plano, Texas, research lab, and for Mobil Oil Company in Nevada doing field work for oil exploration.
She also worked for Crouch-Bachman Company in Santa Barbara, Calif., evaluating the offshore continental shelf, and for CalGeo Resources in Ventura, Calif., doing both exploration and development work in the San Joaquin and Sacramento basins of California. She has consulted for the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and for oil companies with respect to oil and gas evaluation, and fractured reservoirs.
Ms. Bartlett also worked for several engineering geology firms in southern California, evaluating landslides and active earthquake faulting. She worked for the Dibblee Geological Foundation of California for 12 years, helping with field mapping and drafting geologic maps of California.
Bartlett teaches Environmental Geology, Petroleum Geology, and Physical Geology labs. She has also taught courses in Geomorphology and Field Geology.