Today, we celebrate Graydon "Grady" Konzen, who successfully defended his MSc thesis about the relationship between fluid composition and induced earthquakes. Grady started his MSc study in Fall 2018 with the goal to become a groundwater modeling specialist. Two years, many late nights, and one global pandemic later, Grady has become a phenomenal groundwater modeler. This morning, Grady gave a 30 minute research talk that was met with numerous "Wows," "Great Jobs" and even an unsolicited, "That guy should do a PhD!" To say that I am proud of Grady does not do justice to his accomplishment. His research talk was nothing short of phenomenal! And it certainly highlighted his skills as a first-rate groundwater modeler with complementary skills in structural geology, seismology, fluid chemistry, and high-performance computing. I won't say too much here about his research because we're preparing it for publication, but I will say that is an impressive piece of work. And it will make a difference. Perhaps one of his committee members, said it best, "You know it’s an important story when you can get a geophysicist, geochemist, and hydrogeologist to all agree on the conclusions.”
Over the last couple of years, Grady has been a terrific collaborator. He's mentored undergraduate students in the lab and found personal success winning a grant from the Geological Society of America. I think it's safe to say that Grady has a bright future ahead, and I look forward to seeing it unfold. I’m going to miss him in the lab, whether in-person or on-screen, but I hope he'll Zoom by from time-to-time.
Congratulations, Grady!
