Bio

["Mike Styzen Shelf Expl, 588-4308" <mstyzen@shellus.com>]

Hi Everybody,
Time for me to do mine.
I am a professional paleontologist!  That means I actually get paid to
think about and occasionally even look at fossils.  My first love is
dinosaurs (I learned to read when I was 4 in order to read dinosaur
books) but my current obsession is calcareous nannofossils.
Calcareous nannofossils are the tiny (2-20 microns) skeletons of
planktonic marine golden brown algae.  They are the main component of
most chalk and are abundant in tropical to temperate marine deposits
from Jurrassic to Recent.  Abundant that is except for a million years
or so right after the K/T boundary.  At that point the population
crashes and thir niche is occupied by calcareous dinoflagellates till
they fight their way back in the Paleocene.  Anyway my good fortune is
that nannoplankton is very genetically unstable and evolves like crazy
making it perfect for biostratigraphy...Ahh I could go on
forever...but I digress.  Back to me
I am 42 years old.  I got my BS in Geology from Illinois State
University in December 1976 and my MS in Geology from Northern
Illinois University in August 1980.  My thesis was on Eocene
foraminifera from DSDP Site 267B in the Southeast Indian Ocean (very
near Antarctica).  From 1980 till Late 1983 I worked as a foram
paleontologist for Mobil's international group.  I worked with fossils
from the South China Sea, the Gulf of Suez, and West Africa.  I was
one of the first victims of the great oil company depression (Which
continues to this day) and was laid off in 1983.  I started with Shell
Offshore and was asked to switch to nannos in 1984.  I am now a Senior
Paleontologist, one of seven remaining Paleontologists (down from 45
when I started) at Shell US. I work exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico
Cenozoic now.  Most of the time I hire consultants to look at the
fossils and I just coordinate...this is not fun but it pays the bills.
Every once in a while on a hot well I go offshore and look at the
fossils myself :).  One of the highlights of my career was when Shell
gave me paid leave to be a shipboard scientist on Ocean Drilling
Program Leg 135 in the South Pacific.  58 days at sea on a research
drilling ship with scientists from all over the world, great fun.

I served as Secretary of the Gulf Coast Section of the Society of
Economic Paleontologists and Mineralologists in 1994 and 1995 and I am
currently running for President Elect.
I am married and have two daughters 15 and 13.
Besides Paleo my other consuming passion is motorcycling which is
presently limited to commuting (year round in this climate).  I have a
1990 BMW K75.
That is probably more than anyone wanted to know
Mike

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|     Michael J. Styzen                   Phone:  (504) 588-4308        |
|     Shell Offshore Inc.                 Room:   OSS-1808              |
|     P.O. Box 61933                      E-mail: mstyzen@shellus.com   |      
|     New Orleans LA  70161                                             |
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