Peter Reilly
Geophysics | San Luis Obispo, California | Schlumberger
Coming to the University of Oklahoma from California, Peter Reilly quickly plugged into various groups to build his campus community.
Reilly, who recently received the Alan Witten Award for Outstanding Senior Geophysicist, has been an active member of the geology club called Pick and Hammer. This past year, he served as the club’s lead outreach officer, coordinating K-12 school visits around Oklahoma, inviting K-12 classes to come to campus for geoscience tours, and writing, proctoring, and grading exams for the Oklahoma Science Olympiad tournaments in a few subjects.
The summer before his freshman year, Reilly participated in the AT&T Summer Bridge Program and has continued to participate with the Diversity and Inclusion Program. He also worked for OU Student Media as a photographer from 2016 to 2018.
Additionally, Reilly established strong relationships with his professors through various class field trips to locations like Galveston, Texas; Colorado; New Mexico; and Arizona. He said these hands-on learning opportunities were not only key to relationship building but also to his education.
“In lecture you’re thinking about, ‘How to do I apply this? What does it look like in my hands? What does this look like under a microscope or when I run a certain test on it?’ I think that extra ability to have hands-on learning and extend that with field trips is a necessity for the major. Without that, your understanding of the subject would be so limited,” Reilly explained.
During his time at OU, Reilly completed internships with the California State Water Quality Control Board, Oilfield Environmental and Compliance Testing Services, and NOAA's Sea Grant and Georgia Marine Extension.
He has accepted a full-time offer with Schlumberger, where he will work as a drilling fluids engineer. Reilly will attend the company’s drilling fluids school in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, at the end of this summer for around two months before starting on-site training in Lafayette, Louisiana.
For Reilly, the industry connections offered through the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy and the Diversity and Inclusion Program were key to helping set him up for future success. Whether it was hearing recent OU graduates talk about their professional careers or taking tours at a variety of companies, Reilly found these interactions to be beneficial as they gave him a chance to network and grow professionally.
“Through those departments, it’s not like here’s the academic side and you go do everything else on your own,” Reilly said. “They really give you good material and opportunities to interact with the industry professionals.”
