Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Petroleum Experts to Donate MOVE Software Licenses to Syracuse

Wednesday, December 12, 2018, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and SciencesfacultyResearch and Creative

Members of the Department of Earth Sciences will gain new insights into Earth’s crust, thanks to a licensing agreement between Syracuse University and Petroleum Experts (Petex), a leading developer of optimization software for the oil and gas industries.

head shot

Christopher Scholz

The Scotland-based firm has donated 10 licenses of its MOVE software package to Syracuse for research and training purposes. The suite, which is valued at nearly $2.2 million, is considered the industry standard for geological modeling and structural analysis of Earth’s deep interior.

“MOVE benefits faculty and students interested in tectonics and structural geology,” says Christopher Scholz, professor of Earth sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). “We are grateful to Petroleum Experts, whose software tools will particularly advance our understanding of continental rifting [i.e., the extending and thinning of Earth’s crust].”

Petex, which has U.S. offices in Houston, Texas and Lafayette, Louisiana, develops software modules that help geologists obtain two- and three-dimensional images of features below Earth’s surface.

Starting in January, A&S professors, postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates will use MOVE to study the evolution of complex geological terranes.

“Many of Earth’s economic resources are spatially concentrated through movements of the tectonic plates, creating complex, three-dimensional rock configurations over millions of years,” says Scholz, an A&S faculty member since 1998. “Disentangling the history of an area’s deformation helps us learn more about the distribution of the subsurface resource—whether it is an ore body, an oil or gas accumulation, or a water aquifer.”

In addition to aiding in the study of important sites that are undergoing active tectonic deformation, MOVE will lead to products that could elevate Syracuse’s status in the field of rift basin architecture and evolution. “It will make us more successful in competing for the most substantial research grants and in publishing in the world’s top scientific journals,” Scholz says.

MOVE is the latest acquisition of the Earth sciences department, known for its state-of-the-art analytical and computing facilities in the Heroy Geology Laboratory.

Scholz says the licensing agreement will benefit faculty-led, departmental research projects, most of which are “large, collaborative, multi-institutional and multi-national” in scope. Common among all of them is scholarly emphasis on Earth’s crust and mantle.

“Acquiring skills in the collection and analysis of data is essential for Earth sciences students interested in careers in academia, government or industry. Working with MOVE will teach them critical thinking, an essential component of a liberal arts education,” he concludes.

Founded in Edinburgh in 1990, Petex is one of Europe’s fastest growing technology companies, with more than 420 clients worldwide.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Lender Center Researcher Studies Veterans’ Post-Service Lives, Global Conflict Dynamics
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff
  • National Ice Cream Day: We Tried Every Special at ’Cuse Scoops So You Don’t Have To
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff
  • 4 Maxwell Professors Named O’Hanley Faculty Scholars
    Monday, July 14, 2025, By News Staff
  • Message From Chief Student Experience Officer Allen W. Groves
    Monday, July 14, 2025, By News Staff

More In STEM

6 A&S Physicists Awarded Breakthrough Prize

Our universe is dominated by matter and contains hardly any antimatter, a notion which still perplexes top scientists researching at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The Big Bang created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but now nearly everything—solid, liquid, gas or plasma—is…

Setting the Standard and Ensuring Justice

Everyone knows DNA plays a crucial role in solving crimes—but what happens when the evidence is of low quantity, degraded or comes from multiple individuals? One of the major challenges for forensic laboratories is interpreting this type of DNA data…

Student Innovations Shine at 2025 Invent@SU Presentations

Eight teams of engineering students presented designs for original devices to industry experts and investors at Invent@SU Final Presentations. This six-week summer program allows students to design, prototype and pitch their inventions to judges. During the program, students learn about…

WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony

This spring, Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) held its annual Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Award Ceremony. WiSE was honored to host distinguished guest speaker Joan-Emma Shea, who presented “Self-Assembly of the Tau Protein: Computational Insights Into Neurodegeneration.” Shea…

Endowed Professorship Recognizes Impact of a Professor, Mentor and Advisor

Bao-Ding “Bob” Cheng’s journey to Syracuse University in pursuit of graduate education in the 1960s was long and arduous. He didn’t have the means for air travel, so he voyaged more than 5,000 nautical miles by boat from his home…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.