Dobrin Lecture

Student Poster Competition Guidelines

FOR STUDENTS:

There is a limit of 30 poster presentations. You will receive an email from Antonius Douglas
a week before the deadline to confirm your poster submission and attendance.

Poster Submission:
⦁ Please use this form to submit your poster information

⦁ Doing this form also serves as your RSVP for the event. Do not use the RSVP button on the Dobrin website if you are submitting a poster.
⦁ If you want to be eligible for a poster competition award, you must submit your title by midnight Jan 31st so that it will appear on the judging form.

⦁ If you have any questions or difficulties with your poster submission, please contact Antonius Douglas via email: aldougl3@central.uh.edu
Students presenting posters must:
a) Arrive by 4:30 pm to mount posters.
b) Present and stay for the entire lecture in order to receive their poster award prize.
c) Dismount posters when the lecture is over.

⦁ Follow this link for instructions to create your poster file: https://support.geosc.uh.edu/docs/plot_pc.htm
⦁ Plan your poster to fit on a 4’ height by 8’ width board. The size of the poster should be 42 inches x 72 inches.
⦁ If you want the department to print your poster, the file must be submitted by midnight Jan 31st: Email the file to Jay Krishnan: krishnan@central.uh.edu Students not presenting posters: Please RSVP here. Admission is free.

Prize categories

(3 prizes awarded in each of the following categories - Atmospheric, Geoph/Geol Senior PhD, Geoph/Geol Junior PhD plus MS plus Under Grad)

1st Place = $750
2nd Place = $500
3rd Place = $250

Please join the
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
and the Geophysical Society of Houston at the

32nd Annual Milton B. Dobrin Lecture

Thursday, February 5, 2026
5:30–8:00 PM

at the

University of Houston Alumni Center
3204 Cullen Blvd. Houston, Texas 77204

Parking: Stadium Garage located at 3874 Holman St, Houston, TX 77004. The dept. will validate the first 30 guest parking tickets. Please enter the stadium garage via the vistior parking entrance, park and walk to the UH Alumni Center. Walking Directions (click the link). There is also parking space in front of the UH Alumni Center (this has a text to pay option).

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Application of Information Theory in the Geosciences

The concept of information is central in geoscience, yet information content is rarely measured rigorously. What in fact is information? How is it measured? How does one compare the amount of information contained in different collections of data? How does one find and assess non-linear or non-quantitative relationships for mis-aligned, categorical, or frequency-dependent information? Historically, geoscientists have somewhat cavalierly used the correlation coefficient and mean-squared error to measure the ability to predict one quantity from another. This despite the well-known inadequacies of these measures.

The classic paper by Shannon in 1948 utilized entropy as a measure of information content (in units such as bits). A variety of related measures such as cross entropy, mutual information, divergence, variation of information, spectral entropy, and channel capacity have been widely used as metrics and measures in communications and more recently machine learning. These quantities remain under-exploited in the geosciences. Advantages of these measures include (1) tolerance of non-constant misalignments (2) ability to differentiate data and information (3) graceful handling of outliers, and (4) quantification of the maximum rate at which information can be transmitted and the maximum data compression that can be achieved. In this talk I will show examples illustrating the use of information theory in a variety of areas such as paleoecology, seismic prospecting, and prediction of rock properties via machine learning.

Presented By

John Castagna

Dr. John P. Castagna

University of Houston

About the Speaker

Schedule of Events

5:30 PM	Student Poster Presentations
6:30 PM	Overview of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at UH Tom Lapen
6:35 PM	Geophysics at UH Yingcai Zheng
6:45 PM	Dobrin Lecture Presentation Donald J. DePaolo
7:45 PM	Student Poster Award Announcements

Join us for hors d'oeuvres and social interaction.
Admission is free.
Please RSVP.

RSVP Here

Judges Needed for Poster Session

We invite interested professionals willing to serve as poster judges to contact Antonius Douglas at aldougl3@central.uh.edu. Judges in the areas of geology, geophysics and atmospheric sciences are encouraged to participate.

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