Thomas K. Bjorklund, a petroleum geologist whose career spanned California, Houston and Denver—and who concluded his professional journey as a Ph.D. student and research scientist in the University of Houston’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences—died July 2 in Davis, California. He was 87.
Bjorklund had been living near his daughter and her family.
Born in Albion, Nebraska, Bjorklund was raised in Phoenix, where he attended high school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in geology with honors in 1960 from the California Institute of Technology. While at Caltech, he balanced rigorous academic demands by playing on the varsity football team. His undergraduate advisor, Dr. Richard Jahns, later chaired Stanford University’s Department of Applied Geology.
Bjorklund went on to complete a master’s degree in geology with a minor in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962. His thesis— “Structure of the Horse Mountain Anticline, Brewster County, Texas”—was supervised by Dr. William Muehlberger, a fellow Caltech alumnus and football player.
That same year, Bjorklund began a 32-year career in the oil industry with roles at Chevron (1962–66), Shell (1966–78) and Amoco Production Co. (1978–94). His work ranged from exploration in the U.S. West Coast, Rocky Mountains and Midcontinent to international operations in Trinidad, the South China Sea and Pakistan’s Northwest Territories.
Specializing in structural geology, reservoir description, reserve estimation and risk-weighted prospect analysis, Bjorklund also led multidisciplinary teams overseeing drilling operations in diverse geographic settings. At Amoco, he mentored numerous young geoscientists in the early 1990s, including Bill Pelzman, Ron White and Lesli Wood, who remembered him as approachable and generous with his knowledge.
After retiring from industry, Bjorklund joined UH’s Ph.D. program in geology under the guidance of Drs. Kevin Burke and Hua-Wei Zhou, a Caltech-trained geophysicist. His dissertation, “Evolution of the Whittier Fold-Fault System of the Northeastern Los Angeles Basin, California,” combined dense subsurface seismic and well data with tomographic imaging of the lower crust and mantle. His research yielded multiple peer-reviewed publications: Google Scholar profile.
Following his 2002 graduation, Bjorklund served as a research scientist at UH. He was principal investigator for a U.S. Department of Energy-funded project titled “Application of Cutting-Edge 3-D Seismic Attribute Technology to the Assessment of Geological Reservoirs for CO₂ Sequestration.”
Bjorklund is survived by his partner, Rosaria Bulgarella; his children, Kris Borowsky and Eric Bjorklund; and eight grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Dr. Thomas K. Bjorklund Scholarship Fund at Caltech: Make a gift.