Alumnus to speak about Fredonia's role as national energy leader

Alumnus Mark D. Orgren will address the question, “Why Fredonia is the nation’s ‘ground zero’ in the battle for clean, abundant, affordable energy,” in a guest lecture on Monday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. in McEwen Hall Room 202 at SUNY Fredonia.

Mr. Orgren is manager of Geoscience Technology for the Chesapeake Energy Corp., the nation’s largest natural gas producer. His presentation will cover interesting facts about the earth’s geological and atmospheric history, and various suggestions on how people can take action to improve the planet’s future. Fredonia’s role as a national energy leader began as the home of the first U.S. natural gas well, and continues today with research being done by faculty member Dr. Gary Lash and associates on the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposits in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Mr. Orgren graduated from SUNY Fredonia in 1975 with a B.S. in Geology and earned his M.S. in Geology from the University of Oklahoma in 1978. He worked briefly as a field geologist exploring for Uranium with Chevron in 1976, then started as a petroleum exploration geologist for Exxon in 1978. In addition, he worked as a geologist and exploration manager for several large independent oil and gas producers. He co-founded Alliance Energy in 1994 with April Hoefner Orgren, ’76, also a graduate of the geosciences program at SUNY Fredonia. Alliance Energy generated prospects, drilled wells, and taught computer-assisted exploration techniques at locales ranging from Alaska to Abu Dhabi. The couple established the Mark and April Hoefner Orgren Scholarship through the Fredonia College Foundation to benefit geosciences students.

Mr. Orgren’s talk is sponsored by SUNY Fredonia’s new Shale Institute, founded by Dr. Lash.