Prof. Michael A. Arthur Co-Director Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, University Park Professor Arthur is a sedimentary geologist/geochemist who specializes in the sedimentology and biogeochemistry of organic-carbon rich strata--modern and ancient. He is a Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, where he has worked since 1990, and is Co-Director of the Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research at Penn State. He received his Bachelors and Masters Degrees at the University of California, Riverside, and a PhD from Princeton University. He has previously worked with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of South Carolina, and the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the Geological Society of America. Among other awards, he has received the Francis P. Shepard Medal in Marine Geology from the Society of Sedimentary Geology and the Lawrence L. Sloss Medal from the Geological Society of America. His research presently focuses on aspects of the sedimentology, stratigraphy and geochemical characteristics of the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian Basin. His presentation will briefly provide a perspective on the geology, technology and resource potential of this developing play.