Former Deputy Director (Retired), Resource Geochemistry

Roger Sassen received a B.A. in chemistry from Hunter College in 1968, and began graduate school at Lehigh University. Following service as a Military Intelligence officer 1969-1972, he obtained the M.S. in 1973 and then the Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Lehigh University in 1975. He joined Texaco's Bellaire Research Laboratory in 1975, was Supervisor of Geochemistry for The Getty Oil Company 1978-1984, and after the merger was Supervisor of Geochemical Research for Texaco. In 1985, Roger Sassen became Director of the Basin Research Institute at Louisiana State University with the rank of Research Professor. From 1989 to 1992, he was Manager of Geochemistry and Global Consultant for BP Exploration.

Sassen came to Texas A&M University in 1992 and retired in 2008. He was Deputy Director of Resource Geosciences at the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG), and adjunct Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Following his retirement, he occasionally works on projects with GERG scientists. Dr. Sassen has more than 200 publications. Research focused on the geology and geochemistry of gas hydrate as a future energy source, on gas and oil seeps on the deep seafloor of the ocean. The Applied Gas Hydrate Research Program (AGHRP) was a long lasting consortium on the geology and geochemistry of gas hydrate. Year 7 of AGHRP was supported by government energy-research agencies in the U.S., Japan, Korea, and India. As a result, Sassen presented influential courses on gas hydrate across the globe. He has dived to the deep sea floor in research submersibles since 1988 (Pisces II, Johnson Sea Link, Deep Submergence Vehicle ALVIN) and spent 6 days cruising at near 1,000 meters water depth in the U.S. Navy NR-1 nuclear submarine in 2003.

Dr. Sassen performed pioneering research on the relationship of climate change to preservation of organic matter in the geologic past, working with rock samples and oils that range in age from Pre-Cambrian to Lower Tertiary. Some of his most important research has been on deeply buried source rocks for gas and oil to include Jurassic carbonate rocks that were deposited ~160 million years ago in the Gulf Coast area and in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Sassen has also managed piston coring and analytical projects for GERG since 1992 in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Adriatic Sea, and most recently offshore Indonesia where gas hydrate was discovered for the first time in 2004. Recent research focuses on the source of crude oil in the Hudson Canyon area of the U.S. Atlantic. Coincidentally, Dr. Sassen was part of the Getty exploration team that drilled the first discovery wells that recovered gas and oil in the U.S. Atlantic 27 years ago.