Mike Hudec is a senior research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology and directs the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory, an industry-sponsored research consortium studying salt tectonics. He received his doctorate from the University of Wyoming in 1990, and spent the next eight years at Exxon Production Research, where he specialized in salt tectonics, extensional tectonics and seismic interpretation. His current research interests include palinspastic restoration of salt structures, deepwater structural styles and evolution of the Gulf of Mexico Basin.