Vikram Rao
Executive Director Research Triangle Energy ConsortiumVikram Rao, SPE, is executive director of the Research Triangle Energy Consortium (www.rtec-rtp.org), a nonprofit group founded by Duke University, North Carolina State University, RTI International, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its mission is to illuminate national energy priorities and, by extension, those of the world, and to catalyze research to address these priorities. Rao advises Energy Ventures AS, BioLargo, Global Energy Talent, Integro Earth Fuels, and a multinational oil company. He retired as senior vice president and chief technology officer of Halliburton in 2008. He also serves on the North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission and chairs the Water and Waste Management Committee.
Rao holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in India, and a master’s degree and doctorate in engineering from Stanford University. He is the author of more than 50 publications and has been awarded 36 US patents and foreign analogs. His book, Shale Gas: The Promise and the Peril, released in 2012, is an informed look at the heated debate regarding hydraulic fracturing for shale gas.
