Each year, the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) honors members whose outstanding contributions to SPE and the petroleum industry merit special distinction during its Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE). Recipients of the 2017 SPE international awards will be recognized at the Annual Reception and Banquet held on Tuesday, 10 October. The 2017 SPE ATCE will be held in San Antonio, Texas.
Honorary Membership
Honorary Membership is conferred on individuals for outstanding service to SPE and/or in recognition of distinguished scientific or engineering achievement in fields encompassed in SPE’s technical scope. Honorary Membership is the highest honor SPE confers upon an individual and is limited to 0.1% of SPE’s total membership.
Akhil Datta-Gupta is a professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University. He worked for BP Exploration and Research from 1986 to 1990 and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1992 to 1994 before joining Texas A&M in 1994. Datta-Gupta was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2012 for “developing the theory and practice of streamline simulation for fluid flow in heterogeneous reservoirs.”
Datta-Gupta received SPE Distinguished Membership in 2001 and several other honors from SPE, including the John Franklin Carll and Lester C. Uren awards. He was named an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 1999–2000, a Distinguished Author in 2000, an outstanding technical editor in 1996, and was awarded the Ferguson certificate in 2000 and 2006. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed technical papers and 4 books, including an SPE textbook. Datta-Gupta holds a PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas.
Anil Kumar is the founder and president of Omak Technologies, which provides petroleum engineering consulting services. He is a pioneer of pressure derivative technology, which has become a significant technology platform in transient well testing. He served as chairman and associate professor of petroleum engineering at the New Mexico Institute of Mining Technology and helped found the institute’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center. Kumar has worked in senior positions at Gulf Oil, Chevron, Mobil, Devon Energy of Indonesia, and Petro China International Jakarta. As a senior vice president at Reliance Industries, he built a 60-member subsurface team for India’s first deepwater development in KG Basin Block-D6. He has published numerous papers, supervised theses, and coauthored several books, including Gas Well Test Analysis Under Water Drive Conditions.
Kumar is a recipient of the SPE Reservoir Engineering award in 1997, the SPE Formation Evaluation award in 2013, and the SPE/AIME Anthony F. Lucas award in 2015. He received SPE Distinguished Membership in 2001 and served as a Distinguished Lecturer in 1995–1996. He has served on the SPE board, the JPT editorial board, and on numerous SPE committees and events boards as chairman, co-chairman, member, and as a keynote speaker. Kumar has presented numerous technical short courses for SPE and PetroSkills.
Kumar holds a BSc with top honors from the Indian School of Mines (now Indian Institute of Technology), an MS from Louisiana State University, and a PhD from Stanford University, all in petroleum engineering.
Robert G. Moore is a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Calgary. A faculty member at the University since 1970, Moore’s teaching primarily involves first- and second-year engineering thermodynamics, and his research interests are predominantly in the area of thermal recovery with an emphasis on air injection processes. He has been the principal of the In Situ Combustion Research Group (ISCRG) since it performed its first combustion tube test in 1974 and was a founding partner in Hycal Energy Research Laboratories (now Weatherford Laboratories) from 1978 to 1992. Based primarily on research performed in the thermal laboratory, Moore has published more than 500 technical reports, journal, and conference papers, and has supervised more than 80 graduate students at the master’s and PhD levels.
Moore is an SPE Distinguished Member, served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2002–2003, and is an SPE IOR Pioneer. Prior to the Canadian Petroleum Society’s amalgamation with SPE, he was chairman of the Calgary Section, a member of the Board of Governors, and a Distinguished Member. Moore holds a BSc and PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Alberta.
Alexander Neyin is CEO of GACMORK Nigeria. He worked at Chevron Nigeria for 28 years before retiring, after which he served briefly at Addax Petroleum Development. Neyin pioneered the first seawater reservoir injection project in Nigeria through a case study of Chevron’s Meren field and led a team of engineers and earth scientists to undertake the first gas utilization study with then-Gulf Oil acreages in Nigeria.
Neyin received SPE Distinguished Membership in 2011 and was chairman of the SPE Nigeria Council’s board of trustees in 2012. He was elected SPE International Board Africa regional director in 2003 and was appointed as chairman of career guidance and student development for SPE from 2002 to 2003. He was elected as chairman of the SPE Nigeria Council from 1998 to 1999 and has authored several technical papers.
Neyin holds a BS in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University and an MS in petroleum engineering from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette.
Dean Oliver is a principal researcher at Uni Research CIPR. He previously served as senior reservoir engineer and staff research scientist at Chevron, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Tulsa, and director of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. He is the coauthor of the book Inverse Theory for Petroleum Reservoir Characterization and History Matching.
Oliver served for 11 years as an associate editor of SPE Journal, 4 years as editor-in-chief of all peer-reviewed SPE journals and, in addition, has served on numerous SPE committees. He received the SPE Distinguished Service award in 2010, SPE Distinguished Membership in 2008, and the SPE Reservoir Description and Dynamics award in 2004. Oliver holds a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College and a PhD in Geophysics from the University of Washington.
Sidney S. Smith Sr. is retired from Conoco and currently serves as an executive director of Urban Outreach, a faith-based nonprofit. He joined Camco in 1958 and coauthored the company’s Gas Lift Manual and became its gas lift technical director and products manager. Smith joined Conoco in 1968 as a gas lift expert in their Production Engineering Services Group. While at Conoco, he worked in several other capacities, including engineering support and supervision, construction, field supervision, and management in Houston, Dubai, and Jakarta, until his retirement in 1993.
In 60 years as an SPE member, Smith has served in numerous leadership roles, including director and chairman of the Gulf Coast and Jakarta Sections and Southeast Asia regional director. He also spent 12 years on the SPE Gulf Coast Section (GCS) Production and Operations Study Group, 20 years in GCS board-level positions, and 7 years in Indonesia Section board-level positions. He received an SPE Distinguished Member award in 1989, the DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal in 1998, Legion of Honor membership in 2007, the SPE Public Service award in 2008, and the Legends of Artificial Lift award in 2016.
Smith holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Dongxiao Zhang is the dean of the College of Engineering, director of the Institute of Ocean Research, and director of the Institute of Clean Energy at Peking University in Beijing, China. Zhang has also worked as a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as a professor at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Southern California. He has authored 2 books and published more than 160 peer-reviewed papers.
Zhang has been an associate editor for SPE Journal, Water Resource Research, Advances in Water Resources, SIAM Multiscale Modeling and Simulation, the Journal of Computational Geosciences, and the Vadose Zone Journal. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Geological Society of America. Zhang holds a master’s degree and a PhD in hydrology and water resources from the University of Arizona.
SPE Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award
The SPE Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes contributions to SPE and the exploration and production (E&P) industry that exhibit such exceptional devotion of time, effort, thought, and action as to set them apart from other contributions.
Amin Nasser is president and CEO of Saudi Aramco and is a member of the company’s board of directors. In more than 30 years with the company, Nasser has served in a number of leadership positions including as senior vice president for upstream. He is a longtime SPE member and has served on the SPE Industry Advisory Council since 2008. In 2015, he received the SPE Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal for distinguished achievement in mining administration, including metallurgy and petroleum. Nasser holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.
Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal
The Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, established in 1936, recognizes achievement in improving the technique and practice of finding and producing petroleum.
Karen Schou Pedersen is the founder and managing director of Calsep, a company specializing in software and consulting services to the oil industry within PVT simulations for petroleum reservoir fluids. An SPE member since 1984, she has served as a committee member for SPE workshops in Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam and is the author of 2 textbooks on phase behavior of petroleum reservoir fluids, as well as more than 50 articles on oil and gas properties. Schou Pedersen holds a BS in financing from the Copenhagen Business School, an MS in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, and a PhD in physical chemistry from the Technical University of Denmark.
John Franklin Carll Award
The John Franklin Carll Award recognizes contributions of technical application and professionalism in petroleum development and recovery.
Mukul Sharma is a professor of petroleum and geosystems engineering at the University of Texas, where he has worked for the past 32 years. He served as chairman of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering from 2001 to 2005. Sharma has published more than 400 journal articles and conference proceedings, and he holds 21 patents. He founded Austin Geotech Services in 1996 and cofounded Layline Petroleum and Karsu Petroleum in 2006. Sharma received the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal in 2009, the Lester C. Uren award in 2002, and the SPE Faculty Distinguished Achievement award in 2004. He served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer. Sharma holds a bachelor of technology degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, as well as an MS and a PhD in chemical and petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California.
DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal
The DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal recognizes distinguished and outstanding service to SPE, to the professions of engineering and/or geology, and to the petroleum industry.
Sameh Macary is a senior petroleum engineer at Dragon Oil. Over the course of more than 35 years, Macary has worked for academic institutions, service companies, and operating companies. He previously worked as a production engineering advisor for Chevron Kazakhstan and as a petroleum engineering advisor for Chevron Australia. He also spent more than 2 years as a consultant to Schlumberger. Macary served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2007–2008 and was named Best SPE Section Chairman in the Russian/Caspian region in 2015. He chaired the SPE Atyrau-Kazakhstan Section from 2012 to 2015 and chaired the technical program of the SPE Caspian Conference and Exhibition in 2014. Macary received the SPE Regional Service Award for Reservoir Description and Dynamics in the Middle East in 2006. He holds a BSc (Hon.) in petroleum engineering from Cairo University, and an MSc and PhD in petroleum engineering from the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University.
Lester C. Uren Award
The Lester C. Uren Award recognizes distinguished achievement in the technology of petroleum engineering by a member who made the contribution before age 45.
Quoc Nguyen is a professor of petroleum and geosystems engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Foundation CMG industrial research chair in reservoir engineering. His most recent research program focused on enhanced oil recovery and hydrocarbon recovery in unconventional reservoirs. He has published more than 140 papers, a book chapter, and he holds 6 patents. In 2016, Nguyen received the SPE Southwestern North America Region Award for Reservoir Description and Dynamics. He has spent 15 years as an SPE technical reviewer. Nguyen holds a BS in chemical engineering from the Vietnam University of Technology, an MS in environmental sciences from Wageningen University, an MBA from Thailand Asian Institute of Technology, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from Delft University.
Robert Earll McConnell Award
The Robert Earll McConnell Award recognizes beneficial service to humanity by engineers through significant contributions that tend to advance a nation’s standard of living or replenish its natural resource base.
Charles R. Williams II is the executive director of the Center for Offshore Safety. He assumed this position following his retirement from Shell, where he worked for 40 years. He began work with Shell as a production engineer but ultimately served 14 years in various vice presidential positions, including vice president of global research and development. At the time of his retirement he was global chief scientist at Shell. Williams has served as chairman of the SPE Artificial Lift Forum and served on the Engineering Professionalism Committee and the Oil and Gas Reserves Committee. He has also been a part of several SPE Special Projects, including Human Factors and Worst Case Discharge. He is a recipient of the SPE Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility Award. Williams holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee.
Charles F. Rand Memorial Award
The Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal recognizes distinguished achievement in mining administration, including metallurgy and petroleum.
Nasir Al-Naimi is the vice president of petroleum engineering and development at Saudi Aramco. He has served the company in various leadership capacities, including executive director of pipelines, distribution, and terminals. In 2012, he was appointed as the vice president of northern area oil operations, overseeing oil and gas fields in the northern part of Saudi Arabia and the Shaybah field in the Empty Quarter. Al-Naimi has served as chairman of the board of directors for the SPE Saudi Arabia section and has served on various executive committees for MEOS, ADIPEC, and IPTC. He holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California.
Public Service Award
The SPE Public Service Award recognizes distinguished public service to a country, state, community, or the public through excellence in leadership, service, or humanitarianism, provided the service is above the requirements of employment.
Saka Matemilola is the chief petroleum engineer at FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development in Lagos, Nigeria. He previously worked with Shell in various roles, including reservoir engineering coach and consultant, hydrocarbon resource management, and development planning. He was involved in the founding and establishment of the Center of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Benin. Matemilola was the 2016–2017 chairman for the SPE Nigeria Council and secretary of the Nigeria Council in 2011–2012. He was chairman of SPE Section 103 Port Harcourt in 2011–2012, leading the section to win SPE’s Most Innovative Section award. Matemilola holds a BSc and MSc in mechanical engineering from the University of Ibadan-Nigeria and a PhD in applied mechanics from the University of Cambridge.
Distinguished Service Award
The SPE Distinguished Service Award recognizes contributions to the society that exhibit such exceptional devotion of time, effort, thought, and action as to set them apart from other contributions.
Colin A. Black is managing director of Carjon-NRG. In his 35-year career, he has worked in offshore drilling, logging, and well testing, serving as operations manager at Petroleum Engineering Services and vice president of Optima. Black joined the SPE Aberdeen Section in 1993 and has helped organize technical programs as well as student career guidance and Energy4me education events in locations such as the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Ghana, Angola, Nigeria, Norway, Australia, and the United Kingdom. He is a member of the SPE Global Energy Information and Energy4me committees, and he served as a director of SPE Europe from 2011 to 2017. He received the SPE North Sea Region Service award in 2010 and 2016. He holds an SVQ Level 5 and an MSc in management from Robert Gordon University.
Maria Angela Capello is an executive advisor for the Kuwait Oil Company, with experience in field development and transformational management strategies. She began her career at Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) as the first female supervisor of geophysical field operations in the country, and she ultimately became an oil asset general manager for PDVSA. She then worked for Halliburton as subsurface practice and operations manager for Latin America and the Middle East. Capello is an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2017–2018 and the associate editor of field development for JPT. She received the SPE Regional Service award in 2014 and Distinguished Membership in 2015. She has authored more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed and industry journals and coauthored the book Learned in the Trenches: Insights on Resilience and Leadership. She holds a degree in physics from Universidad Simon Bolivar and an MS in geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines.
Frédéric Jean-Bernard Guinot is the drilling and completion manager at Geo-Energie Suisse (GES) and a part-time senior production technologist at IS-45. He has 29 years’ experience in drilling and completion activities. Prior to joining GES and IS-45, Guinot worked for Addax Petroleum in a variety of positions, including sand control expert, technical auditor, and production technologist. Previously, he worked for 16 years at Schlumberger. Guinot founded the SPE Swiss Section in 2005 and has been secretary, program chair, and chairman of the section. He is active in the SPE mentoring program for students and young professionals. He has also served for 4 years in the SPE International Standing Committee for membership and received the 2012 SPE Regional Service award for South and Central Europe. Guinot has authored and coauthored 10 technical papers and holds 3 US patents in the field of well completion. He is a graduated mechanical engineer from INSA Lyon.
Anuj Gupta is a team lead for reservoir engineering research at the Aramco Research Center-Houston. In this role, he leads a team of researchers focused on development of unconventional gas reservoirs. Prior to joining Aramco, Gupta served on petroleum engineering faculties at various institutions for 21 years, including the University of Oklahoma, Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla), Louisiana State University, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Petroleum Institute, and Texas A&M University in Qatar. Gupta is a 25-year SPE member, during which he served as a member and chairperson of the committee for the Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty; and a member of the Continuing Education Committee, the Education and Accreditation Committee, and the Engineering Professionalism Committee. Gupta holds a BEng in mechanical engineering from Delhi University and an MS and PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Cedric K. Ferguson Medal
The SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Medal recognizes professional achievement in petroleum engineering. The medal is presented for the paper written by an SPE member age 35 and under at the time the paper was peer-approved. The paper being recognized is titled “Directional-Permeability Assessment in Formations With Complex Pore Geometry With a New Nuclear-Magnetic-Resonance-Based Permeability Model.”
Lu Chi is a research scientist and US representative at iRock Technologies. She has more than 10 years of experience in research and development, with a present focus on digital rock physics, nuclear magnetic resonance petrophysics, and log and core analysis. She has been a technical reviewer for various journals, including SPE Journal and Petrophysics, and the organizer and assistant editor of a special section for SEG interpretation from 2015 to 2017. Lu holds a BS in physics from Peking University, an MS in material science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.
Zoya Heidari is an assistant professor of petroleum and geosystems engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining UT-Austin, she was an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University. She was the founder and director of the Texas A&M joint industry research program on multiscale formation evaluation and unconventional and carbonate reservoirs from 2012 to 2015. She founded and has been the director of the UT-Austin industry-affiliated research program on multiscale rock physics since 2016. An associate editor for the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal, Heidari has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She received the SPE Regional Formation Evaluation award from the Gulf Coast North America and Southwest North America regions in 2016 and the SPE Petroleum Engineering Junior Faculty Research Initiation award. She also received the SPE Innovative Teaching Award in 2015. Heidari holds a PhD in petroleum engineering from UT-Austin.
Young Member Outstanding Service Award
The Young Member Outstanding Service Award recognizes contributions to and leadership in the public and community arenas, as well as SPE, the profession, and the industry, by a member under age 36.
Mohamed Abd El-Rahman has been an SPE volunteer since 2008 through SPE Suez Canal University student chapter, where he has moved between several academic and organizational committees to serve the chapter activities in the university. After his graduation from Suez Canal University, he joined the SPE Egypt Young Professionals as a student chapter liaison and Energy4me team member, after which he became technical manager for the SPE Egypt Young Professionals and, ultimately, was elected vice-chairperson of the chapter for 2015–2016. In 2015, he received the SPE Regional Young Member Outstanding Service award for the Middle East region. El‑Rahman was appointed as a judge in the SPE Student Chapter Award and Section Award Committee. He holds a BSc in petroleum engineering from Suez Canal University and is currently enrolled in Cairo University for a master’s degree.
Ali Alkhatib is currently working with the production planning division in the Upstream Development Strategy and Reserves Department at Saudi Aramco. He previously worked for Saudi Aramco in a variety of roles, including petroleum engineer in reservoir management, researcher at the Advanced Research Center, and coordinator of Saudi Aramco’s Young Leaders Advisory Board in corporate planning. Alkhatib has authored or coauthored 26 technical publications, including 7 peer-reviewed publications. He chaired the 2016 Saudi Arabia SPE Annual Technical Symposium and Exhibition event courses and workshops committee, and he served as an organizing member of Saudi Aramco’s participation at the 2016 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. Alkhatib holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with management from the University of Edinburgh, and a master’s and PhD in petroleum engineering from Imperial College London.
Alexey Borisenko is a senior technical sales support engineer at Schlumberger. He has worked with the company for more than 10 years, previously serving as a fluid technical engineer specializing in fracturing for Russia and Central Asia, and in cementing for North America. Borisenko was a secretary and president of the SPE Student Chapter, and later a program chair and chairperson of the SPE Tyumen Section, leading it to the 2014 SPE International Award for Outstanding Student Support, the 2015 SPE International Award for Innovation, and the 2016 and 2017 SPE President’s Awards for Section Excellence. He was a jury member of the Student Paper Contest at the SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference and Exhibition. He received the 2015 SPE Russian and the Caspian Region Service Award. Borisenko holds a degree in petroleum engineering from the Tyumen State Oil and Gas University.
Pringle Egbe is a petroleum software engineer at CypherCrescent and serves as the 2016–2017 Internet chairperson for the SPE Port Harcourt Section. He developed four activities for SPE: Science Fair, Energy4Me “Train the Trainer,” One Man One Energy4Me, and industry problem solving short courses. His short course activities have generated more than USD 15,000 in the past 3 years for the Port Harcourt Section and have had more than 80 participants from multinational corporations, international oil companies, oil services firms, and universities. Egbe holds an MSc in oil and gas computing from Robert Gordon University and a BEng in electrical/electronic engineering from the University of Port Harcourt, as well as an innovative diploma in petroleum geoscience from the Laser Geoscience School in Port Harcourt and a diploma in scientific programming from the Integral Computing and Research Center in Port Harcourt.
Augustina Ovuema is a production technologist in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, as well as a registered engineer with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria. She is a member of the Center for Research and Innovation at the university and is a supporting lecturer in drilling courses, maintenance, and calibration of equipment/apparatus, and is involved in the planning of field trips. From 2013 to 2014, Ovuema served as student affairs liaison officer for SPE Warri Nigeria Section and as a member of the planning committee of the SPE Nigeria Council. She also served on the council’s Young Professional Planning Committee as a volunteer in 2014. In 2015 and 2016 she was on the committee for planning and executing the SPE Student Technical Conference and Exhibition. She was appointed the Young Professional chairperson for the Warri Nigeria Section for 2016–2017 and as a co-chairperson of the SPE Nigeria Council Young Professional committee. She holds an ND and an HND in petroleum engineering and geosciences from the Petroleum Training Institute, a BEng in petroleum and gas engineering and an MSc in production in operations from the University of Port Harcourt.
Babatunde Yusuf is a project engineer with Nalcor Energy, having recently transitioned to the position after 5 years as a reservoir engineer. An SPE member for 14 years, he has made extensive contributions to SPE at the sectional, regional, and international levels. He was a session chair for the 2015 SPE Deepwater and Harsh Environment Workshop in St. John’s, a committee member of 2017 SPE Production Optimization and Forecasting Workshop in Calgary, and he will chair one of the sessions during the 2017 SPE Well Integrity Life Cycle Management for Subsea Field Developments Workshop in St. John’s. He founded the Young Professionals Committee for the SPE Atlantic Canada Section, where he served as the pioneer Young Professional Chair. Yusuf is currently the chairperson for the Atlantic Canada section. He received the Canadian Region Young Member Outstanding Service Award in 2015 and is also a recipient of the 2017 Canadian Region Service Award. He earned a BEng in petroleum engineering from University of Benin and an MEng in oil and gas engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty
This award recognizes superior teaching, excellence in research, significant contributions to the petroleum engineering profession, and/or special effectiveness in advising and guiding students.
Ramona Graves is the dean of the College of Earth Resource Sciences and Engineering and a professor of petroleum engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. She has an extensive background in multidisciplinary reservoir characterization, rock mechanics, environmental issues in petroleum development and production, and high-power laser-rock-fluid interaction. Graves received SPE Distinguished Membership in 2009 and began a 3-year term as SPE Director for Academia in 2017. She is a member of the SPE Academic Advisory Committee and the SPE Research and Development Committee. She also served on the SPE International Nominating Committee for president and board members and the SPE Education and Accreditation Committee. Graves holds a BS in math and physics from Kearney State College and a PhD in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
SPE Technical Awards
These awards recognize outstanding achievement or contributions to the advancement of petroleum engineering in the areas of the technical disciplines.
Completions Optimization and Technology Award
D.V. Satya Gupta is a Baker Hughes, a GE Company, Technology Fellow and previously served as business director of technology for pressure pumping. He has more than 38 years’ experience in oilfield chemical product development and applications, and he has helped develop several technologies including encapsulated breakers, polymer-specific enzyme breakers, and ultralightweight proppants. He has coauthored chapters on fracturing fluids in the book Modern Fracturing as well as the SPE monograph on hydraulic fracturing and 70 published papers. He is on the SPE editorial board and an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2014–2015. Gupta was a member of the 2012 SPE Forum Series in Europe Committee (“Advanced Chemicals and Fluids for the Oilfield”), received SPE Gulf Coast Section Volunteer of the Month honors in April 2013, and co-chaired the 2017 SPE Forum on waterless fracturing. He holds a doctor of science degree in chemical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
Drilling Engineering Award
Eric van Oort is a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He previously worked at Royal Dutch Shell in a variety of senior technical and managerial roles over a 20-year period, including research scientist; deepwater drilling advisor on fluids and cement; and manager of unconventional well technology associated with drilling automation, improved hydraulic fracturing, and water management. He is a co-principal investigator of the Offshore Energy Safety Institute (OESI) and cofounded two startup companies: Genesis RTS and R5 Automation. He is also the CEO of EVO Energy Consulting. At UT-Austin, van Oort is the director of the Rig Automation Performance Improvement in Drilling (RAPID) consortium. He received the SPE Drilling and Completions Best Paper award in 1996 and was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 1996–1997. Van Oort holds a BS in chemistry and an MS and PhD in chemical physics, all from the University of Amsterdam.
Formation Evaluation Award
Mark Proett is a senior petroleum engineering consultant for Aramco Services Company, Upstream Group. Prior to joining Aramco 4 years ago, Proett worked at Halliburton for 33 years, holding various roles in technology including global technical advisor for formation testing and sampling. He is best known for his publications advocating the viability of formation-testing-while-drilling, which was introduced in 2002. He is also known for developing new methods of pressure transient analysis, such as the oval probe and focused sampling that improve sample quality while reducing rig time. Proett is a former chair of the SPE Pressure Transient Testing Committee. He has also served on the SPE Reservoir Description and Dynamics Committee and on numerous SPE Advanced Technology Workshops throughout his career. He was designated an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2006–2007 and 2017–2018. In 2013, he received the SPE Gulf Regional Formation Evaluation award. Proett holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland and an MS from Johns Hopkins University.
Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility Award
J. Jack Hinton is the chief health, safety, and environment (HSE) officer of Baker Hughes, a GE Company. Prior to joining the company in 2005, he spent 2 years as a dean and professor at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Re-search. Hinton previously spent 26 years at Texaco serving in leadership roles that included director of environment, health, and safety, and vice president of international petroleum. Hinton started his career as a field engineer with Procon, a subsidiary of Universal Oil Products, building a vacuum pipe still at the Texas City Refinery. He currently serves on the SPE HSSE-SR Advisory Committee and was a member of the SPE International HSE Conference Executive and Program Committees in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017. He co-chaired the 2014 SPE International HSE Conference Management Committee and has been actively affiliated with the committee and the conference since 1998. He holds a BS in biology and chemistry from Trevecca Nazarene University, an MS in environmental sciences and a doctorate in occupational health from UT-Austin.
Management and Information Award
Reidar Bratvold is a professor of investment and decision analysis at the University of Stavanger and the Norwegian Institute of Technology. His research interests include decision analysis, project valuation, portfolio analysis, real-option valuation, and behavioral challenges in decision making. Prior to joining academia, Bratvold spent 15 years in the industry in various technical and management roles. He is a coauthor of the SPE book Making Good Decisions and has served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on three occasions. He is the executive editor for the SPE Economics and Management Journal. Bratvold holds a PhD in petroleum engineering and an MSc in mathematics, both from Stanford University, an MSc in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa, and has business and management science education from INSEAD and Stanford University.
Production and Operations Award
Kenneth Sorbie is a professor for the Institute of Petroleum Engineering at Heriot-Watt University. He has worked in oil-related research for more than 37 years, first with the Department of Energy (now DECC) Laboratory at AEE Winfrith and, since 1988, at Heriot-Watt. His current research focuses on the fundamentals of multiphase flow through porous media; oilfield chemistry, particularly mineral scale formation and control; and enhanced oil recovery both by gas injection and chemical methods. Sorbie was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2000–2001 and received the SPE Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) Pioneer Award in 2008. He holds a first degree in chemistry from Strathclyde University and a PhD in theoretical chemistry and applied mathematics from the University of Sussex.
Projects, Facilities, and Construction Award
Jean-François Saint-Marcoux is an industry consultant. He spent 40 years working in engineering and engineering management, with a specialty in flow assurance and hydrodynamics, contributing to the design of deepwater riser systems. After 2 years with Cameron as a wellhead engineer, he joined ETPM first as a topsides project engineer and later as manager of engineering. He chaired numerous in-house project expert committees, including Total Girassol, Pazflor and CLOV, ExxonMobil Ehra, Shell Bonga, BP Greater Plutonio, and Petrobras Guara Sapihnoa. Saint-Marcoux has served as a member of the board of SPE-France and a member of the OTC programming committee. He holds an ingénieur degree from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Caltech, and a docteur-ingénieur degree in physical oceanography from UPMC Sorbonne Universités.
Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award
Tayfun Babadagli is a professor of civil and environmental engineering for the School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Alberta, where he holds an NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery. Babadagli previously served on the faculty at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey and Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. He was an executive editor for the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering journal from 2010 to 2013 and was named an SPE Distinguished Member in 2013. Babadagli currently serves on the JPT editorial board. He received SPE Outstanding Technical Editor awards in 2002 and 2008, and Outstanding Service award in 2010, and SPE’s “A Peer Apart” award in 2013. He holds BS and MS degrees from Istanbul Technical University and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Southern California, all in petroleum engineering.
Distinguished Members
SPE Distinguished Membership recognizes SPE members whose achievements and/or service to the society are deemed worthy of special recognition. SPE members become Distinguished Members once they become a past president of SPE or the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; an SPE Honorary Member; a recipient of the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, John Franklin Carll Award, Lester C. Uren Award, Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medial, Robert Earll McConnell Award, DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, Public Service Award, or Distinguished Service Award; or if they are elected by the SPE Board of Directors.
Sidqi Abu-khamsin, King Fahd University, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Nabeel Al-afaleg, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Matthew Balhoff, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Jose Bashbush, National University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
Colin Black, Carjon NRG Ltd., Inverurie, UK
John de Wardt, De Wardt and Company, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA
Effiom Edet, Baba Energy Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria
Steve Flew, Petrofac Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Barrett Hanson, Sproule, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Mehdi Matt Honarpour, BHP Billiton, Houston, Texas, USA
Frédéric J. Guinot, Geo-Energie Suisse AG, Zürich, Switzerland
Anuj Gupta, Saudi Aramco, Katy, Texas, USA
Hui-hai Liu, Aramco Research Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Sameh M. Macary, Dragon Oil Ltd,, Perth, Western Australia
Saka Matemilola, First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company, Lagos, Nigeria
Rustom Mody, BHGE, Houston, Texas, USA
Nobuo Morita, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
Quoc Nguyen, Universtiy of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Okurerie Ogedegbe, Shell Petroleum Development Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Sara Ortwein, XTO Energy, Ft. Worth, Texas
Donald Paul, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Teri Reed, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Karen Schou Pedersen, Calsep A/S, Lyngby, Denmark
Sidhartha Sur, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Ahmedabad, India
Ruud Weijermars, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
Charles R. Williams II, Center for Offshore Safety, Cypress, Texas, USA
Dongxiao Zhang, Peking University, Beijing City, China
Murtaza Ziauddin, Schlumberger, Sugar Land, Texas, USA
