SPE/AIME Honorary Membership
Honorary Membership is the highest honor SPE confers upon an individual. It is limited to 0.1% of SPE’s total membership and is conferred on individuals for outstanding service to SPE or in recognition of distinguished scientific or engineering achievement in fields encompassed in SPE’s technical scope.
Olivier Houzé cofounded KAPPA in 1987 and has been its managing director since 1991. Prior to that, he spent 4 years with Flopetrol (Schlumberger) as a well test field and interpretation engineer. He was the original author of Saphir, now the industry standard software in pressure transient analysis.
Houzé is an SPE life member and an Omega member of the SPE Foundation. He was selected as a 2012–2013 SPE Distinguished Lecturer and gave 35 lectures in 25 countries. He served on the SPE International Board of Directors in 2012–2015 as the Technical Director for Reservoir and has since been a member of the Reservoir Advisory committees. He was the recipient of the 2019 Lester C. Uren Award.
Houzé holds a degree in engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique and an MSc in petroleum engineering from Stanford University.
Roland Moreau served 34 years at ExxonMobil where he held the position of safety, security, health, and environment manager for ExxonMobil’s Upstream Research, Gas & Power Marketing, and Upstream Ventures business units until his retirement in 2014. Prior to ExxonMobil, he worked 5 years in the naval nuclear industry.
He currently serves on the board of trustees for the United Engineering Foundation, as well as the vice chair for the National Academies’ Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board. He was the 2018 president of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), and served two terms on the SPE International Board of Directors as vice president of finance from 2015–2018 and as the Technical Director for Health, Safety, Security, Environment & Social Responsibility from 2011–2014. He was recognized with the 2022 Offshore Technology Conference Heritage Award for his leadership in advocating for the gathering and analyzing of safety data and sharing learnings from operations in the Gulf of Mexico to improve industry safety.
Moreau has been automatically elected as an SPE Distinguished Member.
He holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
SPE Distinguished Membership
SPE Distinguished Membership, limited to 1% of SPE professional membership, recognizes SPE members whose achievements and or service to the Society are deemed worthy of special recognition.
Luis Ayala is the William A. Fustos Family Professor in Energy and Mineral Engineering in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He previously served as associate department head for graduate education in the Energy and Mineral Engineering Department.
Ayala serves as executive editor for SPE Journal, is the former editor-in-chief of SPE’s The Way Ahead and has served in numerous other technical journal boards and SPE committees, including the Reservoir Description and Dynamics Advisory Committee, Book Development Committee, and Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition technical committees.
He has received several SPE Outstanding Technical Editor awards, as well as the SPE Eastern North America Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award.
Ayala holds degrees in chemical engineering and petroleum engineering from Universidad de Oriente and MS and PhD degrees in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Penn State.
Y. Doreen Chin is president and founder of Yunka Energy LLC. Previously, she was assistant professor of thermal energy engineering at Beijing Technology University, project discipline (flow assurance engineering) team lead at Shell International E&P, surface engineering discipline advisor at Shell Oil Company, and senior vice president and partner at Subsea Engineering Technologies LLC.
Chin is currently a member of the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Board of Directors, a member of the Engineering Leadership Board of Cullen College of Engineering, and a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. She was the recipient of the 2020 SPE International Award for Project, Facilities, and Construction (PFC); 2019 SPE Gulf Coast Regional PFC Award; 2014 SPE Outstanding Technical Editor Award; 2013 ASME Dedicated Service Award; 2011 and 2004 ASME Arthur Lubinski OTC Best Paper Award; and 2001 ASME Eugene W. Jacobson Best Paper Award.
She has published more than 50 technical papers in international journals and conferences and a technical book about heat exchangers.
Chin holds a BSc in thermal engineering from Northern China University of Energy, an MSc in thermophysics from Tianjin University, and a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston.
Xudong Jing is an independent consultant and visiting professor in petroleum engineering at Imperial College London. He recently retired from Shell where he spent more than 20 years in various technical and leadership roles across the globe. He served as Shell’s global general manager for IOR/EOR (including subsurface aspects of CCUS) and was the founding manager of Shell Technology Oman. Prior to joining Shell, Jing was a lecturer/reader in petroleum engineering at Imperial College London.
His volunteer roles with SPE include recently serving as an executive committee member for the Oman Petroleum and Energy Show and the SPE International Hydraulic Fracturing Technical Conference and Exhibition. He was previously director of the SPE Northern China International Section, cofounder of the SPE EOR Conference at Oil and Gas West Asia, and an Outstanding Technical Editor for SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering. He has published over 100 papers in petroleum engineering and geosciences and coauthored two books.
Jing holds a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from Imperial College London, a BSc degree in petroleum engineering from China University of Petroleum, and a certificate from INSEAD’s global leadership program.
Cam Matthews is currently a private engineering consultant, following a career of nearly 40 years in applied research and technology development with C-FER Technologies. His work encompassed a wide range of analytical, laboratory, and field investigations to assist clients globally in developing new drilling, completion, and production equipment or enhancing the productivity, reliability, and safety of their oil and gas operations.
Matthews has served in many SPE leadership and committee roles at the international, regional, and section levels including: SPE Regional Director for Canada on the SPE International Board of Directors (2016–2018); chairman and past chair of the SPE Canada Board (2019–2020); R&D Committee Board member (2010–2012); JPT Editorial Review Board for heavy oil (2010–2015); and Edmonton Section Chair (1996–2003). He received the Canada Regional Service Award in 2004.
Matthews holds BSc and MSc degrees in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba and University of Alberta, respectively.
Mike Mayerhofer is the director of technology at Liberty Energy. He leads a team of engineers providing big data analytics and engineering solutions to optimize fracture completions in unconventional shale and tight-oil and gas plays. Previously, he worked as the director of the Fracturing Center of Excellence at Pinnacle, a Halliburton Company, and held various engineering positions at Pinnacle Technologies and Union Pacific Resources.
He has worked on various SPE committees and is the recipient of the 2009 Gulf Coast North America Regional Completion Optimization and Technology Award.
He holds a doctorate in petroleum engineering from Mining University Leoben in Austria.
Trey Shaffer is a senior partner with ERM responsible for leading a team of individuals who are focused on delivering a broad suite of environmental, climate, and sustainability services to a portfolio of oil and gas clients.
He was elected to the SPE International Board of Directors as the HSSE-SR Technical Director from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, he was elected as vice chair of the SPE Gulf Coast Section and completed his term as chair in August 2019. In 2010, Shaffer received the SPE Gulf Coast Section North America Region Award for Distinguished Contribution to Petroleum Engineering in the Area of HSSE-SR, and in 2021, he was the recipient of the SPE International Health, Safety, and Environment Award.
Shaffer holds a bachelor of environmental design degree from Texas A&M University.
SPE/AIME Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal
The Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal recognizes achievement in improving techniques and practices of finding and producing petroleum.
Kamy Sepehrnoori is a professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has taught for over 35 years and holds the Texaco Centennial Chair in Petroleum Engineering. His research interests and teaching include computational methods, reservoir simulation, enhanced oil recovery modeling, flow assurance modeling, naturally fractured reservoirs, high-performance computing, CO2 sequestration, and geological hydrogen storage.
He received the SPE Distinguished Membership Award in 2014, SPE Faculty Recruitment Award in 2015, and SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty in 2020. He has published over 700 articles in journals and conference proceedings and coauthored four books.
He holds a BS in mechanical engineering, MS in aerospace engineering, and PhD in petroleum engineering, all from The University of Texas at Austin.
SPE John Franklin Carll Award
The John Franklin Carll Award recognizes contributions of technical application and professionalism in petroleum development and recovery.
Kishore Mohanty is currently the W.A. (Monty) Moncrief Centennial Chair Professor of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). He worked as a research engineer at ARCO Oil & Gas for more than 10 years before joining University of Houston in 1991, where he taught for 18 years and then moved to UT in 2009.
His SPE service includes current committee membership in the Reservoir Technical Discipline Advisory Committee. He was the recipient of the 2007 SPE Distinguished Member Award, 2008 IOR Pioneer award, 2013 SPE/AIME Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, and 2016 SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for a Petroleum Engineering faculty. He has published about 185 peer-reviewed and 130 proceedings papers.
Mohanty holds a B. Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology and a PhD degree from University of Minnesota, both in chemical engineering.
SPE Lester C. Uren Award
The Lester C. Uren Award recognizes distinguished achievement in petroleum engineering technology by a member who made the contribution before age 45.
Matthew T. Balhoff is a professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Bank of America Professorship in Petroleum Engineering. He is also the director of the Center for Subsurface Energy and the Environment.
Balhoff has served SPE as a member and chair of the Education and Accreditation Committee and member of the student paper contest review, North American regional PetroBowl competition, Research and Development Technical Section, and Improved Oil Recovery Conference technical program committees. He was a recipient of the 2012 SPE International Innovative Faculty Teaching Award, 2014 SPE International Young Member Service Award, and became an SPE Distinguished member in 2017.
He holds BS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Louisiana State University.
SPE/AIME DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal
The DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal recognizes distinguished and outstanding service to SPE, to the professions of engineering or geology, and to the petroleum industry.
Helen Chang is the manager of resource analysis and conservation with Indian Oil and Gas Canada (IOGC), where she leads an engineering and geoscience team to manage and regulate oil and gas resources on indigenous lands across Canada. IOGC is a special operating agency for the Government of Canada.
Prior to joining IOGC, Chang was the chief engineer for the Alberta Energy Regulator. She has worked as a reservoir and development engineer for CNOOC International, Talisman Energy, BP Canada, and Shell Canada.
She served as section chair of the Canadian Section, regional director on the SPE International Board of Directors from 2008 to 2010, chair of the SPE Canadian Educational Foundation, 2019 ATCE Executive Advisory Committee, and she is currently the chair of SPE’s Business Management and Leadership Committee. Chang is the recipient of the SPE International Distinguished Service Award, a Distinguished Member, SPE Regional Service Award, Giovanni Paccaloni Young Professional Service Award, and an SPE Century Club member.
Chang holds BSc and MSc degrees in petroleum engineering from the University of Alberta.
SPE 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.
Michael Handren is retired after 40 years in the petroleum industry. His last position prior to retirement was as the San Joaquin Valley operations manager for Freeport-McMoRan Oil and Gas Company in Bakersfield, California. Previously, he held management positions with Petro-Lewis Corporation, Santa Fe Energy Company, Monterey Resources, Texaco E&P, Nuevo Energy Company, and Plains Exploration and Production Company.
He has been a member of SPE since 1977, and although he never held an SPE office, he was active in supporting SPE events including the annual Western Regional Meeting. He received the SPE Western North America Regional Public Service Award in 2020.
Handren has been automatically elected as an SPE Distinguished Member.
He holds a BS in petroleum engineering from Texas Tech University.
SPE Distinguished Service Award
The SPE Distinguished Service Award recognizes exceptional devotion of time, effort, thought, and action to the Society that sets them apart from other contributions.
Ghaithan Al-Muntasheri most recently was the R&D director for Aramco Americas based in Houston. Previously, he was the chief technologist of the production technology team under Saudi Aramco Upstream R&D Organization, EXPEC Advanced Research Center. Al-Muntasheri has been working for Saudi Aramco for the past 20 years.
Al-Muntasheri served as the chairman of the SPE Saudi Arabia Section for the term 2011/2012. He has been recognized by more than 15 awards with the latest being the 2018 SPE Distinguished Membership Award.
He holds BS and MS degrees, both in chemical engineering, from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He also holds a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Attila Szabo worked at Sproule Associates Limited from 2011 to 2021 as senior vice president, North America. Prior to Sproule, he held senior vice president positions at DeGolyer and MacNaughton; was a principal at Outtrim Szabo Associates; and evaluations manager at D&S Petroleum Consulting Group. He began his engineering career at Amoco Canada Petroleum Company Limited.
In his 30-plus years’ service to SPE, he has been on numerous committees with the most recent as a member of the 2021 SPE Canada Regional Awards Nomination Committee, SPE Oil & Gas Reserves Committee (OGRC), a regional presenter (2017–2020), and chairman of the SPE OGRC Best Practices Subcommittee responsible for developing guidance documentation on best practices reporting under the SPE Petroleum Resource Management System (2018–2020).
Szabo has been recognized several times, most recently with the 2020 SPE Canada Regional Service Award. He has also received the Outstanding Leadership & Service Award, SPE Calgary Section 2018-2019; 2004 SPE International Outstanding Volunteer Service Award; and the 1999 Outstanding Service Award from the Petroleum Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum (CIM–now part of SPE).
He has been automatically elected as an SPE Distinguished Member.
Szabo holds a BSc degree in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary.
Robert Woodroof is a member of the leadership team at ProTechnics, the completion diagnostic division of Core Laboratories. Prior to ProTechnics, Woodroof was region technical manager for WCNA.
He served on the SPE Well Completions and SPE Distinguished Lecturer (DL) committees, including as chairman of the DL Committee. Over the years, he served in several roles with the SPE Gulf Coast Section as director, vice chairman, chairman, programs coordinator, and newsletter features editor. He also serves as the Westside Study Group chairman and program chairman.
Woodroof has been recognized by SPE with 2002 and 2003 GCS Service Awards, 2010 Distinguished Member, and 2014 Outstanding Service Award. He also served as a joint chairman of the SPE/API Technical Subcommittee on acid corrosion inhibition.
Woodroof holds a BS in chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin, followed by 2 years of graduate studies.
SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty
This award recognizes superior teaching, excellence in research, significant contributions to the petroleum engineering profession, or special effectiveness in advising and guiding students.
Jennifer Miskimins is a professor and Department Head of the Petroleum Engineering Department at Colorado School of Mines, where she holds the F.H. Mick Merelli/Cimarex Energy Distinguished Department Head Chair.
Miskimins has held numerous positions at the Colorado School of Mines and has also held various positions with Marathon Oil Company and Barree & Associates. She is serving as the 2022 AIME President.
She was awarded the 2014 SPE Completions Optimization and Technology Award. She also is the editor-in-chief for the 2019 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing: Fundamentals and Advancements Monograph, and the current chair of the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition.
Miskimins holds a BS from the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology and MS and PhD degrees from the Colorado School of Mines.
SPE Giovanni Paccaloni Young Professional Service Award
The SPE Giovanni Paccaloni Young Professional Service Award recognizes contributions to and leadership in the public and community arenas and SPE, the profession, and the industry by a member younger than 36.
Emad Al-Shalabi is an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi.
He is an associate editor for both SPE Reservoir Engineering and Evaluation and the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. Al‑Shalabi achieved several SPE educational and research awards including the 2021 International Outstanding Technical Reviewer Award, 202 Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, 2020 Regional Public Service Award, 2020 Regional Service Award, and 2020 Regional Young Member Outstanding Service Award for the Middle East and North Africa Region. Al-Shalabi has authored and coauthored more than 90 scientific journal papers and conference proceedings.
He holds BSc and MSc degrees from The Petroleum Institute (now a part of Khalifa University) in UAE and a PhD degree from The University of Texas at Austin—all in petroleum engineering.
Nihal Mounir Darraj is a researcher at Imperial College London working on a Shell digital rock project. She has more than 8 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, including reservoir geomechanics, drilling waste management, and petroleum engineering consulting.
Darraj is one of the founders and the first chair of the SPE Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She is also the chair of the SPE Young Member Engagement Committee, the co-lead for Gaia natural capital and regenerative processes, the lead content creator for SPE The Way Ahead’s Newsflash, and the chair of the ATCE Digital Energy Subcommittee.
Darraj holds an MSc in petroleum engineering from Imperial College London and a bachelor’s degree in natural gas and petroleum engineering from Alexandria University.
Maria Giulia De Donno is a senior consultant and investor support at Roland Berger, an international management consulting firm specializing in M&A, investment allocation strategies, cost effectiveness, and zero-based budgeting approaches for energy and petrochemical companies.
Giulia co-led the founding of two international initiatives aimed at extending the network of young professionals between SPE sections (the SPE Beyond the Borders in Europe and the SPE YP Congress worldwide) and she won the 2020 Regional Young Professional Member Outstanding Service Award for Europe.
She holds an MSc in civil engineering from Politecnico di Milano, a professional master’s in petroleum engineering from Politecnico di Torino, a diploma of Innovation Management from Alta Scuola Politecnica, and an executive MBA from SDA Bocconi.
Caroline Kannwischer is a SHEQ engineer at Boskalis, working on different projects ranging from harbor expansions or dredging to offshore wind farm construction for the dredging division. She previously was with UK’s Aquaterra Energy. Prior to that, she worked with ENGIE E&P in Germany and with Schlumberger across Europe as a wireline field engineer.
Kannwischer is a member of the Health, Safety, and Environment Award Subcommittee, an officer with the Human Factors Technical Section, and was awarded the 2018 Regional Young Professional Member Outstanding Service Award for the South Central and East Europe Region and the 2020 Regional Health, Safety, and Environment Award for the North Sea Region.
She holds an MSc (Dipl.-Ing.) degree in petroleum/drilling engineering from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and a national diploma in occupational health and safety from NEBOSH.
Chinyere Princess Offor is a surface asset engineer with ExxonMobil with more than 5 years of industry experience spanning petroleum engineering, project management, business development, and contracts and procurement.
She was recognized with the 2021 Africa Regional Young Professional Outstanding Service Award and the 2018 Young Professional Outstanding Service Award from the SPE Lagos Section.
She holds a master’s degree in petroleum engineering and project development from the Institute of Petroleum Studies, Nigeria, and a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Covenant University, Nigeria.
Mistura Yusuf nee Badru is a process engineer (utility operations) with more than 2 years’ experience working with processes in the raw water treatment plant, compressed air and nitrogen generation, reverse osmosis, demineralization plant, and cooling tower at the largest single-train refinery in the world, Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical, Nigeria. She is also the founder of MisstyB’s Educational Foundation where UN Sustainable Development Goals 4, 7, and 17 are its mantra.
She was recognized with the 2016 SPE Lagos Young Professional Outstanding Award, the 2020 A. Adeyemi-Bero Young Professional Award by SPENC, and the 2021 Africa Regional Young Member Outstanding Award.
She is a 2022 academic scholar of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund Scholarship, Nigeria, to pursue a master’s degree in an oil- and gas-related field in Germany. Yusuf holds a BS in chemical and polymer engineering from Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria.
SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Medal
The Cedric K. Ferguson Medal is presented to young professional authors of an SPE peer-approved technical paper who are members of SPE and are 35 or younger on the date of peer approval. Coauthors 36 or older who were SPE members on the date of peer approval receive the Cedric K. Ferguson Certificate. The 2022 medals and certificate are awarded for the paper “Efficient Drilling Sequence Optimization Using Heuristic Priority Functions.”
Zhenzhen Wang is a lead research scientist and simulation engineer at Chevron Technical Center and has been a member of SPE for 11 years.
He has published in various journal articles (including five SPE Journal articles) and over a dozen SPE conference papers and has reviewed more than 80 manuscripts. He is currently serving as an associate content creator of SPE’s The Way Ahead and has served as a guest editor for several journals. He is the recipient of the 2019 Outstanding Technical Reviewer Award from SPE Journal and the 2017 Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing Award from both the Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering and Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. He was recognized as the 2013 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant and is the only recipient of the 2011 Anne C. Wilson Graduate Fellowship at The Pennsylvania State University.
Wang holds a BS degree from China University of Petroleum, Beijing, an MS degree from The Pennsylvania State University, and a PhD from Texas A&M University—all in petroleum engineering.
Jincong He is a staff research scientist and product owner of optimization at Chevron Technology Center.
He has been a member of SPE since 2009 and has served as the associate editor for the SPE Journal since 2014. He received the 2015 SPE Journal Outstanding Technical Editor Award, 2021 SPE A Peer Apart Award, and the 2022 Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers Promising Professional Award.
He holds a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in theoretical and applied mechanics from Peking University, China.
Shusei Tanaka is a senior reservoir engineer at Chevron Technical Center providing technical consulting services as well as research and development support to increase profitability across Chevron’s global oil and gas assets.
As an SPE member since 2007, Shusei founded the first SPE student chapter in Japan and has served as a peer reviewer in the SPE Journal.
He holds BS in environmental engineering and MS in earth science degrees from Waseda University in Japan and a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.
Certificate—Xian-Huan Wen
Xian-Huan Wen is a Chevron Fellow and the chapter manager of reservoir simulation research and optimization in reservoir engineering & simulation discipline at Chevron Technical Center.
Wen has been an SPE member since 1997. He served as a member of the SPE Reservoir Description and Dynamics Advisory Committee and acted as a discussion leader, session chair, or technical committee member in several SPE Applied Technology Workshops/Forums, including Heavy Oil Production Forecasting, Learning From Reservoir Response—History Matching and Production Data Analysis, Merging Data-Driven and Physics-Based Models for Enhanced Reservoir Insights and Predictions, and Understanding the Reservoir Beyond the Wellbore.
Wen holds a PhD degree in water resources engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and a PhD degree in civil engineering from the Technical University of Valencia, Spain. He also holds an MS degree in hydrogeology from China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China, and a BS degree in hydrogeology and engineering geology, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui, China.
SPE Technical Awards
These awards recognize outstanding achievements or contributions to the advancement of petroleum engineering in specific technical disciplines.
Completions Optimization and Technology Award
Paul Huckabee has 42 years’ industry experience and is currently semi-retired and providing consultation through Diagnostic Innovations LLC. He previously held positions of principal wells engineer, completions engineering advisor, for Shell Oil Company, and corporate completions manager for Newfield Exploration.
Huckabee has participated on 44 SPE event committees, including 16 events with a leadership role. He served on the program committees for SPE’s Hydraulic Fracturing Technology conferences for 9 years and SPE’s Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition for 4 years. He has also served on the SPE International Completions Advisory Committee for 5 years.
Huckabee holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University.
Data Science and Engineering Analytics Award
Srikanta Mishra is technical director for geo-energy modeling and analytics at Battelle Memorial Institute. Previously, he was director of geologic waste isolation services at Intera Inc. and an adjunct professor of petroleum engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Currently, he also serves as the technical lead for the US Department of Energy’s SMART Initiative (Science-Informed Machine Learning to Accelerate Real-Time Decisions in Subsurface Applications).
Mishra received the 2021 SPE Distinguished Member Award, and served as an 2018–2019 SPE Distinguished Lecturer on big data analytics. He has also served as a member of the URTeC Technical Program Committee, the SPE Pressure Transient Testing Committee, and the SPE Reservoir Advisory Committee.
Mishra holds a BTech degree from Indian School of Mines, an MS degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD degree from Stanford University—all in petroleum engineering.
Drilling Engineering Award
Eric Cayeux is chief scientist for the drilling and well modeling group at NORCE. After an 18-year career in the industry working with the development of expert system solutions for directional drilling and multidisciplinary well planning applications (geophysics, geology, reservoir engineering, and drilling), he joined NORCE in 2004, where he worked with drilling automation, real-time drilling diagnostics, and drilling simulators.
He leads a multidisciplinary subcommittee of the technical sections SPE Drilling System Automation, Wellbore Positioning, and Drilling Uncertainties and Prediction—which addresses drilling data quality and uncertainty description. He is also a member of the Drilling and Well Interoperability Standards initiative where he leads two of the four work streams.
Cayeux received the 2020 SPE North Sea Regional Drilling Engineering Award.
He holds an MS degree in civil engineering from Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l’Etat, Lyon, France, an MS degree in software engineering from the University of Nice, France, and a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Stavanger, Norway.
Formation Evaluation Award
Quinn R. Passey was the senior formation evaluation consultant for ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company for 33 years until his retirement in 2015.
He has taught AAPG short courses on thin bed evaluation and on unconventional reservoirs and has chaired or co-chaired numerous SPE and SPWLA forums and workshops. He has been an SPWLA Distinguished Speaker several times and has received the 2011 SPWLA Distinguished Technical Achievement Award, the 2011 AAPG EMD Best Paper, 2012 AAPG Distinguished Lecturer for Europe, and the 2015 AAPG Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award.
He holds a BS in geology from Brigham Young University and MS and PhD degrees in planetary science and geology from the California Institute of Technology.
Health, Safety, and Environment Award
Marcin Nazaruk is an industrial psychologist specializing in rapid safety culture transformation that brings business results. He is the lead author of the new IOGP guidance on “Learning From Normal Work” and the associated implementation system to enable organizations to find out where and how the next accident may happen by leveraging modern safety science, digital technology, and proven human performance tools.
Nazaruk divides his efforts between leading the global human performance strategy at Baker Hughes and chairing multiple industry working groups focused on the practical application of human factors, human performance, industrial psychology, and modern safety science.
Production and Operations Award
Eissa Al-Safran is a professor of petroleum engineering and former vice dean for research and academic affairs at the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University. Prior to his academic role, Al-Safran worked as a reservoir engineer and production engineering consultant in Kuwait Oil Company.
He received the SPE 2017 Regional Distinguished Achievement for Petroleum Engineering Faculty Award, the 2019 Regional Production and Operation Award, the 2020 International Distinguished Membership Award, and the 2021 Regional Service Award. Al‑Safran received the 2016 Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Award, TU Thomas C. Frick Outstanding Academic Achievements Award, and others.
He holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering and an MS degree in mathematics and science education, all from TU.
Projects, Facilities, and Construction Award
Ray (Zhenhua) Rui is a distinguished chair professor and associate dean of carbon neutrality future technology at China University of Petroleum, Beijing. He previously was a research scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He serves or has served on numerous SPE committees, including the Projects, Facilities, and Construction Advisory Committee, HSE Advisory Committee, Distinguished Lecturer Committee, and the AIME Hoover Medal Board and AIME Engineering Solutions for Sustainability Committee.
Rui was selected as an SPE Distinguished Member and has received the Distinguished Service Award, Outstanding Technical Editor, A Peer Apart Award, Regional Technical Award, Regional Outstanding Young Member Service Award, and the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
He holds an MS degree in geophysics from the China University of Petroleum and an MS degree in petroleum engineering, an MBA in capital markets, and a PhD in energy and mineral engineering—all from the University of Alaska.
Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award
Christopher R. Clarkson is a professor and the Ovintiv/Shell Chair in Unconventional Gas and Light Oil research in the Department of Geoscience and an adjunct professor with the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary.
Clarkson has been an active SPE member since 2000. He was a 2009–2010 Distinguished Lecturer and served as an associate editor for the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology from 2012 to 2015 and SPE Journal from 2015 to 2020. He has served on numerous conference technical and organization committees for SPE in the past 20 years and received a 2020 A Peer Apart Award for completing more than 100 reviews for SPE’s peer-reviewed journals.
Clarkson is the recipient of the AIME Rossiter W. Raymond Award and ASCE Alfred Noble Prize (2005), 2016 SPE Canada Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, 2018 Calgary Section Technical Excellence and Achievement Award, and 2021 Canada Regional Formation Evaluation Award. He also received the 2017 Alberta Science and Technology Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Applied Technology and Innovation.”
He holds BASc, MASc, and PhD degrees in geological engineering from the University of British Columbia.
Sustainability and Stewardship in the Oil and Gas Industry Award
Flora Moon is the sustainability director for Expressworks, a change management consultancy that helps clients navigate systemic change. She is also the co‑designer of a sustainability investment strategy for Merrill Lynch/Bank of America.
Moon has served on the SPE Sustainable Development Technical Section Steering Committee since 2016 and is one of the cofounders of the SPE Gaia Sustainability Program. She currently co-leads the natural capital and regeneration effort for Gaia. She received the 2020 SPE Gulf Coast Region Sustainability and Stewardship Award and the 2021 Environment and Energy Leaders Award.
She holds a BA in philosophy from the University of Illinois, a certificate in advanced technologies from the American Film institute, and an MBA in sustainability from the San Francisco Institute of Architecture.