In late 2024, driven by a shared belief in the power and potential of the next generation, a small team of three SPE members including Susan Howes, 2027 SPE president; Hernan Buijs, SPE Distinguished Member; and Behrooz Fattahi, 2010 SPE president, started working on a new initiative to establish a lecturer program for student and young professional (YP) members worldwide. After a few months of discussion, a proposal was presented to the SPE Board of Directors for approval in mid-2025. The Board endorsed a 3-year pilot program, and a team of SPE volunteer members was assembled to design and implement the program. As a pilot initiative, the program will evolve through experience and feedback from participants, helping shape its development and long-term impact within the Society.
Program Overview
The new program, named “NEXTGEN: Early-Career Lecture Program,” will provide all SPE student and YP members with a new source for developing knowledge and understanding of various leading-edge topics and insights relevant to their careers, available at no charge.
The fully virtual program promotes SPE’s mission to enhance the competence of its global community of students and YPs and to advance their awareness of leading-edge science and innovations that support planning their future career paths. Beyond being a lecture series, the program is designed as an engaging platform where emerging young experts share technical insights, real experiences, and lessons from the early stages of their professional journeys.
Hybrid Learning Potential
The committee has also considered the potential of hybrid (regional supported in-person presentation with global virtual broadcast) of the program. This would need the interests and contributions of local SPE sections. Hybrid implementation of the program is expected to enhance the opportunity of in-person interaction with the audiences and regional awareness of this program. The initiative also aims to strengthen the connection between student engagement and active participation as YPs within SPE, supporting a smoother transition between these stages of membership. In doing so, the program helps cultivate the next generation of technical voices and leaders within the global SPE community.
Program Goals
Our purpose and vision for students and early-career professionals are to support SPE’s mission of education and engagement through creating a new virtual program to
- Build knowledge on cutting-edge industry topics by synthesizing information and providing understanding of how data and information sources can be combined to arrive at knowledge and solutions.
- Expand learning beyond the classroom by inviting early-career lecturers to gain insights and knowledge that go beyond the standard curriculum.
- Inspire and motivate future professionals by hearing from emerging experts in various fields to demonstrate how they think about a subject and inspire them to pursue their own academic and professional goals.
- Foster career alignment and planning by enabling individuals to align their interests and strengths with their career choices and options, leading to their future success.
- Encourage global connection and collaboration by connecting students and YPs with speakers from different backgrounds and regions to promote a sense of global community and collaboration.
- Access rising experts in the field by establishing connections for discussions and exchanging technical opinions.
- Provide exposure to real-world insights and experiences by aligning field observations with classroom theoretical concepts.
- Promote and enhance professional development by helping students and YPs develop a deeper understanding of their chosen fields and the professional opportunities available to them.
- Provide opportunities for stronger engagement with the SPE community by improving retention rate for student members and through a new targeted and specific program encouraging students to seamlessly convert to professional members after graduation.
- Reignite academic enthusiasm by offering learning opportunities outside the classroom that inspire students and enhance their motivation, making their classroom experience more engaging.
Lecturer Selection
Lecturers will be selected from students and YPs who have demonstrated recognized expertise, such as publication of papers, strong performance in student competitions at SPE functions or events, or receipt of honors such as the Cedric K. Ferguson Medal, among others. These early-career lecturers may emerge from universities, research initiatives, technical competitions, and professional communities across the global SPE network. The program aims to highlight high-quality emerging voices within the SPE community, with strong emphasis on technical relevance, clarity of communication, and the potential impact of each lecture.
The selection process will be governed by a committee of experienced SPE professionals, very similar to the process followed by the SPE Distinguished Lecturers Committee. In many ways, the program serves as an early-career complement to the Distinguished Lecturer program, highlighting rising voices within the Society. The Student Development Committee and YP Committee will be properly represented within this committee to guarantee the needs of students and YPs are shared and to provide feedback during the selection process. Selected lecturers will also receive guidance and feedback to help refine their presentations and ensure the lectures are clear, engaging, and accessible to a global audience.
Program Delivery and Access
To ensure the knowledge shared through the program remains accessible and continues to benefit the community beyond each session, the lectures will be recorded and made available to SPE members. All lectures will be virtual in the form of webinars and will require a robust information management strategy. This is essential to support the program objectives, ensuring that information is stored securely and easily accessible by students and YPs. In this regard, we will create a new category and store webinar lectures on the SPE Energy Stream platform to include speaker profiles, lecture materials, and additional sources of information that can be utilized by students and YPs.
This program, like SPE’s Distinguished Lecturers program, is expected to be funded primarily through member donations, contributions from SPE conferences, and support from AIME.
Next Steps
The NEXTGEN: Early-Career Lecture Program represents an important investment in the next generation of energy professionals and reinforces SPE’s commitment to education, engagement, and global community development. The NEXTGEN team requests YPs’ and students’ strong support for this effort, starting from SPE student chapters and sections, to actively support this initiative.
The first lecture will be scheduled for the second half of 2026. If you are interested in presenting your work, you can submit your presentation here or email yp@spe.org.
NEXTGEN Committee Members
Behrooz Fattahi, 2010 SPE President, 2014 AIME President
Susan Howes, 2027 SPE President, Subsurface Consultants & Associates
Hernan Buijs, SPE Distinguished Member, ADNOC
Duaa Ibrahim, 2026 SPE Young Professionals Committee, Proserv
Mahra Nasser, ADNOC
Ehsan Ranaee, 2026 SPE Student Development Committee chairperson, Politecnico di Milano
Mani Bansal, 2026 SPE Young Professionals Committee, Reliance Industries Limited
James Whitaker, senior manager, SPE Young Members Program
