The Way Ahead is pleased to announce the addition of 12 new members to its TWA Editorial Board.
Comprising SPE young professionals, these dedicated volunteers play a crucial role in crafting articles or collaborating with energy industry experts worldwide to source insightful material.
TWA’s editorial focus spans a diverse array of topics, including interviews with subject-matter experts, technical topics, emerging oilfield technologies, and what’s next in energy.
Ahmed Gowida, PhD, is a petroleum engineer whose research focuses on drilling engineering, machine learning, well integrity, and sustainable well-construction technologies. He has published more than 35 peer-reviewed papers and holds multiple patents in intelligent drilling systems and drilling-fluid technologies. An active member of SPE, he contributes as a reviewer, mentor, and volunteer, serving on regional and international committees and supporting technical events and professional development programs. His contributions have been recognized with multiple SPE awards.
Ashwith Kyatham is a senior reservoir engineer at ONGC with expertise in reservoir management, deepwater field development, production optimization, and enhanced oil recovery. Over the past 8 years, he has gained experience across the oilfield life cycle, from revitalizing mature onshore assets to contributing to ONGC's first large-scale deepwater subsea field monetization. An enthusiast for professional development, he served as secretary of the SPE Pandit Deendayal Energy University Student Chapter (2017–2018), leading the chapter to receive the SPE Outstanding Student Chapter Award. Beyond his professional pursuits, he is passionate about photography and enjoys capturing landscapes, travel, and everyday moments through his lens.
Dimitrios Voulanas is a petroleum engineering PhD candidate at Texas A&M University developing physics-guided, data-driven methods for forecasting, optimization, and decision-making in CO2 storage, geothermal energy, enhanced oil recovery, and subsurface gas storage. In 2026, he was selected as a Texas A&M Chevron Energy Graduate Fellow, TEX-E Fellow, and OpenMinds NextGen participant. He previously served for 1 year as vice president of the SPE New Mexico Tech Student Chapter and, since May 2025, has supported the SPE Texas A&M Student Chapter through volunteer and technical activities. He holds master’s degrees in petroleum engineering and environmental hydrogeology.
Inusa Rabiu Isah is a field operations trainee at First Otakikpo Midstream Ltd., Nigeria, and founder of AspireNet Africa. His experience spans upstream field operations, gas processing, reservoir engineering, and digital oilfield projects through his current role, internships with NNPC Exploration and Production Ltd., CypherCrescent’s Petroleum Engineering Academy, and involvement in the PFMC/NEPL Digital Oilfield Project. An active SPE volunteer, he served as the 2025 president of the SPE Bayero University Student Chapter. He graduated with First Class Honors in petroleum engineering from Bayero University, Kano.
Iskandar Ghorbel is a junior field engineer at Mazarine Energy Tunisia BV with experience in well intervention, HSE management, and oilfield operations. He began his career as a junior instructor at an OPITO-certified BOSIET center, then moved into process safety at SEREPT. In 2025, he coauthored an SPE paper about FishSight AI, which was presented at ADIPEC and published on OnePetro. An active SPE volunteer since 2020, he has represented Tunisia at international conferences and leadership programs, earning several IEEE awards for his industry contributions. He holds a degree in petroleum engineering with a focus on safety and integrity.
Issac Sujay Jayachandran recently graduated with a PhD in geology from Texas A&M University, where he specialized in applying computer vision and artificial intelligence to geological images to drive reservoir insights. He is passionate about bridging the qualitative-quantitative gaps between geoscientists and petroleum engineers. To that end, he has developed multiple coding and computer vision workshops for geoscientists in industry and academia and won first place in the SPE PhD Paper Contest in the Middle East, followed by the global division in 2025. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in petroleum geosciences from Khalifa University.
Kseniia Zhukova is a petroleum engineer with international experience across both onshore and offshore production operations. She works at Harbour Energy, where she combines her operational background with a strong interest in digitalization, contributing to projects that support safety and performance improvements. Beyond the technical role, she is an active SPE member, currently serving as the SPE German Section Young Professionals Chairperson and as a member of the Production and Operations Subcommittee for ATCE. She values cross-cultural collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking within the industry. She holds a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from Leoben Montanuniversität in Austria.
Michal Ezeh is a project assistant at the Energy & Environment Competence Center, AHK Nigeria, where she supports the implementation of energy projects and research. Her technical interests include reservoir engineering, machine learning (ML) applications in energy, and carbon management. She has coauthored research on ML for enhanced oil recovery and production optimization and is actively involved in advancing technical excellence through SPE. Ezeh currently serves as the technical team lead for the SPE Lagos Section Young Professionals. She is passionate about applying data-driven technologies to solve real-world energy challenges and advance sustainable energy solutions. She is a recipient of the African Energy Chamber Energy Education Scholarship, the SPE Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition 2nd Best E-Poster Award, and the SPE Lagos Section Girl in STEM Leadership Award. She holds a bachelor's degree in petroleum and gas engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Mustajab “MJ” Safarov is a client success engineer at PrePad, where he develops and maintains computational data pipelines, analytical tools, simulation workflows, and validation systems supporting a software platform for hydraulic fracturing planning and operations. His work transforms high-frequency operational data into engineering analyses that support completion-performance evaluation, operational efficiency, cost analysis, and technical decision-making. He has authored peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings in computational thermodynamics, phase behavior, reservoir simulation, and carbon storage. Safarov has received numerous awards for academic excellence, research achievement, exceptional teaching, and outstanding leadership, among which are the University of Alberta Centenary Graduate Award, the Jacob H. Masliyah Graduate Award in Oil Sands Engineering, the Donald Lougheed Engineering Graduate Scholarship, graduate student teaching awards, and the SPE Calgary Section Scholarship. He previously served as president of the SPE University of Alberta Student Chapter. He is passionate about advancing engineering through computation, data, and technical education. Outside of work, he enjoys applied mathematics, chess, language learning, calisthenics, and reading. He holds an MSc in petroleum engineering from the University of Alberta and is an engineer-in-training with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta.
Parag H. Bhoraniya is a well-engineering professional at Shell, supporting global assets across the well life cycle, including well planning, drilling, completions, well integrity, interventions, abandonment, production optimization, and energy-transition initiatives. His work focuses on delivering engineering solutions, supporting operational decision-making, managing critical well data, conducting integrity assessments, and enabling safe and efficient well operations. He has also contributed to CCUS-related evaluations, expanding his expertise in emerging energy technologies. Beyond his professional role, he is an active volunteer within SPE, serving in leadership, mentoring, technical, and knowledge-sharing roles. He currently contributes as the Asia Pacific representative on the SPE Young Professionals Committee and actively supports industry development through lectures, workshops, mentoring, judging, and outreach initiatives worldwide.
Promise Longe is a PhD student in petroleum engineering at The University of Kansas and an active researcher in the Tertiary Oil Recovery Program group. His research focuses on CO2-EOR, carbon sequestration, geothermal energy, and hydrogen storage. Longe has experience in field-scale optimization of CO2-EOR projects, micro-continuum modeling of coupled thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical processes, fracture modeling, and the development of proxy models and digital twins for subsurface energy systems. He has authored and coauthored over 15 technical papers, and he has presented at several international conferences. Before joining academia, he worked with the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources, CypherCrescent, and Laser Engineering in Nigeria. He has been an active member of SPE since 2016 and currently represents the SPE University of Kansas Student Chapter as a PetroBowl team member. In 2023 and 2025, he was awarded the SPE Egbert Imomoh Scholarship. He holds a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from The University of Kansas and a bachelor's degree from the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Nigeria. He is passionate about innovation in sustainable energy, mentoring young professionals, and effective science communication.
Shubham B. Patel is a reservoir engineer at ExxonMobil with interests in integrated reservoir management, reservoir surveillance, production optimization, and reservoir simulation. His work includes integrating subsurface and production data to support reservoir characterization, optimize field performance, evaluate development opportunities, and enable data-driven reservoir management decisions. Beyond his technical role, he is an active volunteer with SPE, serving as the 2025–2028 communications chair for the SPE Integrated Reservoir Management Technical Section. He also contributes as a scholarship reviewer and a judge for SPE student paper contests, section awards, and student chapter awards. He is passionate about collaboration, mentoring, and advancing reservoir engineering through shared learning and innovation.