Meet the New Graduate Student Class
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September 25, 2013
This fall, UT PGE welcomes a talented class of almost 200 graduate students. These incoming scholars are a diverse group with ranging research interests and specialties.
Students received a record $400,000 in fellowships and more than $278,000 in teaching assistant stipends, totaling a 97 percent rate of student support. Based on their test scores and different backgrounds, this class of students is skilled and highly motivated to make an impact in the petroleum engineering field. Meet three of these newly minted UT PGE graduate students: one is a master’s candidate with an ear for music, while the other two are twin brother PhD candidates.
Eva Vinegar, MS
Advisor: Dr. Carlos Torres Verdin
Although born and raised in the oil and gas mecca of Houston, Texas, Eva Vinegar started her journey to petroleum engineering with another love: music.
As an accomplished violist, Vinegar attended a performing arts high school in her hometown. After concentrating on her music studies in Houston, she shifted to studying physics at Columbia University, where she graduated in May 2013.
Vinegar’s research here at UT PGE will center on formation evaluation, although the exact topic will be determined later in the year. She would like to conduct a combination of experimental work and well-log interpretation.
How did you become interested in petroleum engineering and UT?
My father and my great-uncle are both in the industry—growing up, they were some of the most brilliant people I knew. They would say, “Oil is what keeps the world going!” I was always impressed by math and sciences as well, and I wanted to do something that directly impacted people’s lives.
I think the faculty members in our department are really excellent. They seem to have extremely solid research capabilities, and all are intelligent and willing to help out.
What are your interests outside of engineering?
I’ve recently joined the Austin Fit running group (Vinegar will be running the Austin Half-Marathon in February). I enjoy hiking, meeting new people, and exploring Austin, which I believe is perfect for the student experience. In addition, I would also like to participate in some kind of chamber music group playing the viola — for me, music enhances the creativity needed to solve difficult problems, which translates to engineering.
What are your future plans?
I’m looking forward to building my research skills through the master’s program. After that, I would like to get into the industry and make my mark. I’m interested in petrophysics, formation evaluation, and possibly reservoir engineering, but I need to delve into all the petroleum engineering areas before I can say for sure.
Sanjay & Ramesh Yerramilli, PhD
Advisors: Dr. Quoc Nguyen (Ramesh), Dr. Steven Bryant (Sanjay)
It’s safe to say that Sanjay and Ramesh Yeramilli are already world travelers.
For starters, the twin brothers are from Hyderabad, the largest city and capital of Andhra Pradesh, a southern state of India. After each completing their undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in India, they relocated to the Netherlands to attend Delft University of Technology, where they received their master’s degree, also in petroleum engineering.
This fall, as they begin the PhD program at UT Austin, the brothers look forward to their upcoming research and all that UT PGE and Austin has to offer.
What are you looking forward to at UT PGE?
Ramesh: We’re excited that our research interests—shale oil, unconventional resources, reservoir engineering—coincide with what is offered at UT PGE. Also, the program is recognized nationally and globally; this is part of the reason why we chose UT.
Sanjay: We have the flexibility [here] to choose among certain topics, if we are interested in a particular area.
What does it mean to you to attend UT together?
Sanjay: Apart from the academic support we can provide each other, it makes a lot of economic sense to be in the same program. We help each other cook and afford living expenses.
Ramesh: Sometimes it is convenient. Recently, BP and Chevron were hosting lectures on the same day, so I went to Chevron’s lecture and Sanjay went to the BP lecture.
What are your interests outside of engineering?
Ramesh: We don’t have a lot of free time—we study for most of it!
Sanjay: We usually talk to our parents on Skype, and otherwise we listen to music. We like Indian music, but we also like some classics, like the Beatles!
What are your future plans?
Ramesh: We want to work in the United States in industry after our PhD program.
Sanjay: Depending on the jobs that we each get, we’re open to moving to different places. We can’t say that we’ll necessarily find jobs in the same place as one another.
