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Dr. John Foster joins the department this fall as an assistant professor. He has already built an impressive resume, which includes innovative and applicable research, excellent teaching skills and a pilot’s license.

Dr. Carlos Torres-Verdin and his research group were recently awarded the Best Oral Presentation by the 2014 Technology Committee from the The Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts’ (SPWLA) 55^th Annual Symposium held this past May 18-22 in Abu Dhabi.

SPWLA is a nonprofit group dedicated to advancing the science of petrophysics and formation evaluation, and applying these techniques to the exploitation of gas and oil. Operating globally, SPWLA plays a major role in strengthening petrophysical education and providing information to scientists in petroleum industries.

Torres-Verdin’s paper, “Inversion Based Interpretation of LWD Resistivity and Nuclear Measurements: Field Examples of Application to HA/HZ Wells,” was selected out of 70 high quality presentations and posters. Along with the prestige and recognition of the Best Oral Presentation award, recipients are also offered membership to the SPWLA Distinguished Speaker Program.

The presentation of this award will be made during the 2015 Symposium, July 18-22 in Long Beach, Calif.

While at the annual symposium in the Middle East, Torres-Verdin also received the SPWLA 2014 Gold Medal for Technical Achievement Award, a prestigious and international recognition.

The honor is given to an individual who has offered valuable technical contributions to the sciences of petrophysics, well-logging and log interpretation. Torres-Verdin is the youngest person ever to be selected for this award, and he is the first University of Texas at Austin professor to receive it. Torres-Verdin is now among a select group of scientists, who have changed the formation evaluation field, including: H.G. Doll, Monroe Waxman, E.C. Thomas and G.E. Archie.

Dr. Paul Bommer, Chevron Lecturer in Petroleum Engineering and senior lecturer, will receive the 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards, the highest teaching honor bestowed by the University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is one of the nation’s largest monetary teaching recognition programs in higher education.

In total, 27 faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin will receive the award, which honors outstanding performance in the classroom and dedication to innovation in undergraduate instruction.

“Learning is accomplished if the student can be convinced that the material is valuable,” said Bommer. “The best delivery of the material engages the student, normally through the Socratic Method or variations on this notion. The teacher should always present a friendly yet thoroughly knowledgeable personality in order to achieve the best result.”

The recipients will receive a total of $2.4 million from the UT System’s 15 academic and health institutions, with $25,000 awarded to each recipient. They will be honored during a ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 20, at the Shirley Bird Perry Ballroom in the Texas Union at UT Austin.

Bommer will use his $25,000 award to establish an endowed scholarship to support students, called the Dr. and Mrs. Paul M. Bommer Endowed Scholarship in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.

Created in 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards program recognizes educators who deliver the highest quality of instruction in the classroom, the laboratory, the field or online.

Faculty members undergo a series of rigorous evaluations by students, peer faculty members and external reviewers. The review panels consider a range of activities and criteria in their evaluations, including outstanding teaching, mentoring, personal commitment to students and motivating students in the classroom.

“UT Austin places a very high value on classroom teaching,” said UT Austin President Bill Powers. “I am pleased that the UT System is recognizing these 27 individual faculty members for their performance as teachers and their commitment to their students.”

Drs. Jon Olson and Sanjay Srinivasan have been promoted to full professor effective September 2014. Both professors have made a significant impact on enhancing the department’s research, academics and outreach.

The shale gas boom has become a game changer in our nation’s energy landscape. Dr. Mukul Sharma has been conducting research on the topic for more than 10 years – far before hydraulic fracturing became a household name. 

Now in its sixth year, the 10-week SURI program continues to draw some of the brightest students from around the country to work with faculty on significant areas of research related to petroleum engineering.

Four UT PGE faculty members will be awarded 2014 International SPE awards at this year’s Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition (ATCE) in Amsterdam.

Professor Kamy Sepehrnoori, who holds the W.A. (Monty) Moncrief Centennial Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering, and Research Professor Mojdeh Delshad will receive the SPE Distinguished Member award. This award recognizes SPE members who achieve distinction deemed worthy of special recognition and acknowledges members who have attained eminence in the petroleum industry or the academic community, or who have made significant contributions to SPE.

Sepehrnoori is recognized worldwide for his development and application of innovative compositional reservoir simulators for enhanced oil recovery. Mojdeh is the head of the research group for developing the UTCHEM reservoir simulator software, the most accepted numerical reservoir simulator for chemical EOR processes used by many oil companies and universities around the globe.

Associate Professor Matt Balhoff will receive the SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award. This award recognizes contributions to and leadership in public and community matters, the Society, the petroleum engineering profession, or the petroleum industry. Balhoff’s strong service commitment to the department, university and SPE, made him a natural winner in this category.

Professor Mary Wheeler will garner the incredibly prestigious title of SPE Honorary Member. Honorary Membership is the highest honor that SPE presents and is limited to 0.1 percent of the SPE total membership. This elite group represents those individuals who have given outstanding service to SPE or have demonstrated distinguished scientific or engineering achievements in the fields within the technical scope of SPE.

Wheeler is no stranger to prestigious awards for her work in impacting energy production through enhanced oil and gas extraction, air quality with carbon sequestration in saline aquifers, and water quality with environmental remediation in groundwater - last year she was presented the John von Neumann Medal for a Career of Achievements and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Society of Porous Media.

Earlier this year, Drs. Hugh Daigle and David DiCarlo both received SPE Regional awards.

As proof that a degree in petroleum engineering from UT Austin can take you just about anywhere you want to go, UT PGE 2014 graduates Nicci Lee, Pedro Flores, and Cyrus Iqbal are following their bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering down diverging paths.

Assistant Professor Masa Prodanovic received the InterPore Procter & Gamble Award for Porous Media Research at the 6^th International Conference on Porous Media in Milwaukee, Wisc.

The award is given to individuals in recognition of their outstanding contributions to topics related to swelling porous media, very thin porous media, and modelling of interfaces between porous media in the previous three years.

“I’ve referred to the assistant professorship as feeling like a hamster on a treadmill sometimes because you are trying to figure out how to be both a successful researcher and how to direct others in their research, which is a huge jump from just doing research yourself,” Prodanovic said. “With that pressure and all the work involved, it means a lot to get an ‘Okay. Good job.’”

Prodanovic’s extensive research and advancements in the field of flow and transport in porous media, especially within the areas of modeling multiphase interfaces in porous media, multiscale simulation, pore-scale imaging, and modeling of microporosity in carbonates and unconventional reservoirs led her to earn this award.

Prodanovic says this award is even more motivation for her to continue her research.

“Despite the advancements that have been made there are actually a lot of fundamental problems that we don’t completely understand on small, pore scale,” she said. “In the future I hope to make more strides in dynamic integration of small and large scales, which is an outstanding problem.”

Professor and Chair of UT PGE, Dr. Tad Patzek, said in his nomination letter that, in addition to active research, Prodanovic has been extremely effective in InterPore as the main facilitator for the InterPore focus group on pore-scale modeling and visualization and is the organizer and co-instructor for an InterPore-sponsored short course on Image Analysis for Porous Media.

“Dr. Masa Prodanovic has set herself apart as a leader in the porous media community and especially with InterPore,” Patzek said.

Sharon L. Wood has been named the ninth dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. A professor of structural engineering and an expert on the earthquake response of concrete structures, Wood has served as interim dean since October 2013 and will assume the post permanently Sept. 1.

“Through their learning, scholarship and research, Cockrell School engineering students and faculty embody UT Austin’s mission of changing the world. There is no one better qualified to lead them in those endeavors than Sharon Wood,” said UT Austin President Bill Powers.

Wood headed the school’s Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering for five years before becoming interim dean last year. She replaced Gregory L. Fenves, who had served as dean for five years before being named the university’s provost.

In 2013, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Wood’s appointment comes as the school is building the Engineering Education and Research Center, which will transform undergraduate engineering education at UT Austin and provide new space for interdisciplinary teaching, research and hands-on student projects. With 270 faculty members, more than 7,500 students and annual research expenditures exceeding $150 million, the Cockrell School is ranked as the 10th best engineering school in the nation, and best in Texas, by U.S. News and World Report.

“I am thrilled to be selected as the next dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering, and I am honored to lead our community of world-class faculty and students,” said Wood. “It is an exciting time for the school. When completed, our new Engineering Education and Research Center will transform how our students learn and will establish UT Austin as a leader in multidisciplinary engineering education and research.”

Wood received her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Virginia and her master’s degree and doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also served on the faculty for 10 years. She joined the Cockrell School faculty in 1996.

She is nationally recognized for her research on the earthquake response of reinforced concrete structures. She currently serves as vice president of the American Concrete Institute and has served on federal advisory committees for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program and the U.S. Geological Survey. She is also former director of the Cockrell School’s Phil M. Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory, one of the nation’s leading research centers in the large-scale study of the behavior of bridges, buildings and structural components.

Wood was selected through a national search to fill the position.

“As a professor, department chair and interim dean, Sharon Wood has played a significant role in the Cockrell School’s national success in teaching and research. Her views about the impact of engineering in society and the opportunities ahead for the Cockrell School are compelling,” said Provost Fenves. “We spoke with candidates from premier programs around the country, and it was clear that Sharon had the experience and vision that make her the right choice to lead the Cockrell School.”