News

Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE) Student Program Coordinator Gabby Banales has won a 2023 President’s Outstanding Staff Award and a 2023 Cockrell School of Engineering Staff Excellence Award.

Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE) student Julio C. Villarroel Salvatierra (MSPE 2023, PhD PE 2025) won first place in the master’s division of the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA) International Student Paper Contest at its annual symposium in June. His study, “Accounting for Exterior Flow in Unconventional Basins: a New Flow Regime,” is based on his master’s research supervised by Professor Larry W. Lake and Associate Professor David DiCarlo.

Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE) Assistant Professor Wen Song received the 2023 Arie van Weelden Award from the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) in June. Given annually, the award recognizes a young professional who has made a highly significant contribution to one or more of the association’s disciplines.

Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE) Associate Professor Michael Pyrcz — who has been promoted to full professor effective September 2023 — will be the 2024 International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG) Distinguished Lecturer.

Professor Matthew Balhoff has been selected to succeed Professor Jon E. Olson as the new chair of the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. Dr. Balhoff begins his four-year term in July.

The University of Texas at Austin’s PetroBowl Team has won the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) 2023 North American Regional Competition held in March.

The Hildebrand Department’s graduate program in petroleum engineering is No. 1 in the country, according to the 2024 U.S. News & World Report rankings released today. UT PGE has held this top ranking continuously since 2003.

Three PhD students from the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering — Ibrahim Gomaa, Keivan Khaleghi and Dongyoung Yoon — have won the 2023 Chevron National Engineering Week Competition held in February.

Oxy President and CEO Vicki Hollub — the first female leader of an American oil and gas company — met with about 100 students and faculty members from the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering on March 3.

Oxy President and CEO Vicki Hollub — the first female CEO of an American energy company — will meet with Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering students when she visits campus March 4. Hollub will talk with students about the role of the oil and gas industry in a sustainable energy future.