Each year, the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) honors members whose outstanding contributions to SPE and the petroleum industry merit special distinction during its Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE). Recipients of the 2018 SPE International Awards will be recognized at the Annual Reception and Banquet held on Tuesday, 25 September, in Dallas.
Honorary Membership
Honorary Membership is conferred on individuals for outstanding service to SPE and/or in recognition of distinguished scientific or engineering achievement in fields encompassed in SPE’s technical scope. Honorary Membership is the highest honor SPE confers upon an individual and is limited to 0.1% of SPE’s total membership.
Christine Ehlig-Economides is a professor and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair at the University of Houston. She served as a professor at Texas A&M University for 10 years and, before that, worked for Schlumberger for 20 years. She co-founded the petroleum engineering department at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, with her husband and became the department’s first chair in 1981. Ehlig-Economides was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2003, and she is also a member of the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) board. She is one of 16 Quantum Reservoir Impact (QRI) Scholars and a member of the QRI board.
Ehlig-Economides has received many awards from SPE, chaired or served on several SPE committees, and was executive director for the SPE Formation Evaluation Journal. An author of more than 120 SPE papers, she was named a Distinguished Lecturer in 1997–1998 and a Technical Program Committee chair for the 2006 SPE ATCE. She received the John Franklin Carll Award in 2016, the Innovative Teaching Award in 2014, the Anthony Lucas Gold Medal in 2010, the Lester C. Uren Award in 1997, and was named a Distinguished Member in 1996. Ehlig-Economides also earned an SPE Formation Evaluation Award in 1995 and was honored with a Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty in 1982. She holds a BA in math-science from Rice University, an MS in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from Stanford University.
Behrooz Fattahi has held several positions over the course of his 37 years working in the industry. He retired from Aera Energy, an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, in 2014. In his last position as learning advisor, he taught internal company technical courses, including courses on reservoir engineering and enhanced heavy oil recovery. Prior to joining the oil industry, he conducted research for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. He also taught courses in fluid dynamics and solid mechanics at Iowa State University. He is now president of the EnerTrain Institute, a petroleum technical training and consulting firm.
Fattahi served as 2010 SPE President and as 2014 President of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME). He was also executive editor of the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal, and on the SPE Board of Directors as director of Western North America and vice president of finance. He has served as vice president of the SPE Foundation. Fattahi received the DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal and was recognized as a Distinguished Member. He received a BS and ME in aerospace engineering, and PhDs in aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering from Iowa State University.
C. Susan Howes is vice president of engineering at Subsurface Consultants & Associates, where she helps maintain technical quality standards for consulting, training, and direct hire recruitment. Previously, she held roles of increasing responsibility in reservoir engineering, business development, corporate engineering, and HR over a 25-year period at Anadarko. She is formerly a reservoir management consultant at Chevron, with a previous assignment as manager of the Horizons Program.
As a high school student, Howes received the SPE Gulf Coast Section (GCS) scholarship. She has served in several leadership roles on the GCS board, including chair, and has held a variety of roles on several SPE standing committees, including the Soft Skills Committee and the Talent Council. She served as regional director for the Gulf Coast Region North America on the SPE Board of Directors, and she currently serves on the SPE US Advisory Council. Howes has coauthored more than 20 papers and articles on uncertainty management, risk management, and talent management for SPE conferences and publications. She received the DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal in 2016 and a Distinguished Service Award in 2005. She was recognized as a Distinguished Member in 2003 and has earned a Regional Service Award for the Gulf Coast North America region, along with two Section Service Awards for her work with the GCS. Howes currently chairs the University of Texas Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Distinguished Alumni Committee and holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Mridul Kumar is a Chevron Fellow, principal advisor, and unit manager for reservoir performance products at Chevron Energy Technology Company. He began his industry career with Gulf Oil in 1982 as a research engineer and has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility with Chevron since then. In his current role, Kumar is responsible for the research, development, deployment, and support of Chevron’s reservoir simulation and optimization software, workflows, and technologies worldwide. Earlier, he led the Heavy Oil and Unconventional Reservoirs team, responsible for supporting Chevron’s global heavy oil operations, and contributed to major thermal and heavy oil projects. He has been a member of Chevron’s Reserves Advisory Committee since 2008. Prior to joining Chevron, he was an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Pennsylvania State University.
Kumar has coauthored more than 50 papers and 4 patents. He was named an SPE Distinguished Member in 2009 and was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2006–2007. In 2002, he received the SPE Western Region Technical Achievement Award. He served as president of the SPE Golden Gate Section from 2001 to 2002, and on the executive committee for the SPE Canada Heavy Oil Technical Conference since 2016. Kumar was a member of the SPE Reservoir Description and Dynamics Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2014, and the SPE Book Committee from 2010 to 2012. He has co-chaired SPE forums and symposia, and has been a program committee member of several SPE meetings and symposia, the International Petroleum Technology Conference, and the World Heavy Oil Congress. Kumar holds a B.Tech. with distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, and an MS and PhD from Penn State, all in mechanical engineering.
Joyce Holtzclaw is a senior vice president with E&B Natural Resources. She began her career as a production technologist at Amoco in 1976, followed by several years with Champlin Petroleum and Coseka Resources, during which time she worked and studied at the University of Colorado. Holtzclaw spent nearly 12 years in numerous engineering positions with the Chevron Production Company. She has also been an asset team leader with Berry Petroleum, an exploitation manager at Nations Petroleum, a technical team leader with Vintage Production California, and a vice president at Hathaway.
Holtzclaw served with the SPE Bakersfield Section for nearly 10 years, including a stint as chairperson. She has also been a member of the SPE Board of Directors and chaired the TPM committee. She chaired regional and topical meetings in the western US and served on many meeting committees. She has also been on various SPE award committees, SPE task forces, and committees such as the Senior Professional Task Force and Subcommittee. She is a recipient of the Peer Apart award and a past associate editor of the Production Engineering Journal for 6 years. Holtzclaw received the Distinguished Service Award, DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, and the Public Service Award for her community service, which includes years of mentoring high school girls, judging science fairs, and assisting adult literacy as a member of the Kern Literacy Council board. She is also an active technical advisor to the California Independent Petroleum Association as they seek to address legislative and regulatory changes. Holtzclaw holds a BS in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Stefan Miska is the Jonathan Detwiler Endowed Chair professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Tulsa. He has published more than 200 technical papers in the area of drilling and completions. His current research interests include drilling mechanics, directional/horizontal drilling, wellbore hydraulics and more recently geomechanics. In his career, Ziska has taught at the University of Mining of Metallurgy in Krakow, Poland, at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, and at New Mexico Tech. In 1992, he joined Tulsa as chair of its petroleum engineering department. He became director of Tulsa’s Drilling Research Projects (TUDRP) in 1996 and served in that role until July 2017. He has also worked as a consultant for numerous oil and service companies, and he has taught numerous industry courses.
Miska served as technical editor for the SPE Drilling and Completion Journal and was a member of the SPE Drilling and Completion advisory committee. In addition to being named an SPE Distinguished Member, he received the Distinguished Petroleum Engineering Faculty Award in 2000 and the Drilling Engineering Award in 2004. He holds an MS, PhD, and doctor of sciences degree from the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow.
Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal
The Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, established in 1932, recognizes achievement in improving the technique and practice of finding and producing petroleum.
Robert Barree is president and principal investigator of Barree and Associates. He previously served as a senior technical consultant at Marathon’s Petroleum Technology Center until its closure in 2000. In his 20 years at Marathon, he worked primarily in the areas of well completion, stimulation, numerical simulation, special core analysis, formation damage, rock mechanics, and equipment design. Barree is the author of more than 70 technical publications. He was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on the topic of new philosophies in hydraulic fracturing for the 1999–2000 season. He also received the SPE Denver Petroleum Section Henry Mattson Technical Achievement Award in 1995 and the 2017 SPE Rocky Mountain Section Award for Completion Optimization and Technology. Barree has served on many technical committees for SPE annual and regional meetings, Applied Technology Workshops, and Forum Series. He holds a BS in petroleum engineering from Penn State and a PhD in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
John Franklin Carll Award
The John Franklin Carll Award recognizes contributions of technical application and professionalism in petroleum development and recovery.
Sadanand Joshi is president of Joshi Technologies International (JTI), a company specializing in oil and gas production and consulting, based in Tulsa. Prior to that, he was a senior research engineer with Phillips Petroleum. He has more than 35 years of experience in the oil industry and has been a consultant to more than 200 field projects around the world. In 2016, Joshi received the SPE IOR Pioneer Award for his contributions to the development of horizontal well technology. He served as general chairman of the 2014 SPE IOR Symposium and as a Distinguished Lecturer in 1995–1996. He is the author of more than 50 technical papers as well as a book, Horizontal Well Technology, published in 1991. Joshi received a BE from Walchand College of Engineering in Sangli, India; an MTech from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai; and a PhD from Iowa State University, all in mechanical engineering.
DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal
The DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal recognizes distinguished and outstanding service to SPE, to the professions of engineering and/or geology, and to the petroleum industry.
Anuj Gupta is a petroleum engineering consultant and acting reservoir engineering technology leader at the Aramco Research Center in Houston. He has more than 27 years of experience in the US and Middle East, having working for leading academic programs in petroleum engineering before joining Aramco. He spent 21 years on the petroleum engineering faculty of various institutions, including the University of Oklahoma, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Louisiana State University, ADNOC Petroleum Institute, and Texas A&M University. Gupta has coauthored more than 100 journal articles and conference publications, was the first author of many granted patents, and has authored several patent applications. He has extensive experience with SPE, helping pilot the SPE Certification Program and working on advisory councils, committees, technical groups, sections, mentoring, and organizing conferences. He is an SPE Distinguished Member and received the SPE Distinguished Service Award in 2017. Gupta holds a PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Lester C. Uren Award
The Lester C. Uren Award recognizes distinguished achievement in the technology of petroleum engineering by a member who made the contribution before age 45.
Jitendra Kikani is the general manager for reservoir management at Chevron Africa and Latin American E&P Company. He began his industry career in 1989 as a senior development engineer with Intera Information Technologies (now Schlumberger), specializing in software development and training. He also worked as a senior research engineer at Shell E&P Technology Company. Kikani joined Chevron in 1996 as a research scientist and has held positions of increasing responsibility since then. He served as program chairman for the 2000 SPE ATCE and as review chairman for the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal from 1998 to 2002. He has also received an SPE Technical Achievement Award for Western North America and is a two-time SPE Distinguished Lecturer. He has published several dozen peer-reviewed technical papers and contributed to several published books. He wrote Reservoir Surveillance, an SPE-published book released in 2013. Kikani holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the Indian School of Mines, an MS in mechanical engineering from the University of California, an MS in mathematics from Stanford University, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from Stanford.
Robert Earll McConnell Award
The Robert Earll McConnell Award recognizes beneficial service to humanity by engineers through significant contributions that tend to advance a nation’s standard of living or replenish its natural resources base.
Ali Ghalambor is the technical advisor at Oil Center Research International and an international consultant. He has 40 years of industrial and academic experience in the petroleum industry, holding engineering and supervisory positions at Tenneco Oil, Amerada Hess, and Occidental Research. He has served as the American Petroleum Institute Endowed Professor, head of the petroleum engineering department, and director of the Energy Institute at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Ghalambor has authored or coauthored 14 books and manuals and more than 200 technical papers. He received the SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty in 2001, the Distinguished Member Award in 2006, the Production and Operations Award in 2007, Distinguished Service Award in 2008, A Peer Apart Editorial Award in 2008, Regional Completion and Optimization Award in 2009, and DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal in 2015. He was a director of the Central and Southeastern North America Region on the SPE Board of Directors and is the founding chairman of the SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control. Ghalambor holds BS and MS degrees in petroleum engineering from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and a PhD in environmental sciences and engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Charles F. Rand Memorial Award
The Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal recognizes distinguished achievement in mining administration, including metallurgy and petroleum.
Scott Sheffield is the chairman of Pioneer Natural Resources. He began his career as a reservoir engineer at Amoco Production Company. In 1979, he joined Parker and Parsley Petroleum, eventually becoming the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) in 1985 and its chairman in 1991. Under his leadership, Parker and Parsley merged with MESA to form Pioneer Natural Resources. Sheffield became the company’s founding CEO and assumed the position of Chairman of the Board in August 1999. He retired from his CEO position in December 2016. Sheffield holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Public Service Award
The SPE Public Service Award recognizes distinguished public service to a country, state, community, or the public through excellence in leadership, service, or humanitarianism, provided the service is above the requirements of employment.
David C. Baldwin is the co-president of SCF Partners, a private investment firm specializing in financing and growing global energy service, product, and technology companies. He is also the founder of Pursuit for those with disABILITIES, a campaign created to raise money and awareness to support disabled people in Houston and across the US. Along with his wife, Baldwin has volunteered more than 25 years in support of disabled persons. In 2016 they completed a cross-country bicycle ride that raised $13 million and involved more than 200 volunteers, 2,500 donors, 45 corporate sponsors, and 1,000 riders. Additionally, they conducted learning summits with 31 partner organizations at 18 locations across the US to identify best practices to help people with disabilities work and live more independent lives. Baldwin holds a BS in petroleum engineering and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and was also a member of UT’s 1983 national championship baseball team.
Distinguished Service Award
The SPE Distinguished Service Award recognizes contributions to the society that exhibit such exceptional devotion of time, effort, thought, and action as to set them apart from other contributions.
Annie Audibert-Hayet is general secretary of the Corporate Technology Group at Total. She is in charge of the scientific and technology animation and coordination of in-house networks, implementing new technologies/research and development results from other branches or from other application areas with startups and small enterprises. She previously spent 5 years as head of the development division for Total E&P’s Extreme Cold group. She has 38 years of experience managing research and technology programs, working in EOR, heavy oils for Arctic areas, formation damage, drilling fluids and cement, water treatment, and colloids science. Audibert-Hayet received the SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Medal in 1993 and was named an SPE Distinguished Member in 2008. She has served on program committees for several SPE forums. She was a member of the SPE ATCE Drilling and Completions Technical Committee from 1999 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2008, chairing the committee in 2002. From 2009 to 2017 she was a member of the SPE Formation Evaluation Technical Committee, and she served as Reservoir Description and Dynamics Specialty Coordinator for the 2014 ATCE Program Committee. She is on the editorial committee of the SPE Production and Operations Journal, and she will serve as SPE South Central and Eastern Europe Regional Representative for the Distinguished Lecturer Committee from 2018 to 2021. Author of several technical papers and numerous patents, Audibert-Hayet holds a chemical engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, a PhD in physico-chemistry of polymers from the University of Rouen, and accreditation for research supervision (HDR) from the University of Rouen.
Deepak M. Gala is senior well engineer for the deepwater wells global source control/process safety team at Shell. Prior to joining Shell in 2012, he spent a combined 7 years at Weatherford and Cudd in various roles of increasing responsibility. He has published more than 20 technical papers and has instructed over 15 courses on well control, drilling, managed pressure drilling, and underbalanced drilling. He has received the SPE Regional Young Engineer of the Year Award in 2011, the SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award in 2010, and SPE Outstanding Technical Editor Award in 2008. He served as SPE Gulf Coast Chair in 2017. Gala has been an active volunteer leader in numerous committees over the years namely with SPE Young Professional Coordinating Committee, SPE ATCE Program Committee, and as an associate editor for SPE Drilling and Completions Journal. He holds an MS in finance from Tulane University, an MS in natural gas engineering from Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and a BE in chemical engineering from Mumbai University.
Mohan Kelkar is a professor emeritus at the University of Tulsa. He joined the university in 1983 as an assistant professor of petroleum engineering and retired as the Williams Endowed Chair of Petroleum Engineering in 2018. He chaired the university’s petroleum engineering department from 2002 to 2016. He has written more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and has made more than 250 technical presentations. He has also authored three books, including the SPE-published Applied Reservoir Characterization Using Geostatistics. Kelkar has been extensively involved in SPE service activities over the last 35 years. He served on local section board of directors for more than 15 years, and has served on SPE Board of Directors from 2010 to 2013. He has been involved with the SPE Petroleum Engineer Faculty Colloquium since 1991 and has played an active role in various committees. He holds a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Mumbai, an MS in petroleum engineering and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
Terry Palisch is the global engineering director at CARBO Ceramics. He began his career with Arco Alaska, where he worked reservoir, completions, operations and new ventures engineering at the Kuparuk River field. He later transferred to Arco International as a senior engineering advisor at the Rhourde El Baguel Field in Algeria. Among his duties, he supervised the fracture stimulation program at Kuparuk, and advised the local Algerian engineering staff on completions and production activities. He joined CARBO Ceramics in 2004, where his team advises clients on completion and fracture optimization. Palisch has authored over 40 SPE technical papers, is a past chairman and board member of the SPE Dallas Section and is a member of the ATCE Program Committee, including the 2017 Program Chair. Palisch has served on the Drilling and Completions Awards Committee, the Completions Advisory Committee, and as a technical editor. He was the 2012 SPE MidCon Region Completions Optimization & Technology Award winner, the 2015 SPE Dallas Section Engineer of the Year, and is the incoming Completions technical director for the SPE Board of Directors. Palisch holds a BS in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla.
Hemanta Sarma is a professor of oil and gas engineering at the University of Calgary. Previously he served as chairman and professor for the petroleum engineering department at the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, from 2009 to 2014. Sarma has been an active SPE member since 1982, having served on several technical program committees including the SPE South Australian Executive Committee, leading its continuing education program. He has been a member of the committee for the SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering since 2006 and chaired that committee in 2008–2009. He chaired the 2014 SPE DeGolyer and Distinguished Service Award Committees and chaired the 2015 SPE Distinguished Service Award Committee. He currently is serving on the Cedric K. Ferguson Medal Committee. In addition, he has been an associate editor of the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal from 2007 to 2013 and currently serves as a technical editor for the journal. He was also a member of the editorial review board for the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology. Sarma holds a B.Tech (Honors) in petroleum engineering from the Indian School of Mines, an MSc in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Alberta.
Cedric K. Ferguson Medal
The SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Medal recognizes professional achievement in petroleum engineering. The medal is presented for the paper written by an SPE member age 35 and under at the time the paper was peer-approved. The paper being recognized is titled “Integration of Dynamic Microseismic Data with a True 3D Modeling of Hydraulic-Fracture Propagation in the Vaca Muerta Shale.”
Mahdi Haddad is a postdoctoral fellow at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he conducts research on geomechanics of induced seismicity through the TexNet project. Previously, Haddad worked as a research geomechanics intern at FracGeo, where he developed continuum damage mechanics models using the material point method for the estimation of the stimulated reservoir volumes. He also spent time as a research geophysics intern at Total E&P Research and Technology USA, where he proposed a method for improving the interpretation of microseismicity through 3D finite-element fracture-intersection models. Haddad has authored 16 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers on multiple-stage hydraulic-fracture design, refracturing optimization, stimulated naturally fractured reservoir simulation, and smoothed particle hydrodynamics. He is an active member of SPE, serves as a technical reviewer for SPE journals, and served as a technical judge for the University of Texas SPE regional paper contest in 2017. Haddad holds BS degrees in mechanical and petroleum engineering and an MS in mechanical engineering/energy conversion from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, as well as a PhD in petroleum engineering from UT-Austin.
Jing Du is project leader for the microseismic research and development with links to geomechanics and rock physics at Total E&P Research and Technology. Before that, she worked for Pinnacle, a Halliburton Service, as a principal technical advisor—engineering application. Du serves as a technical editor for various SPE journals. She also served on the Well Stimulation committee for two separate stints (2009–2011, 2015–2016) and on the Well Completion committee from 2012 to 2014. She chaired the SPE ATCE Well Stimulation Program subcommittee in 2016, was Production and Operations Specialty Coordinator for the ATCE program committee in 2017, and served on the SPE Production and Facilities advisory committee from 2016 to 2018. Du holds a BS in applied mathematics and mechanics and an MS in solid mechanics from Peking University, China, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sandrine Vidal-Gilbert is a geomechanics specialist and reservoir geomechanics team leader for the drilling and well division at Total E&P. Previously, she worked for 9 years as a geomechanics researcher at the French Institute of Petroleum (IFP), where she focused on the geomechanics-reservoir coupling modeling, integration of geomechanics and 4D seismics, and on fault/caprock integrity for geological underground gas storage. As a researcher, she also worked for 2 years as geomechanics discipline leader in CO2CRC (Cooperative Researcher Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies) in Adelaide, Australia. She joined the gas and power branch of Total in 2009 to be project leader on CO2 geological storage. In 2012, she joined Total E&P as a geomechanics specialist and worked in the unconventional development division as project leader for the integrated modeling for shale development. Vidal-Gilbert has published 40 technical papers. She holds a master’s degree in geophysics from Ecole et Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg, France, and a master’s degree in petroleum geosciences from IFP School. She also holds a PhD degree in geomechanics from University of Paris VI.
Young Member Outstanding Service Award
The Young Member Outstanding Serivce Award recognizes contributions to and leadership in the public and community arenas, as well as SPE, the profession, and the industry, by a member under the age of 36.
Zeid Al-Ghareeb has held various engineering roles at Saudi Aramco since joining the company in 2005, including production engineer, reservoir engineer, petrophysics, and reservoir simulation. He was head of the Events Solutions Center for integrated reservoir studies. Al-Ghareeb was the 2017–2018 chairman of the SPE Saudi Arabia section, and the youngest person to receive the Saudi Aramco Excellence Award. In addition, he received a seed fund of $150,000 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Initiative in recognition for his doctoral research. Al-Ghareeb holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa, an MS in petroleum engineering from Stanford University, and a PhD in computational science and engineering from MIT.
Rafael E. Hincapie is a senior EOR engineer at OMV’s TECH Center and Lab. He has worked in the oil and gas industry for more than 13 years, focusing on EOR and IOR processes. He started his professional career at PDVSA-Venezuela, after which he moved to Clausthal University of Technology-Germany as a research assistant. He is currently an external non-profited lecturer at the university. An active member of SPE since 2007, he is part of the SPE German and Vienna Basin sections. Hincapie volunteers as a mentor/supporter for the SPE eMentoring, student paper contest, Young Professional (YP) program, Student Chapter Award judge, Section Award judge, and more recently as a Career Pathways advisor. He is a volunteer reviewer of the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal and has authored and coauthored approximately 40 technical papers. In 2018, he received the SPE South, Central, and East Europe Region Young Member Outstanding Service Award. Hincapie holds a BS in petroleum engineering from LUZ, an MS in heavy oil extraction from UNEFA, a doctoral engineering degree in petroleum engineering from TU Clausthal, and a MIBM degree from EAE/OBS.
Francis Oko is a production technologist at the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC). He previously worked as a completions engineer from 2012 to 2015. Prior to joining the industry, he lectured in the petroleum engineering department of Igbinedion University in Okada, Nigeria, from 2010 to 2012. He has volunteered extensively for SPE, serving several roles for SPE Benin City Section 116 including assistant secretary, YP chairperson, Internet chairperson, and publicity secretary/editorial team lead. He has been on the YP Program Planning Committee (YPPC) of the SPE Nigerian Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE) since 2015 and has served as the YPPC chair since 2016. He has received several professional and academic awards including: Most Vibrant Young Professional, SPE Benin Section 116; Distinguished Service Award, SPE Benin; and Regional Young Member Outstanding Service Award, African Region. Oko holds a B.Eng in petroleum engineering from Federal University of Technology and an MSc. in reservoir engineering and hydrodynamics from Ecole National Superiere de Geologie.
Yogashri Pradhan is a reservoir engineer for Endeavor Energy Resources, where she is involved with field development planning for unconventionals in the Midland Basin. She has also worked as a senior production engineer for Texas Oil and Gas Institute and Devon Energy, overseeing various production optimization studies and field operations in the Permian Basin. Pradhan is an active SPE member at the Gulf Coast and Permian Basin Sections and international levels through technical conference committees, study groups, authoring/coauthoring seven technical publications, and community service initiatives. She is the co-founder of SPECares, an initiative promoting community service among the global SPE membership. Currently, she serves as the program’s co-chair for the Permian Basin Section and the deputy chair for SPE International’s Women in Energy Committee. She serves on the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, Liquids-Rich Basins Conference, and the Hydrocarbon Economics and Evaluation Symposium committees. In 2018, she received the Houston Engineers Week Young Engineer of the Year representing SPE Gulf Coast Section. Pradhan holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is pursuing her master’s degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.
Mouza Al Houqani is an analyst and IT coordinator for the well data management team at ADNOC Offshore, a subsidiary of the ADNOC Group. She began her career in 2010 working as an intern at Total. Al Houqani has served on the SPE Abu Dhabi Section board and served as chairperson of both the Professional Ladies Committee and the Innovation and Excellence Committee. She has chaired and co-chaired several workshops, technical sections, and student programs across the Middle East. In recognition for her efforts, she received the SPE Middle East Young Professional Outstanding Service Award in 2016. She has also been nominated to serve on the SPE Global WIN (Women in Energy) Committee. Al Houqani holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in information management from the Abu Dhabi Women’s College, and a higher diploma in business information technology from Al Ain Women’s College in the UAE.
Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty
This award recognizes superior teaching, excellence in research, significant contributions to the petroleum engineering profession, and/or special effectiveness in advising and guiding students.
Jan-Dirk Jansen is a professor of reservoir systems and control, and dean for the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. Previously, he worked in research and operational positions for Shell International in The Netherlands, Norway, and Nigeria. At TU Delft, Jansen started a new research line in systems and control theory to optimize subsurface reservoir flow. He has authored 56 peer-reviewed papers, many of which have appeared in SPE journals. He has also written 91 conference papers, five patents, and two books, including the SPE textbook Nodal Analysis of Oil and Gas Production Systems. He has served on the organizing committees of the SPE Reservoir Simulation Symposium (now SPE Reservoir Simulation Conference) since 2011. He was the co-chair and co-founder of the 2008 SPE Advanced Technology Workshop on Closed-Loop Reservoir Management in Bruges, Belgium. Jansen received the Cedric K. Ferguson Medal in 2011. He holds an MSc and PhD from TU Delft.
SPE Technical Awards
These awards recognize outstanding achievement or contributions to the advancement of petroleum engineering in the areas of the technical disciplines.
Completions Optimization and Technology Award
C. Mark Pearson is president and CEO of Liberty Resources, a Denver-based operator in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. He is an SPE Distinguished Member and a well-known industry expert in the field of well completion and stimulation, having authored more than 40 technical papers covering field development, well completions, and production aspects of oil and gas operations. He has focused his career on technology advancements within the industry and is one of the pioneers of multistage hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wells with over 30 years of horizontal work in West Texas, Alaska, the North Sea, the US Mid-Continent, North Dakota, and Wyoming. Pearson holds BS and PhD degrees from the Camborne School of Mines, UK, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.
Drilling Engineering Award
Danny Scott is a consultant, recently retired from Baker Hughes, a GE Company. He has been primarily involved in developing drilling solutions during a 47-year career at Hughes Tool Company and Baker Hughes, serving in a variety of engineering and management roles including chief metallurgist, manager of materials engineering, manager of manufacturing research, and manager of diamond research. An SPE Distinguished Member and co-chairman of the 2018 SPE ATCE, Scott has authored more than 150 US patents, 65 publications, and several chapters for textbooks. He has been an active SPE member, serving on more than 40 conference and program committees including 26 SPE IADC Drilling Conference Program committees. He holds a BS in metallurgical engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Formation Evaluation Award
Leonty Tabarovsky is a Baker Hughes Technology Fellow. He joined Western Atlas in 1991 and, after numerous mergers, moved to Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE). Tabarovsky began his career at the Russian Academy of Sciences, eventually becoming a chief scientist responsible for geophysics research, before relocating to the US and working as an invited professor at the Colorado School of Mines. He served as director of the Baker Hughes Technology Center in Russia from 2005 to 2009, director of international research at Baker Hughes from 2009 to 2012, and as a senior technical advisor from 2012 to 2014. Tabarovsky’s activities in SPE were focused on conducting advanced research with fellow SPE members in the area of formation evaluation. He has authored more than 160 articles, 2 books, and 50 US patents in well logging, geophysics, and applied mathematics. Tabarovsky holds an MS in nuclear physics from Novosibirsk State University, a PhD in geophysics and a doctor of sciences in exploration of mineral resources from the Academy of Sciences in Russia.
Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility Award
Richard Haut is retired from HARC, where he was the director of energy production and managing director for the Environmentally Friendly Drilling Program. His 40 years of technical and management experience includes a 10-year stint as a drilling and well technology manager for North Sea operations. He was a key figure in the startup of Enventure Global Technology, where he served as chief operating officer, and has more than 36 publications and 42 patents to his name. Haut has been an SPE member since 1977, serving on the SPE Editorial Committee from 1980 to 1982, the steering committee for the 1982 SPE Cementing Forum, and the 1984–1985 SPE Fall Technical Program Committee. He chaired the 1985–1986 SPE Well Completions Technical Committee, was vice chairman of the 2002 SPE Steering Committee for e-Well and Wellbore Robotics, co-chaired the 2013 SPE Research Forum—Quest to Reduce the Environmental Footprint, and has been member of the Fall Technical Program HSE Subcommittee since 2007. Haut was named an SPE Distinguished Member in 2015. He holds a BS from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, an MS from the University of Tennessee, and a PhD from Old Dominion University, all in engineering.
Management and Information Award
Pierre Delfiner is with PetroDecisions, a consulting company which he founded in 2009 after 11 years with Total. At Total he was the scientific advisor to the director of geosciences, in charge of methodology, notably prospect evaluation, resources aggregation, and value-of-information. Previously, he worked 11 years for Schlumberger, and 10 years in research at the Ecole des Mines, where he pioneered the use of kriging and stochastic modeling in the petroleum industry. He has authored or coauthored 30 papers and a reference book, Geostatistics: Modeling Spatial Uncertainty. Delfiner served as review chairman for the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal from 2004 to 2006, and on several SPE Applied Technology Workshop and SPE ATCE Program Committees. He currently serves on the SPE Books Development Committee and is a technical editor for the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal. Delfiner holds an engineering degree from the Ecole des Mines and a PhD in statistics from Princeton University.
Production and Operations Award
Jennifer Julian is a senior well intervention advisor for BP. She has 33 years of diversified production and operations engineering experience, including 6 years as a wellsite leader in Prudhoe Bay supervising hydraulic fracturing, stimulations, coiled tubing, and wireline operations. She has provided well intervention experience for BP and Arco in places such as Alaska, Iraq, Kuwait, Indonesia, Egypt, Trinidad, and deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. Julian has served on many SPE committees and is currently a board member of the SPE Alaska Chapter and the SPE Intervention and Coiled Tubing Association. She has written more than 20 technical papers for SPE and was a 2011–2012 SPE Distinguished Lecturer. She received the 2007 SPE Western North America Region Drilling and Completions Engineer Award, the 2007 SPE Alaska Chapter Engineer of the Year Award, the 2010 SPE Western North America Region Production and Operations Engineer Award, and the 2013 SPE Western North America Region Completions Optimization and Technology Award. Julian holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Projects, Facilities, and Construction Award
Siamack Shirazi is a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Erosion/Corrosion Research Center (E/CRC) at the University of Tulsa (TU) and director of TU Sand Management Projects, in addition to other petroleum engineering consortia at TU that he has contributed to and co-founded. In his 30-year teaching career, he has advanced innovative solutions for erosion mitigation for the oil field. He has more than 500 published works, technical, and invited presentations, most of them relating to oil and gas industry applications, and he has participated in several SPE-sponsored symposiums on sand management and pipeline erosion/corrosion. Shirazi holds a BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico.
Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award
Mustafa Onur is the McMan Professor and chairman of the McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Tulsa (TU). Before joining TU in 2016, he spent 27 years as a professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey. He was the Schlumberger Professorial Chair at the Department of Petroleum Engineering for Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Malaysia from 2012 to 2014. He was co-executive editor of the SPE Journal from 2012 to 2015 and has also served as associate and technical editors for the SPE Journal and the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal. Onur received the SPE Formation Evaluation Award in 2010 and became an SPE Distinguished Member in 2014. He holds a BS from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and an MS and PhD from TU, all in petroleum engineering.
Distinguished Members
The SPE Distinguished Member award recognizes SPE members who achieve distinction deemed worthy of special recognition. This award acknowledges members who have attained eminence in the petroleum industry or the academic community, or who have made significant contributions to SPE.
I. Yucel Akkutlu, Texas A&M University
Ghaithan Al-Muntasheri, Saudi Aramco
Ashraf Al-Tahini, Aramco Services Company
Mohammed Badri, Schlumberger
Linda Battalora, Colorado School of Mines
Elizabeth Cheney, Cheney Energy Partners
Eldon Dalrymple, AOC
Mohammad Fassihi, BHP Petroleum
Daniel Georgi, Aramco Services Company
Berna Hascakir, Texas A&M University
Jan-Dirk Jansen, Delft University of Technology
Chet Ozgen, NITEC
Terry Palisch, CARBO Ceramics
Ian Phillips, Oil and Gas Innovation Center
Alejandra Reynaldos Rojas, Schlumberger
James Sheng, Texas Tech University
Ovadia Shoham, University of Tulsa
Pedro Silva, PEMEX
Rick Stanley, Warrior Energy
Michael Thambynayagam, Schlumberger
