Dr. Berna Hascakir, assistant professor in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named one of five recipients of the prestigious 2015 SPE Petroleum Engineering Innovative Teaching Award. This award recognizes excellence in commitment to academic research and student supervision. The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) uses this award to recognize the important role petroleum engineering faculty such as Hascakir play in enhancing the educational environment of petroleum engineering departments and programs. She will receive the award during the annual SPE dinner hosted in Houston in September.
Hascakir (shown third from left in photo above) is committed to academic research and dedicated to improving her teaching abilities through workshops. She credits her attendance at workshops given by the Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M for improving her skills, and says learning from professors with vast experience in education makes her more conscious of the ways she imparts information to her students and how effective she can be in the classroom and the lab.
“I am thankful to Dr. Steve Holditch, Dr. Robert Lane, Dr. Carolyn Sandoval, and the Center for Teaching Excellence, and to my undergraduate and graduate level students who helped me to receive the award,” said Hascakir.
Hascakir has been with Texas A&M since April 2012 and currently teaches undergraduate level reservoir fluid and graduate-level enhanced oil recovery methods (thermal), enhanced oil recovery processes, and waterflooding. She also teaches these three graduate level classes as electives to senior undergraduate students.
Her research interests include heavy oil and oil shale recovery by thermal enhanced oil recovery methods, challenging reservoirs (such as tight heavy oil reservoirs, carbonates, reservoirs with a strong aquifer, and oil shales), thermal front tracking, and the environmental impact of thermal recovery.
Department Head Dan Hill commented, “This is quite an achievement for Dr. Hascakir to receive this award after only a few years of teaching experience. Dr. Hascakir takes her teaching duties very seriously, and that has led to this recognition by SPE International.”