Three faculty members from the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University were honored during the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Houston. Dr. Thomas Blasingame, Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta, and Dr. Rashid Hasan each received an SPE international award that recognized and acknowledged their significant contributions to the industry through service, education and research.
“The department is very proud of these three faculty members who are continuing a long tradition of recognition of our faculty by SPE International,” said Department Head Dan Hill.
Blasingame, the Robert L. Whiting Professor, was awarded Honorary Membership, which is conferred on individuals for outstanding service to SPE and in recognition of distinguished scientific or engineering achievement in fields encompassed in SPE’s technical scope. Honorary membership is the highest honor SPE confers on an individual and is limited to just 0.1 percent of SPE’s total membership. Blasingame specializes in the teaching and research of topics related to the analysis of reservoir performance. His research efforts with his students have led to the development of many reservoir engineering products; their work is referenced widely with several of their developments incorporated in industry-standard software and analysis methodologies. Blasingame is devoted to professional service, both at Texas A&M and externally. His greatest passion is teaching and mentoring students and early-career engineers, and he has been extremely effective in shaping the education of petroleum engineers and students throughout the world. Blasingame has received numerous awards from SPE and is a member of the SPE Board of Directors.
“I just want to thank the department and the students for giving me the environment and opportunity to serve the discipline as I have been able to do so for the entirety of my adult life,” said Blasingame, shown above. “We need to say to ourselves and the generations that follow that we will not accept anything less than an outstanding effort, striving for excellence must be our standard.”
Datta-Gupta, Regents Professor and the L.F. Peterson ’36 Endowed Chair, received the Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty. The award recognizes superior teaching, excellence in research, significant contributions to the petroleum engineering profession and special effectiveness in advising and guiding students. Datta-Gupta, shown above on left with SPE President Helge Hove Haldorsen, teaches undergraduate classes on reservoir modeling and graduate classes on data integration and streamline simulation. He leads the research consortium on Model Calibration and Efficient Reservoir Imaging (MCERI), which is funded by multiple oil and service companies worldwide. He co-authored the textbook Streamline Simulation: Theory and Practice, which presents a systematic exposition of modern streamline simulation technology, from foundations to applications. His second book, Subsurface Fluid Flow and Imaging, is being published by the Cambridge University Press in early 2016. Datta-Gupta is also an international consultant in the oil and gas industry and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012.
Hasan, the Larry A. Cress ’76 Faculty Fellow, received the Distinguished Member award. Established in 1983, the award recognizes SPE members who achieve distinction deemed worthy of special recognition and is restricted to not more than 1 percent of SPE membership. It is equivalent to Fellow status in other professional societies. Hasan, who is the author of the SPE textbook Fluid Flow and Heat transfer in Wellbores, won the SPE Production and Operations Award in 2011 for his contributions to the science of petroleum production operations. He currently teaches transport processes in petroleum production to undergraduate students and guides graduate students to improve on production practices through optimization of artificial-lift mechanisms and analysis of production logs. His research interests include wellbore heat transfer, transient transport processes, and wellbore and reservoir fluid flows. In pushing the frontiers of knowledge and understanding of science of transport processes, Hasan always remains solidly rooted in engineering practices and practical limitations.
“I am truly blessed to be at the petroleum engineering department at Texas A&M,” said Hasan, shown above on left. “This department has some of the brightest young minds of the nation. It is a privilege to act as their mentor and guide. The wonderful and brilliant colleagues I have here fuel my passion for excellence in engineering practices.”