Two Professors Receive SPE Regional Awards
-
May 16, 2016
Assistant Professor Zoya Heidari and Associate Professor Quoc Nguyen received 2016 SPE Southwest North American Region Awards for their significant contributions to the oil and gas industry. Heidari received the Formation Evaluation award and Nguyen won the Reservoir Description and Dynamics award.
Since 2011, Zoya has been leading a successful research group in the field of formation evaluation. Zoya’s team conducts fundamental and applied research in the fields of multi-scale formation evaluation, rock physics, and petrophysics for novel developments in the characterization of carbonate and unconventional reservoirs. She has mentored 18 graduate and four undergraduate students and written more than 75 technical papers.
Upon the start of her academic career, Zoya established a Joint Industry Program (JIP) on “Multi-Scale Formation Evaluation of Unconventional and Carbonate Reservoirs.” Zoya’s research activities in formation evaluation have a significant impact on improved characterization of complex reservoirs, such as carbonates and organic-rich mudrocks, which leads to enhanced production in reservoirs.
Since 2005, Nguyen’s research program, with elements of experimentation and modeling, has resulted in significant advances in petroleum engineering technology and science. This includes new non-destructive methods for more accurate characterization of reservoir rock wettability, important minerals in oil-shale formation and in-situ conversion, as well as colloid transport in porous media. He is also recognized for his unconventional foam process with gas-soluble and “smart” surfactants for improved conformance control and sweep efficiency in gas EOR.
In just over decade, Nguyen has supervised almost 25 Ph.D. students and 15 M.S. students. He has also been awarded millions of dollars in research support from industry and government organizations, resulting in six patents. Nguyen has published more than 50 journal articles and 61 conference papers.
In addition, the Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Senior Research Scientist Richard Schultz won the Completions Optimization and Technology Award for the Gulf Coast Region.
Heidari and Nguyen were recognized in a ceremony on May 19, 2016 at the Petroleum Club of Midland, Texas.
