Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering
Faculty Information

Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta is Regents Professor and holder of the L.F. Peterson '36 Chair at Texas A&M U. in College Station, TX (USA). He is well-known throughout the industry for his contributions to fast flow simulation methods and dynamic data integration into high-resolution geologic models. He is the recipient of the 2009 John Franklin Carll Award of the Society of Petroleum Engineers for distinguished contribution in the application of engineering principles to petroleum development and recovery. Prior to that, he received the 2003 Lester C. Uren Award of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) for significant technical contributions in petroleum reservoir characterization and streamline-based flow simulation. He is an SPE distinguished member (elected, 2001), distinguished lecturer (1999-2000), distinguished author (2000) and was selected as an outstanding technical editor (1996). He also twice received the SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Certificate for the best peer-approved paper (2000, 2006). In addition to his SPE awards, he is a recipient of the AIME Rossitter W. Raymond award (1992), TAMU Tenneco Meritorious Teaching Award (1997) and served as a member of the Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences (2001-2004). He is also the recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Basic Research in Geosciences (2008). His research program is funded by NSF, DOE and oil companies world-wide. He is a co-author of the SPE text book “Streamline Simulation: Theory and Practice”.

Dr. Datta-Gupta has industrial experience in reservoir characterization/management, field development strategies and modeling, scale-up and design of enhanced oil recovery processes. He also worked on fractured reservoir characterization and environmental issues related to nuclear waste disposal, carbon sequestration and remediation of chlorinated hydrocarbons.

• PhD, Petroleum Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1992
• MS, Petroleum Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1985
• BS, Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India, 1982

• Streamline simulation and applications
• Inverse modeling and multi-scale data integration
• Geostatistics and stochastic reservoir characterization
• Modeling and scale-up of enhanced oil recovery

Dr. Datta-Gupta has research interests in rapid flow simulation techniques, reservoir optimization, large-scale parameter estimation via inverse methods and uncertainty quantification/ assessments.

• John Franklin Carll Award for distinguished contribution in the application of engineering principles to petroleum development and recovery, Society of Petroleum Engineers (2009)
• Outstanding Contributions to Basic Research in Geosciences, U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences Division (2008)
• Lester C. Uren Award, Society of Petroleum Engineers (2003)
• SPE Distinguished Member (elected 2001)
• Member of Polar Research Board, National Academy of Sciences (2001-2004)
• Faculty Fellow, Texas Engineering Experiment Station (2001)
• Cedric K. Ferguson Award, Society of Petroleum Engineers (2000)
• Distinguished Author, Society of Petroleum Engineers (2000)
• Distinguished Lecturer, Society of Petroleum Engineers (1999-2000)
• Best Peer-Approved Technical Paper, Society of Petroleum Engineers (1999)
• Tenneco Meritorious Teaching Award, Texas A&M University (1997)
• Outstanding Technical Editor, Society of Petroleum Engineers (1996)
• Rossiter W. Raymond Award, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (1992)

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