Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta is a University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor and holder of the L. F. Peterson ‘36 Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station. He received his Ph.D in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin (1992). Dr. Datta-Gupta worked for BP Exploration/Research (1986-1990) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1992-1994) before joining Texas A&M University in 1994. Dr. Datta-Gupta was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 1992“for developing the theory and practice of streamline simulation for fluid flow in heterogeneous reservoirs.” Three-dimensional streamline simulation is widely considered as one of the major developments in petroleum reservoir modeling and performance forecasting in the last two decades. The technology has been rapidly assimilated by the industry for highly detailed flow simulation, reservoir management, geologic model calibration and uncertainty assessment. Several commercial reservoir simulators have been developed based on the streamline ‘time of flight’ concept introduced by Dr. Datta-Gupta. Dr. Datta-Gupta received two of the top three technical awards (Carll Award, 2009; Uren Award, 2003) given by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), a professional organization with more than 140,000 members worldwide.
In 2007, he coauthored the SPE textbook ‘Streamline Simulation: Theory and Practice’ which, for the first time, laid down the foundations of modern streamline simulation technology. His second book, ‘Subsurface Fluid Flow and Imaging’ was published by the Cambridge University Press in early 2016. Dr. Datta-Gupta was inducted to the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas in 2012. That same year, he was also elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.