Innovator joins Schulich as Petroleum Research Chair

One of the best petroleum engineers in the world is joining the Schulich School of Engineering as its third Petroleum Research Chair.

Farouq Ali has made enormous contributions to the field of petroleum engineering over the course of a long career, many of which are in evidence in the oil patch today. He is well known for analytical modelling, experimental work and theory on thermal recovery of oil and enhanced oil recovery, among other areas.

Ali has a long history with the University of Calgary, helping to establish the petroleum engineering program in the 1990s. "It has grown beyond all expectations," he says. "University of Calgary is well positioned to become the finest petroleum engineering school in the world. Both petroleum engineering and chemical engineering programs attract top students and researchers."

Petroleum Research Chair established three decades ago
He is honoured to become Petroleum Research Chair, a position that was established 30 years ago with an endowment from Pan-Canadian (now Encana) and the Petroleum Society of CIM (which has since merged with the Society of Petroleum Engineers).

The first chair was Roger Butler, the engineer who invented steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) back in the 1970s. He joined the university as chair in the 1980s and held the position until the mid-1990s when Tony Settari, an expert in fracturing and petroleum simulation, took the post.

"We have been fortunate to have some of the top folks in the petroleum area join us in the department in this chair position," says Uttandaraman (U.T.) Sundararaj, the head of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering.

"Farouq Ali has had a distinguished career and is likely among the top three petroleum engineers in the world."

Contributions to research
Ali's work includes some of the earliest experimental work on steam flooding in the 1960s and pioneering research in integrated simulation. He championed the use of scaled models and has made a number of important innovations in the field of micellar-polymer flooding.

The appointment helps the university further its bold new energy innovation strategy as well as Eyes High, the strategic goal to become one of Canada's top five research universities by 2016.

"Ali is internationally renowned in petroleum engineering and is a great addition for us," says Sundararaj.