Mohsen Keshavarz wins first place for Society of Petroleum Engineers Regional Student Paper Contest

PhD student Mohsen Keshavarz has won first place in the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Regional Student Paper Contest held at Memorial University of Newfoundland, August 27, 2014. The title of his paper is “Modeling Displacement Efficiency Improvement during Solvent-Aided SAGD”. Next, he will represent Canada and compete at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition Conference to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 27-29, 2014.

Keshavarz is a second year PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering. He is conducting research on the analytical and numerical modeling of thermal and solvent-thermal recovery processes, under the supervision of Dr. Zhangxing (John) Chen as part of the Reservoir Simulation research group. His research improves the understanding of steam and solvent co-injection mechanisms.

“I have always been looking for good challenges,” says Keshavarz. “Throughout my studies, I have faced real world challenges that were rather open ended with no wrong or right answers. It is up to the individual to find the solution and to stand up to it by providing convincing evidence to others that the solution is correct. This is what I like the most about this field.”

Each year, SPE coordinates 10 regional student paper contests at the undergraduate, master's and doctorate levels. The students compete against other students from their region and the winners of the 10 regional contests are invited to participate in the international student paper contest, held during the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.

Keshavarz holds a BSc in Petroleum Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran and a MSc in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta. In the future, he hopes to be engaged in both research and industry.