Speakers of the 2010 KAUST WEP Workshop (WE 245) on “Advanced Finite Element Methods with Applications in

Numerical Reservoir Simulation”

Mary Wheeler Director, Center for Subsurface Modeling Ernest and Virginia Cockrell Chair in Engineering Professor, Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Mary F. Wheeler received her bachelor's and master's degrees in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin, and, in 1971, she received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rice University. She has served on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin since 1995 and is presently director of the Center for Subsurface Modeling in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. Her research interests include the numerical solution of partial differential systems with applications to the modeling of subsurface and surface flows and parallel computation. Her numerical work includes the formulation, analysis and implementation of finite-difference/finite-element discretization schemes for nonlinear, coupled PDE’s as well as domain decomposition iterative solution methods. Her applications include multiphase flow and geomechanics in reservoir engineering, contaminant transport in groundwater and bays and estuaries, and angiogenesis in biomedical engineering. Her current work has emphasized multiscale mixed finite element and discontinuous Galerkin methods for modeling reactive multi-phase flow and transport in a heterogeneous porous media, with the goal of simulating these systems on parallel computing platforms. Dr. Wheeler has published more than 200 technical reports and refereed journal publications, made over 400 oral presentations and edited eight books. She has served on ten editorial boards, is a founding member of the SIAM Activity Group in Geosciences and is currently managing editor of Computational Geosciences. In 1998 she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 2006 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Technische Universiteit, Eindhoven, was named to the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory by the University of Chicago, and received an IBM Faculty Award. In 2007 she received a Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award, became a member of the DOE Review and SIAM Prize committees, and joined the Ohio State Bioinformatics Advisory Council. In 2008 Dr. Wheeler received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Tao Tang Chair Professor, Department of Mathematics Associate Vice President and Director of Graduate School Hong Kong Baptist University 

Prof. Tao TANG is Chair Professor of Mathematics at Hong Kong Baptist University. He received his B.Sc. in Mathematics from Peking University in 1984. He pursued his further studies at the University of Leeds and received his Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics in 1989. Author of more than 90 publications in high-ranking international journals, Prof Tang has made some important contributions on the convergence theory of numerical methods for hyperbolic equations, spectral methods for partial differential equations, and adaptive grid methods for differential equations with particular applications to computational fluid dynamics. He was awarded a Leslie Fox Prize in Numerical Analysis in 1988, a Feng Kang Prize in Scientific Computing in 2003, an NSFC Overseas Hong Kong and Macau Distinguished Young Scholars Award in 2007, and a First Prize in Science and Technology by the Minsitry of Education of China in 2007. Prof Tang was named a Distinguished Visiting Professor by the Academy of Mathematics and System Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005, and an Cheung Kong Chair Professor by Ministry of Education of China in 2005. He has been in the Editorial Board in several top research journals, including Mathematics of Computation, SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, Journal of Computational Physics. He was the past Chairman of East Asia SIAM and is currently the President of Hong Kong Mathematical Society.

Zhangxing Chen NSERC/AERI/Foundation CMG Chair and iCORE Chair Director, iCenter Simulation & Visualization Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering University of Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada 

Zhangxing (John) Chen is currently a Professor at the University of Calgary and Director of iCentre Simulation & Visualization, and holds the NSERC/AERI/Foundation CMG Senior Research Chair in Reservoir Simulation and iCORE Industrial Chair in Reservoir Modeling. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Jiangxi, M.S. degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, and Ph.D. degree from Purdue University, USA. He formerly held a Tengfei Chaired and Chang Jiang Chaired Professorship (the most prestigious professor position awarded by the Chinese Ministry of Education in China) at Xi’an Jiaotong University, Tepin Professorship of Energy and Resources at the Peking University, Ziqiang Professorship at Shanghai University, and Gerald J. Ford Research Professorship at Southern Methodist University (SMU). Other significant appointments include oil and gas related research and university appointments by such notable organizations such as Texas A&M University, the University of Minnesota, and the Mobil (now ExxonMobil) Technology Company, and Director of the Center for Scientific Computation at SMU, Director of the Center for Advanced Reservoir Modeling and Simulation at Peking University, and President, Chinese Association for Science and Technology in Texas, USA. Dr. Chen has edited six books, written four books, and published 200 research articles in international high-quality journals. He has delivered over 200 invited, plenary, and keynote presentations worldwide. His research interest is in numerical reservoir simulation, mathematical modeling, algorithm development, and parallel computing. He is a member of the Petroleum Society.

Todd Arbogast  Professor of Mathematics Department of Mathematics and Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences The University of Texas at Austin 

Todd Arbogast received his Ph.D. and S.M. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago. At the University of Texas at Austin, he is a Professor of Mathematics, a Core Member of the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES), Chairman of the graduate program in Computational Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (CSEM), and Associate Director of the Center for Subsurface Modeling. He has authored more than 60 scientific and technical publications, and serves on the editorial boards of three scientific journals and technical series. Todd Arbogast's areas of expertise include the development and analysis of numerical algorithms for the approximation of partial differential systems, high performance and parallel scientific computation, and mathematical modeling, as applied to fluid flow and transport in porous media, such as the Earth's subsurface. His research accomplishments include the development of: Eulerian-Lagrangian schemes for advective flow; cell-centered finite difference (i.e., mixed finite element) and mortar techniques for geometrically irregular problems, homogenization and modeling and simulation of flow through multiscale fractured and vuggy geologic media, and variational multiscale methods for heterogeneous media and nonlinear problems.

Ivan Yotov  Professor and Chair, Department of Mathematics University of Pittsburgh 

Ivan Yotov is Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics at University of Pittsburgh. His research interests are in numerical analysis of partial differential equations and large scale scientific computing with applications to flow in porous media, computational fluid dynamics, and biomedical problems. His recent work spans stochastic modeling and uncertainty quantification, multiscale modeling of multiphysics systems, advanced discretizations, scalable parallel algorithms, and adaptive mesh refinement methods. Professor Yotov obtained his Ph.D. in Computational and Apllied Mathematics from Rice University in 1996. He held a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin before joining University of Pittsburgh in 1998. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific papers. He is currently an Associate Editor of the journals Computational Geosciences and Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications.

Guangri (Gary) Xue    KAUST GRP Research Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Subsurface Modeling Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences 

The University of Texas at Austin  

Dr. Xue is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Center for Subsurface Modeling at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. His research at UT Austin, is focused on the modeling and large-scale simulation of carbon sequestration under the direction of Professor Mary Wheeler. Dr. Xue received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University in the summer 2008, under the supervision of Professor Jinchao Xu. Dr. Xue is keenly interested in solving real-world problems while paying close attention to fundamental issues related to model analysis and algorithmic development. His dissertation focused on developing efficient numerical methods for solving multiphysics problems arising from fuel cells. Dr. Xue is currently supported by Postdoctoral Fellowship through KAUST Global Research Partnership.