Dandina N. Rao is Emmett-Wells-Distinguished-Professor in the Craft and Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA. He has been involved in enhanced oil recovery research and field project implementations for over 3 decades. In addition to developing the Gas-Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) Process for enhanced oil recovery, Dr. Rao has invented the HydroFlame process for steam and flue gas generation for heavy oil and bitumen recovery, the dual-drop dual-crystal technique for confident reservoir wettability characterization, and the vanishing interface technique (VIT) for quick and cost-effective gas-oil miscibility determination. He considers the implementation of some of these ideas by producing companies in the oil fields as the most gratifying accomplishment, next only to the successful professional careers of many of his graduate students. Dr. Rao holds a B.Tech with Distinction from India, a M.Sc. from the University of Saskatchewan (Canada) and a Ph.D. from the University of Calgary (Canada). Dr. Rao was recently recognized by the Louisiana State University with the Rainmaker Award given to faculty who are nationally and internationally recognized for innovative research and creative scholarship.

Petroleum Engineering

Dr.Archana Saily Painuly ,alumni of Western Sydney University, Australia and IIT, Roorkee ,India, has more than eighteen years of research and teaching experience in various capacities both National and International levels. She has written books and published many research papers and articles in reputed journals. Dr. Painuly has Three Patents to her credit on development of processes for the recovery of hi-tech and strategic metals from low grade ores, spent catalysts and industrial wastes. She has been Executive Editor of Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology since 2012. She currently serves as associate editor, guest editor and editorial board members and reviewers for a number of International and National journals.

Her research covers broad spectrum of hydrometallurgical and bio-hydrometallurgical methods with interest from basic mechanism to industrial applications. She has developed cost effective green methodology for recovery of heavy and hi-tech metals. Other area of her keen interest is environment pollution and management which includes fate and effects of pollutants in water, sediment & soil, bioavailability of heavy metals in water and sediments to predict toxicity apart from development of background levels of metals & nutrients in sediments and waste water management. Her current research passion is bioremediation especially phytoremediation of metal contaminated soil and water.

Seema Narayan completed her PhD at the age of 32 years from the Monash University. She is Associate Professor of Economics at the RMIT University. She has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals and is ranked in the top 10 per cent of female economists in the world by RePEC.

Applied Macroeconomics,Financial Economics, Development Economics,Time series and Panel Econometric Analysis.

Dr. Vlasios Voudouris is the CEO of ABM Analytics Ltd. Vlasios has a wealth of experience in fundamental & quantitative analytics of financial markets with a particular focus on energy and commodities. He is best known for his work on agent-based models and applied econometrics to support decisions in the face of uncertainty and risk. Through his work, Vlasios develops a critical appreciation of the relevant principles of statistics, economics and management science. These principles are applied in complex, data-driven business environments to drive research-led investment decisions and reporting of energy and commodity markets.

Fundamental energy/fuels research, particularly in oil and gas

Dr Stanislav Boldyryev is the Deputy General Director on Development of bromine plant, Ukraine; Associate Professor of National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Ukraine. He accomplished 10 EC research project and has published 75 scientific papers, 37 conference presentations, 5 teaching guides. He has Industrial experience in the fields of : Process Integration, Process Simulation, Pinch Analysis, Heat Exchangers, Heat Exchangers Networks, Heat Recovery, Total Site Integration, Heat Pumps.

Process Integration, Process Simulation, Pinch Analysis, Heat Exchangers, Heat Exchangers Networks, Heat Recovery, Total Site Integration, Heat Pumps

Satish J. Parulekar is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has done his Ph.D. from Purdue University (Chemical Engineering, 1983), M.S. from University of Pittsburgh (Chemical Engineering, 1979) and B.S. from University of Bombay, India (Chemical Engineering, 1978).

Biochemical engineering and chemical reaction engineering

Jorge Salgado Gomes holds MSc in Geology from Oporto University, Portugal, and an MEng and PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, UK. He has more than 30 years of oil and gas experience and during his career he worked for several companies, occupying many technical and managerial positions. He is the co-author of the book entitled “The Universe of the Oil & Gas Industry”, published by PARTEX Oil & Gas, and the editor of the book “New Technologies in the Oil and Gas Industry”, published by INTECH open science. He is currently a PARTEX Chaired Professor at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. His field of expertise is reservoir characterization and modelling, full field development and assessment of oil and gas reserves.

His field of expertise is reservoir characterization and modelling, full field development and assessment of oil and gas reserves.

Dr. Ravi Vadapalli is a Sr. Research Scientist in High Performance Computing and Adjunct Professor of Petroleum Engineering. He is also an Associate Site Director the new NSF Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center at Texas Tech University (CAC@TTU). He has extensive experience in advanced distributed computing, research development in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas through data intensive computing. Dr. Vadapalli was one of the principal members of the developer team for the Texas Internet Grid for Research and Education (TIGRE), and led the demonstration of grid and cloud computing methods for the Petroleum Engineering Grid (PEGrid). His research interests are in cluster, grid, and cloud computing technologies enabled federated Big Data processes for smart oil fields. Dr. Vadapalli is a frequent speaker on these topics to a variety of professional industry-based and academic organizations.

Cluster, grid, and cloud computing technologies enabled federated Big Data processes for smart oil fields

Professor Uriah Alexander Lar was born some 54 years ago in Langtang, Plateau State, Nigeria. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) degree (Second Class Upper Division) in Geology and Mining from the University of Jos (1983) and was awarded the French Government scholarship for post-graduate studies in France where he obtained MSc degree in Geochemistry (Geochronology) from Universite des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Montpellier, France and a PhD (Isotopes and Trace element Geochemistry) in January, 1992 from Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France. He returned to Nigeria and joined the services of the University of Jos in February 1992. He has served, on two occasions, as the Head of Department of Geology and Mining in the University of Jos, Nigeria. He is a registered member of several professional bodies including the Geological Society of America (GSA), the Nigeria Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) our umbrella professional body, Council of Mining Engineers and Geoscientists (COMEG), the Geological Society of Africa (GSAf) etc. He was in September, 2000 appointed by the Federal Government of Nigeria as the Chairman, Mineral Resources Committee of Plateau State, Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Abuja. He was at the fore front of the agitation for the creation of a full-fledged Ministry of Solid Minerals, to fast track development of the solid mineral sub-sector. Some of his submissions/presentations to the Senate House committee on Solid Minerals were: 1. Proposal presented before the Presidential Committee on the Accelerated and Sustainable Development of Nigeria Minerals Potential, during a 2-day National Workshop, Hamdala Hotel, Kaduna, 20th-21st Jan. 2003. 2. Action Plan for the Development of Solid Minerals in Plateau State. (July 2002). Presented to the Executive Governor of Plateau State as Chairman, Minerals Resources Committee of Plateau State. 3. The Way Forward for the Solid Minerals Development in Nigeria. Memorandum submitted to the 1st Nigerian Solid Minerals Summit 17th-18th September, 2001 at Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja His interest has always been to advance the geosciences, promote professional growth, and encourage service of his profession the geosciences. He sees the encouragement and training of young scientists as critical to the survival of geology and indeed the metal/mineral and the oil industry in Nigeria. These values encouraged him to look inwards and depend less on what is obtainable within the walls of the University. Thus, over the years, he established linkages and close collaborations with sister Universities locally and abroad as well as the mineral/oil and gas industry in Nigeria. He had been involved in different geological mapping projects through the following collaborations/linkages and has also been commissioned to carry out preliminary field mapping paving way for further oil exploration in one of Nigeria’s prospective inland basins. To mention but a few are: 1. The Joint University of Jos and the French Cooperation Project in Applied Geological Mapping. This project lasted for about 3 years (1991/1992 – 1994/95). Many academic staff and students of the Department of Geology and Mining were trained in geological field mapping techniques and map production. 2. The Stratigraphic and Structural studies of the Cretaceous sediment of the Gongola basin, of the Benue Trough (1996 – 1997) awarded to us by ELF Aquitaine. 3. He had on many occasions been invited as consultant/Resource person for various Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) projects of Regional Geological Mapping and Economic Geology. 4. Commissioned by the Nigerian Nation Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2011, he led a team of experts where he conducted geological/stratigraphic mapping of the middle and upper Benue trough (from Markurdi – Wukari – Zurak – Gombe – Yola axis) an aerial extend of about 1000 km by 200 km. This project was successfully executed. 5. He was one of the initiators of collaboration between his University (the Department of Geology) with AHG University of Science and Technology, Krakov, Poland (well known for its coal technology) for capacity building in coal technology especially towards the development and utilization of coal for sustainable power generation in Nigeria. 6. He has been a principal researcher in the UNESCO/IGCP 606 Project working along with experts from 12 different countries on the Human health effects of major and abandoned mines in sub-Saharan Africa. This project began in 2011 and is scheduled to wind up this year 2014. He has worked assiduously over the years and has made frantic efforts and got the University of Jos, Department of Geology selected and upgraded by the Petroleum Technology and Development Fund (PTDF) to a “center of excellence” in the Geosciences. (A building was constructed at the permanent site of the University and well equipped with state of the art equipment). He also requested and got approval from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) for the endowment of a Professorial Chair in his Department with the sole mandate of carrying out geological and oil/mineral potential investigation of the middle Benue trough, Nigeria. The Chair was endowed in 2008 to fulfill this mandate. He has served on several national solid mineral committees etc., associate editor/member of the editorial boards to several scientific journals and as external examiner for undergraduate, Masters and PhD degrees in different Universities in Nigeria. He has attended several local and international conferences, where he presented conference papers. He has exhibited tremendous interests in research where he has maintained a functional geochemical laboratory parallel with most geochemical laboratories abroad. He has over 40 peer-reviewed publications, most of which appear in some of the world’s most reputable journals of Applied Geochemistry.

Geochemistry, Earth Sciences, Isotope Geochemistry, Clay Minerals

Dr. Hai GUO completed his Ph.D. study in Air Quality at Murdoch University, Australia. He did his postdoctoral research at New York University, University of California at Irvine (Nobel laureate group), Queensland University of Technology, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is currently an Associate Professor (with tenure) in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Adjunct Professor at Shenzhen Research Institute of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Queensland University of Technology in Australia, and Wuhan University in China. Dr. GUO has supervised 4 postdoctoral fellows, 7 PhD students and a number of Master students. Dr. GUO’s major research interests include atmospheric chemistry, regional and urban air pollution, source apportionment, photochemistry, acidic ultrafine particles, new particle formation and indoor and outdoor air pollution. Dr. GUO is an investigator of more than 38 research projects with grants over 30 million Hong Kong dollars. He has published over 153 papers in high-quality international journals and conference proceedings with over 1786 SCI citations to date. His current h-index is 23. He is an editorial Board member for four international journals. He is also an active reviewer for more than 35 core journals in Environmental Sciences. Dr. GUO has given keynote and invited speech in a number of international conferences and been a member of Scientific Advisor Committee in various conferences. Contact details: Air Quality Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. Email: [email protected]. Tel: +852 3400 3962; Fax: +852 2334 6389. Website: www.cse.polyu.edu.hk/~ceguohai

Indoor and outdoor air pollution, atmospheric chemistry, regional and urban air pollution, source apportionment, photochemistry, acidic ultrafine particles and new particle formation.

Highly focused executive management professional with confirmed expertise in directing global business development, marketing, and product development operations in the Middle East and Europe. Keen analytical skills and foresight in mining opportunities for international joint ventures, strategic supply sourcing, cost control, and capital overhead reduction. Superb leadership communications, and organizational talents, deftly building lasting relationships with business affiliates and project stakeholders within the oil and gas / petrochemical / refinery industry sector.

Strategic Planning and Implementation, Cost Reduction and Avoidance, Business Modeling / Forecasting, EPC Projects, Government Relations, Contract Development / Negotiations, Divestiture Coordination & Due Diligence, Multi-cultural HR Management, Operations Analysis / Process Redesign, Operating & Capital Budget Optimization, Contractual & Technical Risk Assessment.