American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2019 - 93

and Geological Engineering is home to
research, scholarship and people that
shaped a century. The school's influence
and contributions to the industry began
on the windy plains of Oklahoma and
the dusty horizons of West Texas. Now
an international destination for future petroleum engineers from all nationalities
and walks of life, the Mewbourne School
of Petroleum and Geological Engineering's
influence extends across the country and
around the world.
The legacy of the last century lives on
in us, the bearers of the next 100 years of
unlimited energy at the University of
Oklahoma.
Worldwide Influence
One OU professor, the late Don Menzie, had a saying: "The sun never sets on
OU petroleum engineers."
The thousands of OU petroleum and
geological engineering alumni, Menzie
liked to explain, are spread across the
globe. Wherever there is daylight, no
matter the continent, no matter the time
zone, a University of Oklahoma petroleum
engineer is there.
"It is easy to assume that all the
changes and iterations in OU's petroleum
engineering program evolved naturally,
even easily in our oil-rich state," considers
Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy
Dean J. Mike Stice. "But it didn't. Our
legacy came about from risk takers and
engineering faculty who understood how
the industry would change long before
those changes occurred."
Not only did the program attract local
students looking to be a part of the state's
biggest industry, but students came from
across the nation and around the world
to learn petroleum and geological engineering from the best. In 1933, the School
of Petroleum Engineering had representation from all 48 states in the union.
Nearly half of the university's 18 international students were studying petroleum
engineering. Between 1931 and 1940,
397 students graduated from OU with
petroleum engineering degrees. With such
a large group of students, organizations
were soon to follow.
"OU's petroleum engineering department was instrumental in fostering some
of the early leaders in the state's oil and
natural gas industry," observes Oklahoma
Energy Resources Board Executive Director Mindy Stitt. "The strength of our
industry today is a testament to their
leadership."
"The footprints of our graduates are
all over this campus," reflects petroleum
engineering alumnus Curtis W. Mewbourne.
"No other single group of OU graduates
has been more accomplished in life, or

more generous in sharing that success
with this university. Our graduates are the
largest donors to OU in its history."
In the last 20 years alone, the school's
faculty members have played extensive
roles in developing new technology, methods
and best practices in the petroleum industry.
According to school director Chandra Rai,
the most notable areas for that include
petrophysics of unconventional reservoirs,
rock mechanics, rheological properties of
drilling fluids and chemical flooding.
"Students come from around the world
to study petroleum engineering at OU,"
Rai notes. "Very few academic institutions
have the kind of undergraduate teaching
labs that we do. We were the first university
to have a digital drilling simulator and
now we have a well control simulator.
Those labs, which provide experiential
learning opportunities, combined with
our outstanding faculty and close industry
relationships, make the Mewbourne School
of Petroleum and Geological Engineering
a special place."
OU petroleum engineering graduates,
faculty, students and friends of the university will gather in September for a
special centennial celebration with the
dedication of a memorial to honor the
school's proud history.
The words of beloved former pro-

fessor Menzie still ring true today. Wherever the sun rises, no matter the time
zone or continent, regardless of the language spoken, there will be an OU petroleum engineer.
❒

SARAH
WARREN

Sarah Warren is the director of
communications and events at the
University of Oklahoma's Mewbourne
College of Earth and Energy. She has
more than a decade's experience in
higher-education communications and
devotes much of her work toward
telling the story of science, technology,
engineering and math research and
explaining how it shapes the world.
Warren holds a B.B.A. in business
broadcasting from Baylor University
and a master's of professional writing
from the University of Oklahoma.

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