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New Joiners @ the PI as of 1st Nov. 2009
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Dr. Ioannis G. Economou
Associate Provost for Graduate Studies
Dr. Ioannis G. Economou is the Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Petroleum Institute. Dr. Economou holds a Diploma of Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (1987) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA (1992). He held post-doctoral positions at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and at Exxon Research & Engineering Company in USA. Dr. Economou served as a Research Fellow at the University College, London, UK and at Princeton University, USA then as a Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Denmark. He has consulted extensively for major oil and chemical companies. He has supervised 10 PhD dissertations, five post-doctorial and numerous MSc students. He has published more than 90 research articles in leading journals in Chemical Engineering, Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science. Dr. Ioannis has given more than 50 invited lectures in academic and industrial institutions and more than 120 conference presentations in Europe, North America and Asia.
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Dr. John C. Chai
Chair, Mechanical Engineering
John C. Chai is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Petroleum Institute. He received his BS (with first-class honors) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Windsor, Canada and his MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. In 1994 he graduated from the University of Minnesota, USA with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He spent 12 years in academia at the Tennessee Technological University, USA and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests include development of numerical methods and models for fluid flow and heat transfer related transport phenomena. He has supervised three completed MS theses, seven completed PhD dissertations and two post-docs. He has published over 60 journal articles and contributed a chapter to the second edition of the Handbook of Numerical Heat Transfer. Dr. Chai is an editorial board member of Computational Thermal Sciences and an Elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
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Dr. Hemanta Kumar Sarma
Chair, Petroleum Engineering
Professor Sarma, who joined the PI in May 2009 as Chairman of the Petroleum Engineering Department, was most recently a Professor and the Reg Sprigg Chair in Petroleum Engineering in the Australian School of Petroleum, University of Adelaide. He is also the founding Director of the Centre for Improved Petroleum Recovery at the University of Adelaide. He has published extensively besides being a consultant to a number of petroleum companies in the areas of reservoir engineering and EOR and has worked in several field R&D pilots. Dr. Sarma received a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from University of Alberta, Canada. He is a 2009 recipient of Distinguished Membership from the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Chair of SPE’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty Award Committee, an Associate Editor of SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal, and has led an academic taskforce looking at improving the quality of the Journal. He is a 2008 recipient of The Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning and a 2006 Excellence in Teaching Prize at the University of Adelaide.
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Dr. Nisreen Hamad
Chair, Advanced University Placement (AUP) Department
Dr. Hamad joins the PI as Chair for the Advanced University Placement (AUP) Department. Dr. Hamad obtained her PhD (1996) in chemistry from the University of Liverpool, UK. Her post-graduate research involved applications of targeted drug delivery systems. She worked in research and educational capacities at Duke University and M & I Medical Inc., USA before she returned to Abu Dhabi to assume the post of Deputy Director at the International School of Choueifat. She also served as the School University Advisor for placement of students in universities, both local and international. In fall of 2008 Dr. Hamad joined The Glenelg School of Abu Dhabi where she taught chemistry, as well as a Pre-Advanced Placement course that she developed to prepare students for the Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry Course.
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Mr. Abdullah M. Al Darmaki
Director, HR & Administration
As an HR specialist, Mr. Al Darmaki has more than 13 years of experience in human resources management with special emphasis on manpower planning, recruitment, employee relations, personnel administration, career development and computerized human resources systems. Before joining the PI, Mr. Al Darmaki was Manager of Human Resources Division for GASCO. Prior to that, he spent six years with ADNOC in the procurement and contracting field and with major oil and gas contractors/consultants such as Bechtel (USA), Brown & Root (USA) and Snamprogetti (Italy). This experience provided him with profound knowledge and expertise in the purchase of oil and gas equipment, materials and machinery. Mr. Al Darmaki holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and Accounts. He is married and has three children.
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Mr. Helal R. Al Busaeedi
Acting Finance Manager
Mr. Al Busaeedi earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from Xavier University, Ohio (USA) majoring in finance. He has 10 years of significant experience in increasingly responsible roles within Finance with ADNOC, Operating Companies and Banking Sector. Since November 2008 Mr. Al Busaeedi has served as Acting Finance Manager at the Petroleum Institute. In this position he is responsible for the overall leadership of the Finance Department.
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Dr. Gemal Seede
IT Director
Dr. Gemal Seede has a 23 year professional career that includes leading information technology departments in the USA, at The Walt Disney Company, Warner Brothers Online, Quaker Oats and Zenith National Insurance. Prior to being employed at the Petroleum Institute, he operated a consulting firm in Los Angeles specializing in assisting small to medium businesses with their IT needs. Dr. Seede earned a BSc in Chemical/Biochemical Engineering (1982) from the University of Western Ontario, Canada; a MBA (1987) from the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA, with a concentration in Finance, and a MS (1997) and PhD (2002) in Information Science at Claremont Graduate University, USA. Dr. Seede is married and has 4 children.
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Anita Gray
Comprehensive Academic Management System (CAMS) Manager
Mrs. Anita Gray has 14 years experience in higher education administration. Ten of these years she was employed by state-run higher education institutions in Oklahoma and Texas and four years for a private higher education institution in Alaska. She worked as Assistant to the Registrar for the first 1½ years, spent one year as Associate Registrar, and the remaining 11½ years as Registrar. With each university came a database conversion leading to her current position as Comprehensive Academic Management System (CAMS) Manager at the PI. Mrs. Gray holds a MA Degree in Political Science (1997) and a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Science (1996) from West Texas A&M University, USA.
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DR. Brian Bielenberg
Head, Center for Teaching Excellence & Assistant Professor of Communications
Dr. Brian Bielenberg will assume his duties at the Petroleum Institute as the Head of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Assistant Professor of Communications in December 2009. Dr. Bielenberg has the extremely rare combination of a BS in Metallurgical Engineering, a MS in Materials Science, a M.Ed in Bilingual/Multicultural Education, and a PhD in Educational Linguistics. His experience and interest in integrating language and content, his interest in the language of mathematics and science together with his 5 years’ previous experience in the UAE bear witness to his potential to make excellent contributions to the Communication and STEPS courses and to lead the Center for Teaching Excellence.
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Dr. Mohan Rao
Visiting Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Mohan Rao is a Visiting Professor from Michigan Tech University, USA, where he is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Department. He joined Michigan Tech in 1988 soon after receiving his PhD from Auburn University, Alabama, USA. He is a Fellow of two major professional societies — the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) and the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE). He has conducted both basic and applied research in different areas of acoustics and vibration ranging from analytical modeling of damping of materials, joints and composite structures to experimental work involving small power tools to large scale machines, e.g. excavators, diesel engines and structures. His research has been sponsored by state and federal agencies and industries that include NASA, NSF, ARL, State of Florida, Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler, Caterpillar, TRW, Johnson Controls, John Deere, NIOSH, Arctic Cat, Polaris, Xerox, and Volvo-Korea. He has over 100 publications in technical journals and conference proceedings, advised seven PhD and 35 MS students. Dr. Rao has received the National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award and was honored by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for his work on the damping of the Hubble Space Telescope truss system. In addition, he was recognized as a United Nations Development Program expert in Noise & Vibration Control. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration.
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Dr. Sami Ainane
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Ainane joins the PI as a Visiting Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He obtained a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1980 from the Joseph Fourrier University in Grenoble France and, in 1989, completed a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, USA. His research focused on the development of a closure for the equations for turbulent flow. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Campus and, in 1997, joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at University of Maryland as Director of Undergraduate Studies. His duties included advising 600+ students, scheduling all Mechanical Engineering courses, hiring instructors, coordinating ABET efforts, chairing the Undergraduate Committee, coordinating outreach and recruitment activities, teaching, starting a Collaborative Engineering Program, supervising staff, and serving on several department, college and university committees. Last year Dr. Ainane received a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma from Villanova University, USA.
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Dr. Ihsan Al Asam
Professor, Petroleum Geosciences
Dr. Al Aasm joins the PI as Professor in the Petroleum Geosciences Department from the University of Windsor, Canada, where he was the Head of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department since 2003. He earned a MSc at the University of Baghdad and PhD in 1985 at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is an expert in chemical, mineralogical and isotopic studies of carbonate and plastic sediments, reservoir characterization and porosity evolution and environmental isotope studies of lake systems. Dr. Al Aasm has completed a large number of consulting projects with oil companies. His exceptional publication record comprises more than 70 peer-reviewed journal papers and more than 90 conference presentations.
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Dr. C. S. Kannan
Visiting Professor, Chemical Engineering
Dr. Kannan holds a PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. After his PhD (1993), he worked with various industries for approximately eight years before opting for an academic career with a public university in Malaysia. His last assignment before joining PI was with Monash University as a Senior Lecturer. Dr. Kannan was funded for six research projects over the last eight years and has published more than 50 papers in international journals. His areas of specialization include fluidization, gasification/pyrolysis, porous carbons/adsorption, advanced oxidation techniques for waste water treatment. He holds an Honorary Professor position with Kunming University of Science and Technology, China, where he is involved with a number of carbon development projects and microwave applications. He is an active reviewer for a number of international journals and an editorial board member for the Journal of Sustainable Development.
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Dr. Ruichong Zhang
Visiting Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Zhang received his BS and MS degrees respectively in 1984 and 1987 from Tongji University, Shanghai, China and PhD degree from Florida Atlantic University (USA) in 1992. He is a registered Professional Engineer in California. Before joining Colorado School of Mines, USA, he had worked in Princeton University (USA) as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate, and in University of Southern California (USA) as a Research Assistant Professor. His research interest resides in continuum mechanics, vibration theory, wave propagation, stochastic processes and fields, and advanced data processing and analysis for sensory systems, disaster assessment and mitigation, and structural/geotechnical nondestructive evaluation and health monitoring. He is the author of one edited book, one book chapter, one edited journal, thirty nine journal papers and numerous papers in conference proceedings and edited books. He is the recipient of the 1997 IASSAR Junior Research Prize in Stochastic Dynamics for his contribution to the solutions of seismic wave propagation through stochastic media bestowed by International Association for Structural Safety and Reliability (IASSAR).
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Dr. Andreas Paul Fröba
Visiting Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering
Dr. Fröba occupies a tenure-track position at the Associate Professor level established in the framework of the Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies (SAOT) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Until 2008, he was an Assistant Professor and head of the group Heat and Energy Engineering & Thermophysical Property Research at the Department of Engineering Thermodynamics at the Institute of Chemical and Bioengineering of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he was awarded a Dr.‑Ing. (2002) and a Dr.‑Sc. habil in Engineering Thermodynamics in 2009. He has strong expertise in the determination of thermophysical properties of fluids by dynamic light scattering (DLS). His current interests involve condensation heat transfer and sea water desalination by mechanical vapour compression. He has produced more than sixty referred journal and conference papers. More than thirty of them are published in international peer reviewed journals and listed in the science citation index. He is a principal investigator of the Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies (SAOT) and an elected member of the International Association for Transport Properties (IATP). He is also a member of the peer review board of more than fifteen scientific journals.
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Dr. Haytham Mahmoud
Assistant Professor, STPS, College of Arts & Sciences
Dr. Mahmoud received a PhD in Civil Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA, a MS in Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida, USA, a MS in Information Technology from the University of Alexandria, Egypt and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Alexandria. Before joining the PI he was a Construction Outreach Program Director for Hodges University, Naples, Florida, USA. His previous experience included School of Technology Professor at Hodges, Assistant Professor in Computing at West Texas A&M University, Texas, USA and Systems Analyst and Internet Designer at CitiGroup, USA. His current research interests include: image processing; robotics in construction; fuzzy logic; and safety. He has received a number of research grants from a number of agencies and has extensive research experience. Dr. Mahmoud has published around 15 journal articles and conference papers.
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Dr. Ebrahim Al-Hajri
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Al-Hajri was granted a scholarship from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to pursue his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. Five years later, (2001) Dr. Al-Hajri earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona, USA. In summer 2001, Dr. Al-Hajri was again granted a scholarship from ADNOC to pursue his studies in mechanical engineering. He then joined the University of Colorado at Denver, USA and earned his MS in Mechanical Engineering in 2003. In fall of 2003, Dr. Al-Hajri joined the University of Maryland, USA graduate program to pursue his PhD. Dr. Al-Hajri graduated in summer 2009 with a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering. His dissertation title was “Prediction of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Condensing Refrigerant Flow in High Aspect Ratio Micro-Channels”.
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Dr. Youcef Boucidi
Assistant Professor, Petroleum Geosciences
Dr. Boucidi earned his MSc from Columbia University, New York, USA and his PhD from the University of Alberta, Canada in 2003. He is a geophysicist specializing in seismic data processing. Before joining the PI, he was a Research Geophysicist with GeoX Systems, Calgary, Canada. Dr. Boucidi has extensive experience with industry-related seismic processing and is an expert in acoustics, rock physics and AVO analysis. He has twelve years of teaching experience and published seven papers in highly-ranked journals. In 2001 he won the best paper award of the American Geophysical Union with a contribution on porous material characterization using large ultrasonic beams.
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Dr. Flavia Fiorini
Assistant Professor, Petroleum Geosciences
Dr. Fiorini graduated in Geology from the University of Bologna, Italy, and received her PhD from the University of Modena, Italy, in 2002. Before joining the PI in December 2008 as Assistant Professor, Petroleum Geosciences, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bologna, Italy, and Dalhousie University, Canada. Dr. Fiorini specializes in micropaleontology, specifically modern and fossil benthic foraminifera, and the camoebians, as well as more general aspects of paleoenvironmental and paleogeographic reconstructions. She has completed a number of research projects with the petroleum industry and has a strong publication record in international journals.
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Dr. Dyana Saju Ambrose
Research Associate, Chemical Engineering
Dr. Dyana Ambrose received her PhD in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Kerala, India. She has a background in general chemistry and polymer chemistry. Prior to joining the PI, she worked as a research assistant at the Indian Space Research Center, in the area of polymers. Her research work was on Shape Memory Polymers which includes the synthesis and characterization of polymers such as polyurethanes, nanocomposites and epoxy composites. Her research interests are in polymer synthesis, composite development and polymer characterization. Dr. Ambrose’s teaching interests include general chemistry and polymer chemistry. She was awarded the best academic student in MSc and also received the CSIR Scholarship for five years. She authored four publications in international journals and presented two papers at international conferences.
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Dr. Shib Sankar Saha
Research Associate, Electrical Engineering
Dr. Shib Sankar Saha holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University, India. Before joining the PI as a Research Associate, he was at the Government College of Engineering and Textile Tech, Berhampore, India as an Assistant Professor. Besides teaching he was also involved in several energy conservation projects as a consultant energy auditor. His research interests include development of soft-switched converter topologies for various applications like ZV-ZCS DC/DC converter, active power factor correction and active filtering, etc. His work involves the design, simulation, prototype hardware fabrication and laboratory experimentation of converters.
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Shiv Shankar Kundu
Senior Research Laboratory Engineer, Petroleum Engineering
Mr. Kundu holds a MSc degree in Physical Chemistry from University of Kalyani and has submitted his PhD dissertation in Applied Chemistry at Indian School of Mines University, India towards a doctoral degree. He was the top student in his university during his post graduation studies. His research interests include scale inhibition/dissolution in aqueous systems and removal in oil well reservoir, reservoir scale management, dynamic core flood studies, produced water injection studies, brine and chemical compatibility studies. Mr. Kundu has extensively worked on the development of green inhibitors for flow assurance, interpretation of FT-IR, XRD, TGA, DSC & SEM results, surface morphology studies for scale, polymer inhibition and software modeling of scaling phenomena during his PhD program.
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Inger Krueger
Information Services Librarian
Originally from the American Mid-West, Ms. Krueger joins the PI after working as the Public Services Librarian at Paul Smith’s College in upstate New York, USA. Ms. Krueger earned a BA from Boston University, USA and MLIS from the Dominican University (2006). While at Paul Smith College Library she worked extensively in the Information Literacy program, an area the PI continues to develop. Prior to her becoming a librarian she worked as an EFL teacher in Asia and Eastern Europe. She is assigned to both the Habshan and Arzanah Libraries.
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