Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering

Leading the Nation in Educating Future Petroleum and Geosystems Engineers

The Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering (PGE) at The University of Texas at Austin leads the nation not only in preparing future engineers for professions in energy-related fields, but also in strategizing what the relationship will be in the coming decades between people and their energy needs. Our mission is to help ensure an energy-secure future that balances environmental impact and affordable energy supply.

To fulfill this mission, we pursue research in:

• Drilling, Well Completions and Rock Mechanics
• Unconventional Natural Gas Engineering
• Reservoir Engineering
• Production Engineering
• Carbon Dioxide Sequestration
• Environmental Engineering
• Fundamental Processes
• Integrated Reservoir Characterization
• Nanoparticle Engineering for Subsurface Processes

Points of Distinction

PGE's graduate program ranks No. 1 according to U.S. News & World Report.

PGE has the largest petroleum doctoral program in the world.

PGE is one of the largest undergraduate programs in the United States

Five of 17 departmental faculty are members of the National Academy of Engineering.

More than 20 percent of petroleum engineering Ph.D. recipients in the world graduated from the PGE Department at The University of Texas at Austin.

Thirty alumni are faculty members in petroleum engineering departments around the world.

The average starting salary for a bachelor's degree holder from the department (2009) is $87,784.

PGE helps introduce 800 girls to science and engineering

As part of the Sequestration Training, Outreach, Research and Education program (STORE), four members of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering participated in a day-long intensive program with hands-on sessions and panel discussions to teach girls about issues in energy and petroleum engineering. Drs. Jon Olson and Carlos Torres-Verdin, both professors in the department, and graduate students Angelica Hernandez and Precious Williams, attended the event alongside more than 800 high school girls from Ursuline Academy in Dallas. The goal of STORE is to increase public awareness of energy, climate and water issues and to promote careers in science and engineering.

Research Collaboration: Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security (CFSES)

The PGE Department is a strategic partner in the Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security (CFSES) located at The University of Texas at Austin and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The purpose of the center is to pursue scientific understanding of subsurface physical, chemical and biological processes. Other collaborating university entities include the Institute of Computational Engineering and Sciences and the Jackson School of Geosciences (JSG) and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

Formation Evaluation Joint Research Consortium

Formation Evaluation at The University of Texas at Austin develops static and dynamic descriptions of rock formations from the quantitative and systematic integration of borehole measurements, core measurements, petrophysical properties of rocks, measurement physics/chemistry, fluid properties and geological information. The University of Texas at Austin is the worldwide academic leader in formation evaluation. Visit our research Web site to learn more.