14 Erdal Ozkan Another year has passed and it is the time to say hello again. It was a good year until early summer when we lost Robert Thompson. As in the previous two years, we had spent two weeks in Massodona with Robert and it was another excellent PE 316 Field Session. I could Erdal Ozkan not believe it when I heard the shocking news. It will take me a long time to get use to the fact that I cannot rely on Robert’s experience, wisdom, and friendship anymore. So many other things have happened during the last year. In general it was a busy year but not out <strong>of</strong> the ordinary. I enjoyed teaching and research. In addition to the ongoing Horizontal Well Completion Project, I obtained funding for another project on the Optimization <strong>of</strong> Plunger Lift Performance in Stripper Gas Wells. These projects and my other research should keep me busy for some time. My family and I spent most <strong>of</strong> the summer in Turkey. It was a hot summer. (Global warming must be for real!) Coming back was nice but I am still trying to finish the work accumulated in my absence. My goal is to clean my desk by the time we meet in New Orleans for the SPE Conference (looking at my desk, it looks like an ambitious plan). Two <strong>of</strong> my students, Jamir Gil and Mohammed Al-khamis, will present papers at the SPE conference this year. I am very proud <strong>of</strong> them and I hope you can come to listen to their presentations and support them. Hoping to see you in New Orleans in October. Turhan Yildiz This is the very first newsletter I am writing as I have just joined the faculty <strong>of</strong> <strong>petroleum</strong> <strong>engineering</strong>. Prior to joining CSM, I have worked at three other universities and spent several years in the oil industry. I have taught courses on production and reservoir <strong>engineering</strong>. I was involved in projects ranging from the development <strong>of</strong> a new formation testing tool for tight gas sands to integrated surface facility/pipeline network/ reservoir simulation <strong>of</strong> gas fields with commingled multiple reservoirs. I received my BS degree from Istanbul Technical University and MS and PhD degrees from Louisiana State University, all in <strong>petroleum</strong> <strong>engineering</strong>. My main objective in teaching basic undergraduate level courses is to convey critical thinking and problem solving capabilities to the students. Besides teaching algorithms and <strong>engineering</strong> calculation procedures, I try to cover how the algorithms and models can be tied with the physical phenomena and blend the theory with the open-ended projects based on incomplete, partial, and contradictory real field data. I see the graduate study as the making <strong>of</strong> a researcher and an advanced technology practitioner. As a research advisor, I make the effort to see that the advisee grows to be a better researcher than the advisor. In my research work, I search for practical solutions to real field problems, based on fundamental physical principles and the advanced computing technology. Currently, I am one <strong>of</strong> the co-principal investigators <strong>of</strong> the Joint-Industry-Project titled “Optimization <strong>of</strong> Horizontal Well Comple- Turhan Yildiz tions." In conjunction with this project, we are developing s<strong>of</strong>tware for evaluating different completion options for horizontal/multilateral wells. Last year, I spent most <strong>of</strong> my time developing and teaching a Capstone Design Course, which is required by ABET. The goals set for the design course are to integrate fundamentals and design concepts <strong>of</strong> <strong>petroleum</strong> geology, formation evaluation, reservoir, production, drilling aspects <strong>of</strong> <strong>petroleum</strong> <strong>engineering</strong>, to work with real field data in a multi-disciplinary team environment, and to expose the students to openended problems. The design problems are selected to cover as many aspects <strong>of</strong> real oilfield operations as possible. In the summer, I taught a graduate class on Advanced/Intelligent/Multilateral Well Performance. I also spent part <strong>of</strong> the summer doing research for the JIP on horizontal wells. At CSM, I started teaching a course on well completion and stimulation. I plan to develop new courses on natural gas field operations and <strong>engineering</strong> and surface facility design. I look forward to meeting the alumni during the SPE Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
<strong>2001</strong> Summer <strong>Alumni</strong> Picnic Bakersfield, CA Chapter 15
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