October 2011 Newsletter - petroleum engineering colorado school ...

FACULTY LETTERSKAZEMI CONT.in August, which I am currently enjoying. Finally, the NFLgames are beginning to shape up to satisfy my interest insports through January 2012. I think the NBA season will bedoubtful for this year which will make college basketball theplace to focus!My summer was really a working summer. Seven of my PhDstudents stayed at CSM to work on their theses. Hopefully,we will be able to graduate four or five of these students byyear-end 2011. Another student conducted her research inHouston while flying back and forth to CSM to review herwork.matrix-flow dominated reservoirs with discontinuousfractures, and especially our experimental work. In fall2011, I will teach Reservoir Simulation with an emphasis onDiscontinuous Galerkin finite-element method. This course,as usual, will be both a fluid flow and a numerical simulationcourse. In spring 2012, I will teach Flow in Naturally FracturedReservoirs and Numerical Simulation.I wish everyone the best in health and a productive academicyear.Adding to this were students’ technical papers, theses andother documents. Obviously, it is the age of the internet andwe must work 24/7! Last summer I wrote that according toTony Komaroff of Business Week, Harvard doctors’ secretsfor healthy living was to “ditch the iPhones.” How true, butthis has not worked out for me so far and I continue to add tomy iDevices!As for the upcoming fall semester, I am very excited aboutthe prospect of making significant progress in our researchprograms on low-permeability shale and sand formations,The Black Bear with a White Spot on its Chest in theCabin Backyard, MT, July 2011MARK G. MILLERAnother year brings manystudents to our department- an ongoing headline.CSM has done very wellin various ratings andsurveys, bringing lotsof students to campusand our department inparticular. Last fall broughtapproximately 110 studentsinto the junior classes. Thisfall’s junior enrollmentis over 150. In additionto teaching the juniorsprogramming this semesterMark G. Miller and production next, Iteach a section of graduateproduction, and am also responsible for our department’scomputer labs, computers, printers and servers. It was verysatisfying last spring to receive teaching awards from thestudents. The seniors voted me “Outstanding PetroleumEngineering Faculty”. The Order of Omega also awarded methe “Teacher of the Year” for the petroleum faculty.In addition to school year duties, I was able to help withthe second field session and our SuperSchool. Leadingfield session was a lot of fun, but I am glad Jennifer is back.More about it is in the 316 field session section. Bill Eustescoordinated most of this year’s SuperSchool field trip.However, I would like to thank Ramsey King of Anadarkofor helping organize the production facilities part of the day.Finally, I was saddenedto learn of Bill Mitchell’spassing. Bill always hadan interesting story to tell.Whether talking aboutthe forces on spaghetti,chasing monkeys throughthe Venezuelan rain forest(with a helicopter), or howto make yourself into amillionaire, he enjoyedhelping students learn. Iwill miss Bill’s charismatichandling of classroomduties, seven a.m. lectures,and extra-curricularadventures.Mark showing off his “OutstandingPetroleum Engineering Faculty” award9