OREANDA-NEWS.  December 12, 2013. Saudi Aramco is set to confer for the first time its highest honor in recognition of the game-changing achievements of a select few of its scientists.

Ali Dogru will be named the first Saudi Aramco Fellow, an accolade proposed and recently endorsed by Saudi Aramco’s Management Development & Organization Committee (MD&OC) to recognize the achievements of top scientists who have made ground-breaking contributions.

Such is the prestige of the new award, it will initially be restricted to a maximum of three scientists.

In his career, Dogru played a pivotal role in the development of various mathematical reservoir simulators for thermal and chemical oil recovery. He also developed new techniques for in-reservoir problems in reservoir simulation and pressure transient analysis.

In Saudi Aramco, his vision and leadership yielded two consecutive in-house reservoir simulators: POWERS (Parallel Oil Water Gas Enhanced Reservoir Simulator) and GigaPOWERS, an innovation that Saudi Aramco now uses around-the-clock to manage oil and gas reservoirs and develop new fields.

Among his many achievements, Dogru has received SPE’s 2012 John Cranklin Carll Award, SPE’s 2008 Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, the 2010 World Oil Innovative Thinker Award and ADIPEC’s Best Technology Award for 2010.

Dogru has 10 U.S. patents and has published more than 40 technical works in professional journals. He also serves on a number of professional society committees and manages collaborations with world-recognized scientific institutions and universities. Since 2011 Dogru has been a visiting scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He spoke of his delight at receiving the company’s first ever Fellowship.

“It is a great honor for me to be selected for the first Fellow of Saudi Aramco,” Dogru said. “I have truly enjoyed working with many valuable colleagues, sharing knowledge and applying new ideas to real problems. Saudi Aramco certainly deserves big credit for providing opportunities and an environment for creative work and being supportive of research and development.

“Throughout my 25-year career with the company, I was learning something new every day. Our offices became like a home. I must admit that it would be hard to match the peaceful and fruitful environment of Dhahran for scientific achievements.

"Everyone in my teams worked as a family, for long hours, long years, sharing the ups and downs. It was due to the dedication of my colleagues that we were able to come up with innovations and ultimately develop important products for the company. I am looking forward to more scientific and professional achievements for Saudi Aramco,” Dogru said.