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Rice MECH alumnus elected president-elect of Canadian Academy of Engineering

Soheil Asgarpour '81 serves as president of the Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada.

Soheil Asgarpour

Soheil Asgarpour, a doctoral graduate in mechanical engineering (MECH) from Rice University, has been elected president-elect of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE).

Asgarpour, president of the Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (PTAC), was elected last year during the CAE’s virtual Annual General Meeting.

Asgarpour graduated from the University of Tehran with a B.S. in MECH in 1975 and from Rice with a Ph.D. in MECH in 1981. He completed the Executive Management Program at the Western Business School, University of Western Ontario, and the Leadership Program at Yale School of Management.

For the next 17 years, he worked for Gulf Canada Resources, where he oversaw the company’s joint venture and development activities. After four years as chief operating officer and executive vice president at Canadian 88 Energy Corp., Asgarpour worked for the Alberta Department of Energy as a business leader for oil sands development.

He is a fellow of the CAE and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM). In 2002-03, Asgarpour served as president of CIM. He has also served as chair of the Petroleum Society, first vice chair of the Petroleum Recovery Institute and director of the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations.

He has published more than 40 articles in Canadian and American technology and business journals devoted to such subjects as reservoir engineering, production engineering, enhanced oil recovery, horizontal drilling technology, risk analysis, reserves estimation, economic evaluation, statistical analyses, heat transfer, solar energy and nuclear technology.

Asgarpour has received the Petroleum Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award and CIM’s Distinguished Service Award.

He is a life member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and a member of the Canadian Society for Senior Engineers.
PTAC is a Canadian hydrocarbon industry association founded in 1996 to promote collaborative research and technology development for the oil and gas industry.

Photograph courtesy of PTAC

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