Schechter Named New Petroleum Engineering Chair
August 14, 2024
BATON ROUGE, LA – The College of Engineering has named David Schechter as the new chair of the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering. He brings to the role more than 30 years of dedication to academic petroleum engineering and research in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).
“It is a great honor to become the chair of the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering,” Schechter said. “I am excited to interact with the faculty, staff, and students of this storied department. I am committed to advancing the department’s mission through strategic initiatives with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches, and I am eager to collaborate within the College of Engineering. I look forward to becoming part of the LSU family with its reputation of excellence.”
Schechter began his career as a post-doctoral research associate and, later, assistant professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Stanford University. He then became senior scientist at New Mexico Tech’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center in Socorro, New Mexico. There, he had a joint appointment as adjunct professor in the chemical engineering department and served as interim director of the Petroleum Recovery Research Center. He was also author and principal investigator of a $13 million U.S. Department of Energy project to test CO2 injection/sequestration in the Permian Basin.
Schechter then went on to serve as professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University, where he designed, constructed, and managed the Chapparal-Fischer CO2 EOR laboratories. Most recently, he has worked as vice president of reservoir engineering at EOR ETC –a company that applies cutting-edge technology for co-injection of surfactant and gas for EOR—and serves on its board of directors. Schechter also serves as chief technology officer at Third Wave Production, a company devoted to development and application of specific surfactant formulations for EOR in unconventional liquid reservoirs.
Over the course of his career, Schechter has taught 90 reservoir and production engineering-related industry courses in 18 different countries. He has mentored and graduated more than 90 master’s and Ph.D. students, published more than 170 journal articles and conference papers, and holds one patent. He is also a Distinguished Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, an honor bestowed on less than 1% of the worldwide membership.
“I am excited to welcome Professor Schechter to the College of Engineering at LSU,” said College of Engineering Dean Vicki Colvin. “His notable academic scholarship and industry experience make him the ideal leader for our petroleum engineering department.”
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Contact: Joshua Duplechain
Director of Communications
225-578-5706
josh@lsu.edu