(MERS) Group

Olufemi Olorode

Dr. Olufemi Olorode is an Assistant Professor in the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana State University (LSU). He has four years of experience in the oil and gas industry as a reservoir engineer at Afren Resources and has been at LSU since 2018. He specializes in unconventional resource modeling, fracture modeling, machine learning, and production forecasting for conventional and unconventional resources. He has authored several publications in the area of numerical modeling of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. Dr. Olorode received the SPE Journal Outstanding Technical Editor Award in 2018 and serves as a technical reviewer for several journals, including SPE J, JPSE, Energy & Fuels, IEEE TRGS, Energies, etc. He holds MS and PhD degrees in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University and a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

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CV: Olorode_CV (PDF)

Clement Afagwu

Dr. Clement Afagwu is a postdoctoral researcher in the MERS group. With over six years of research experience, he has authored more than 11 peer-reviewed publications and has three years of industry experience as a reservoir engineer. Dr. Afagwu serves as an active technical reviewer for several prestigious journals, including Elsevier’s JGSE, JPSE, AJSE, SPE J, Energy & Fuels, and MDPI Journals. His research expertise encompasses multiscale and multiphysics transport mechanisms, enhanced oil recovery in shale reservoirs, and CO₂ storage modeling. He has earned several accolades, including the 2022 Presidential Award for Outstanding Student Chapter and first place in the 2021 SPE Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Petrobowl Championship. Dr. Afagwu holds a Ph.D. degree in Petroleum Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, as well as BS and MS degrees from the University of Benin, Nigeria.

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Temitayo Adeyemi

Temitayo Adeyemi is a second-year Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a Master’s degree from Louisiana State University, both in Petroleum Engineering. Prior to joining the MERS research group, he spent 2 years working on reservoir surveillance and hydrocarbon production optimization using Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensors (DAS, DSS, and DTS). Via Molecular Dynamics Simulation, he currently investigates the underlying physics and chemistry associated with gas hydrates formation and dissociation. Temitayo has authored and co-authored numerous publications in reputable journals such as SPE Journal, IJMFL, and SPIE.

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Sid Ahmed Hammoudi

Sid Ahmed Hammoudi is a first-year Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. He has a background in chemistry and chemical engineering, with a bachelor's degree in Process Engineering, as well as two master's degrees; one in chemical engineering from the University of Sciences and Technology, Houari Boumediene and the other in Applied Chemistry & Chemical Engineering from Kogakuin University, Japan. He also has work experience in drilling, Quality control, and market research in addition to research experience in drilling fluids, equilibrium and non-equilibrium Molecular dynamics applied for next-generation batteries. Currently, Sid Ahmed is working on applying a deep learning framework to accelerate coarse-grained MD simulation of CO₂ hydrates.

Chibuzor Igweonu

Chibuzor Success Igweonu holds a B.Eng. degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Delta, Nigeria. His current research focuses on geologic energy storage and recovery techniques and the innovative use of Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) as a method to prevent CO₂ and H₂ leakage in underground reservoir rocks. He is well versed in Machine Learning/Deep Learning and in the use of reservoir modeling tools, such as CMG, MRST, etc. Before joining LSU, Chibuzor worked as an associate in financial Advisory at Deloitte, Lagos, Nigeria, where he played a pivotal role in securing significant funding for multiple high-profile projects. Before that, he worked for about 3 years as a Well Cementing Engineer at Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited in Nigeria, which further solidified his practical expertise in the petroleum industry, supervising cementing operations and designing well-cementing job programs.

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Victory Oghale

Victory Oghale is a first-year master’s student in the MERS research group with a strong focus on integrating advanced computational techniques into reservoir simulations. His research involves incorporating physics constraints into deep learning models to drive innovation in the field. Victory holds a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He brings valuable industry experience, having served as a Business Manager at Pinnacle M&B Limited, an oil and gas servicing firm, where he played a pivotal role in contract procurement and management. He also worked as a Product Manager at Mags Engineering, where he led the development and launch of the company’s first official website. Victory is highly proficient in the use of reservoir simulators, particularly CMG, and is passionate about applying emerging technologies to solve complex engineering challenges.

Gideon Hikah-Benson

Gideon Hikah-Benson is an undergraduate student of chemical engineering, who works as a student worker in the MERS group. He joined the MERS group in 2023 and has acquired and demonstrated expertise in the post-processing and visualization of our atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation results. As an advanced Meta Quest user, he fits naturally into our VR visualization efforts.

Meisam Adibifard

Meisam Adibifard is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. Meisam has a strong background in petroleum and chemical engineering, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering, as well as two Master's degrees, one in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs from Sahand University of Technology and the other in Chemical Engineering from Mississippi State University. He has a track record of publications in various areas, including machine learning applications in reservoir characterization, computational fluid dynamics, and analytical modeling of fluid flow in porous media. Currently, Meisam is focused on utilizing large-scale molecular dynamics to study nonequilibrium dissociation of gas clathrates.

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Harun Rashid

Harun Ur Rashid was a Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. He conducted research and published journals focusing on the numerical modeling of fractured reservoirs, such as unconventional oil and gas, geothermal, and underground CO₂ storage reservoirs. He holds a master's degree in mining engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a bachelor's degree in petroleum and mining engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh. He actively contributes to the scientific community by providing peer review services for esteemed journals like Energies and the Journal of Computational Physics. Harun graduated from the MERS group in May, 2024 and currently works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Los Alamos National Lab.

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Ahmed Abdullah

Ahmed Abdullah is a Petroleum Engineering graduate from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia, specializing in reservoir studies. With 3 years of experience in reservoir engineering, academic research, and data science, his current research focuses on experimental and numerical studies of coupled THM process.

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Hassan Amer

Hassan Amer was an MS student of the MERS Group. His master's work involved the simulation of cyclic EOR and a novel slot-drill EOR technology proposed for increasing oil recovery from shale-oil reservoirs. He graduated in Summer 2021 and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the Petroleum Engineering department at the University of Texas, Austin.

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Thelma Ihunde

Thelma Ihunde is a former member of the MERS Group. She earned a BS in Petroleum Engineering and an MBA from LSU prior to joining the MERS group. Her MS thesis and journal publication centered on the application of physics-informed neural networks in compositional modeling. She graduated in May, 2022 and currently works as an engineering and regulatory analyst for Tellurian inc.

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