Panel Session

Panel Session: Professional Opportunities and Challenges in the Energy Transition

Location: Room 310

Wednesday, 5 March 2025, 10:55 a.m.–12:00 p.m.  |  Houston, Texas

This panel will examine the evolving landscape of career opportunities in the energy transition sector, with a focus on challenges faced by students and young professionals entering the industry. It will address the existing gaps in entry-level positions, the impact of layoffs, and ways individuals can navigate these challenges to build a sustainable career in the energy sector. Discussions will explore how academia, industry leaders, and young professionals can collaborate to create pathways for new employees to enter and remain in the carbon capture space. Attending this panel will provide valuable insights into building a successful career in the carbon capture industry and offer guidance on overcoming the challenges of entering this dynamic field.

Moderator

Samantha Neades holds an MBA specializing in Oil, Gas & Energy Management and a BSc (Hons.) in Geology. With over a decade of experience in the CCUS industry, she is a core member of the management team at IEAGHG, overseeing both the technical and administrative aspects of the program. Samantha provides expert guidance on CO2 geological storage and manages the organization's storage research networks and its renowned summer school. She takes particular pride in the summer school’s role in shaping the next generation of CCUS leaders.

Panelists

Ali Tura is Professor of Geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) with over 30 years of industry experience prior to academia. Dr. Tura was Geophysical Senior Fellow at ConocoPhillips, Geophysical Advisor at Chevron, and 4D subject matter expert at Shell. He has also been part of the global exploration review teams for ConocoPhillips and Chevron. Dr. Tura is currently Chief Scientist at Tulip Geosciences consulting on global project reviews and geophysical technology implementation with several energy companies in addition to providing courses. He is also co-director of the industry consortium Reservoir Characterization Project (RCP) at CSM which is entering its 40th year with around 20 industry sponsors. Dr. Tura’s expertise is in CCUS, reservoir characterization and monitoring, rock physics and AVO, multi-component and time-lapse seismic, borehole geophysics and fiber optics, machine learning, and compressive sensing acquisition and processing. He was SEG Distinguished Lecturer in 2021 and received the Best Paper Award at SEG-IMAGE conference in 2021 (out of over 700 industry/vendor/academia papers). Dr. Tura has been awarded SEG Life Member in 2024. He serves on multiple SEG, EAGE and SPE technical committees and is actively involved in organizing various international conferences.

Camelia Knapp is the Associate Dean for Research for the Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences and a Professor of Geophysics in the Boone Pickens School of Geology where she holds the V. Brown Monnett Chair of Petroleum Geology. She received a Ph.D. in Geophysics from Cornell University and a B.S. in Geophysical Engineering from the University of Bucharest, Romania. Her involvement with CCUS started in 2009 through an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to study the South Georgia Rift Basin. Since then, she has been part of five other transdisciplinary DOE-funded projects (onshore and offshore). She has served as the co-chair of the Carbon Management Pavilion at IMAGE for two consecutive years.

Divya Shah is currently a CCUS Engineer at Wood working on solving flow assurance and subsurface challenges in CCUS. He completed his Master's in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on CCUS and Hydrogen Storage. He has also completed his undergrad in Petroleum Engineering from Pandit Deendayal Energy University, India. He is an active member and volunteer at the Society of Petroleum Engineers-Gulf Coast Section for the Reservoir, Data Analytics and Energy Transition Study Group.

Fawz Naim is a final-year PhD candidate in Geosciences at The Ohio State University with experience in the energy sector. He works on the application of geoscience and machine learning to improve subsurface characterisation for energy transition technologies. Fawz has contributed to the field of CCUS using his experience in the energy sector and has published articles. He has a strong interest in advancing carbon capture and storage (CCS) solutions to help achieve net-zero goals, and is passionate about collaborating across academia and industry to foster sustainable careers in the energy transition space.

Fee: Included in registration

Location: Room 310

Venue

George R. Brown Convention Center

1001 Avenida De Las Americas

Houston, Texas 77010

United States

(713) 853-8000

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