Tad Patzek is a professor of Geoengineering at U.C. Berkeley.  Prior to joining Berkeley in 1990, he was a researcher at Shell Development in Bellaire, Houston, where he worked on the enhanced oil recovery methods and evaluated the future of U.S. energy supply from tar sands, heavy oil, oil shale, and coal.  Shell Development was created and managed for 20 years by Dr. M. King Hubbert, who in 1956 predicted that oil production in the U.S. would peak in 1970. Patzek has a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from the Silesian Technical University in Poland, where he also studied engineering physics. His Ph.D. thesis was on optimization and control of chemical reactors.  He came to the U.S. as a Fulbright fellow at the University of Minnesota to work on computational fluid mechanics.

Patzek’s current research involves mathematical modeling of earth systems with emphasis on fluid flow in soils and rocks. He is also working on the thermodynamics and ecology of human survival and energy supply schemes for humanity.  Currently, he teaches courses in hydrology, ecology and energy supply, computer science, and mathematical modeling of earth systems at micro and mega scales.  He is an Editor for Transport of Porous Media, and an Associate Editor of Energy Tribune. He is also an active participant in the global debate on biofuels and their environmental and social impacts. Patzek is a coauthor of some 200 papers and reports, and is currently writing four books.  Two of his three children just graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz with B.S. in cellular & molecular biology and biochemistry.  The youngest daughter is in the pre-med program at U.C. Santa Cruz.

Details

Married to Joanna Patzek, 3 children: Lucas, Sophie and Julie

U.S. Citizen since October 1991 

Fields: Petroleum, Chemical, and Environmental Engineering

Education: MS (1974), Ph.D. (1980), Chemical Engineering Department, Silesian Technical University, Poland.

Professional Experience: Professor of GeoEngineering (May 2002-present), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, U.C. Berkeley; Associate Professor (June 1995-May 2002) and Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering (1990-1995), Department of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering, U.C. Berkeley; Senior Reservoir Engineer, Shell Western E&P, Inc. (1989-1990); Senior Research Engineer (1986-1989) and Research Engineer (1983-1986), Enhanced Recovery Research Department, Shell Development; Research Associate, Chemical Engineering Department, University of Minnesota (1981-1983); Research Associate, Chemical Engineering Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Gliwice, Poland (1974-1980).

Other Experience: Consultant and Expert Witness for Shell Oil Company; Forensic Management Associates, Inc.; Chevron Oil Company; Baker-Hughes Company; Sutherland Resources, Inc.; Fireman's Fund Insurance Company; Grippo & Elden; Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Decker; Lempres & Wulfsberg; General Electric, Inc.; PG&E; and Forensic Technologies International, Inc.  President of PV Technologies, Inc., Director of U.C. Oil Consortium. Assistant Scoutmaster for BSA Troop 206.

Professional Societies: Member, Society of Petroleum Engineers; Member, American Institute of Chemical Engineers; Member, American Geophysical Union; Member, American Physical Society., Member, American Chemical Society, Member.

University Service:

2000 – 2005, Chairman of the College of Engineering Committee on Environmental Eng.

1997 – 2006, Chairman of the College of Engineering Committee on Natural Resources

1997 – 1999, Chairman of the MSME Graduate Admissions Committee

1996 - Graduate Student Major Field Advisor for MSME Earth Resources students

1996 – 1998, Chairman of the College of Engineering Committee on Environmental Eng.

1996 – MSME Academic Affairs Committee – member

1991 – 1995, College of Engineering Petroleum Engineering Committee - member.

1994 – College of Engineering Standing Committee for Computing and Computer  Science Education - member

1992 – College of Engineering Interdisciplinary Committee on Surface and Subsurface  Hydrology - member

1992 – College of Engineering Graduate Student Committee - member

1992 – Mineral Engineering Subcommittee of Academic Planning Committee - member

Honors: 

2006 – Associate Editor of Energy Tribune

2005 – Editor of Transport in Porous Media

2004 – July - August, Invited Professor at the Groupe Electrofluidodynamique, Laboratoire d'Etudes Aerodynamique, at the University of Poitiers, France

2004 – February-June, Invited Professor at the Earth Sciences Department, TU Delft, The Netherlands

2000 – 2003, Editor of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal

2000 – “Honorary Book of the Polish Science”

1998 – Visiting fellow at the Statoil Research Center in Trondheim, Norway

1994 – Member of SPE Speakers’ Bureau Program

1993 – 1994 - Distinguished Lecturer, Society of Petroleum Engineers

1993 – Technical Editor, Society of Petroleum Engineers Publications

1988 – Special Recognition Award from Shell for a comprehensive study of alternative recovery processes for the Belridge Diatomite

1985 – Special Recognition Award from Shell for the formulation of a mechanistic model of foam flow in porous media

1978 – 1979 –Fulbright Fellow, University of Minnesota, Chemical Engineering Department

1973 –     Undergraduate DAAD Fellow, Nuclear Research Center, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Jülich,  Germany