2018 SPE President Darcy Spady (left) presents the Cedric K. Ferguson Medal to Mahdi Haddad. Also receiving recognition by SPE were co-authors Sandrine Vidal-Gilbert and Jing Du.
Bureau postdoctoral fellow Mahdi Haddad has been awarded the 2018 Cedric K. Ferguson Medal from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) for his paper “Integration of dynamic microseismic data with a true 3D modeling of hydraulic-fracture propagation in the Vaca Muerta Shale” (SPE-179164-PA). The paper’s co-authors are Jing Du and Sandrine Vidal-Gilbert, of Total E&P.
The medal, one of the SPE’s major awards, is given to researchers under 36 in recognition of professional achievement in petroleum engineering and best paper in an SPE journal. Haddad received the prize at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in September.
At the Bureau, Haddad conducts research on the geomechanics of induced seismicity through the TexNet project. He has authored 16 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers on multiple-stage hydraulic-fracture design, refracturing optimization, stimulated naturally fractured reservoir simulation, and smoothed particle hydrodynamics.
Said Haddad in his acceptance speech at the awards ceremony, “I’d like to share this credit with my family, teachers, and friends in Iran and the U.S., and at Sharif University of Technology and UT-Austin. My special gratitude to my father, a great high school physics teacher, who taught me the first lessons of ethics and physics.”
