Bureau Researcher Recognized with Woman in Energy: Making Waves Award

Bureau Research Associate Professor Katie Smye was recently recognized with the Woman in Energy: Making Waves Award at the 2026 Permian Basin Water in Energy Conference.

This award is a perfect reflection of Katie’s hard work and passion. The Woman in Energy: Making Waves Award honors a female leader making significant contributions to water management, innovation, and leadership in the oil and gas sector. The award highlights women fostering growth and advancing the role of women in the industry, often with a focus on sustainable water solutions.

Katie joined the Bureau in 2013 as a postdoctoral researcher after receiving undergraduate degrees in geology and chemistry from the University of Oklahoma and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Cambridge where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. As a postdoctoral fellow, Katie was a subsurface team member on a project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to quantify U.S. shale gas resources.

In 2014, Katie became a Research Associate at the Bureau and worked on several projects, including: Assessment of U.S. shale gas and oil plays, focusing on subsurface geology of the Wolfcamp of the Permian Basin, Barnett, Haynesville, Fayetteville, Marcellus, Bakken, and Eagle Ford plays; Characterization of the effect of lithology on stress and well productivity; and Stratigraphic and facies interpretation of saltwater disposal intervals to underpin studies of induced seismicity.

Katie is Principal Investigator of the Bureau's Center for Injection and Seismicity Research (CISR). CISR's research focuses on improving the understanding of risks and hazards associated with production and injection in the Permian Basin by applying geology, seismology, hydrogeology, geomechanics, and satellite geodesy to study how reservoirs respond dynamically to fluid injection.

For the 2025-2026 AAPG Distinguished Lecture Program, Katie gave a lecture on "Reservoir Dynamics of Large-Scale Injection: Lessons from the Permian Basin," and she was recognized last year with AAPG’s Public Service Award for geoscience excellence.

Please join us in congratulating Katie Smye for receiving the Woman in Energy: Making Waves Award at the 2026 Water in Energy Conference, and for all of her extraordinary work on basin-scale geologic characterization at the Bureau.