The oil and gas industry is facing questions over its very survival as the world marches toward a more sustainable future. Its role in the future of energy is in doubt as the specter of climate change looms large. So, why continue working toward a career in this field? Why are so many students still choosing to pursue a career or a graduate degree in this sector of expertise at one of our nation’s top schools? Though I don’t want to give you a long harangue, I do want to elaborate what drove my decision to pursue this degree, and why I continue to excel in this discipline today.

A decision to pursue grad school, on its own, is often a big one. Wanting to become even more specialized in your discipline of choice while expending time, effort and even money is a big investment after spending years in education pursuing your undergraduate degree. However, the yearning to become more specialized and open up a more diverse set of work opportunities once the degree is complete is enough to justify any grad school.

Graduate school afforded me an opportunity to go into greater depths of understanding in this engineering area that I have come to love.

I have been fascinated by petroleum engineering because it is a unique amalgamation of applied knowledge across STEM subjects. This, added to my interest in learning the applications of geology and geophysics-oriented knowledge in engineering areas, drove my decision to pursue a degree in this discipline. Graduate school afforded me an opportunity to go into greater depths of understanding in this engineering area that I have come to love. Moreover, I firmly believe that the green energy transition that is talked so widely about today is going to come, but it is going to be a steady change over the course of many years. The world today is dependent on hydrocarbons to an extent that no one realizes. It isn’t just oil and gas. There is a little bit of hydrocarbon engineering in literally everything . However, it is always good to diversify, and I believe a degree in petroleum engineering still affords one an opportunity to learn concepts to an extent that can be applied in a whole range of new disciplines.

It was my thoughts across these areas that drove my decision to pursue a master’s degree and now a doctoral degree in petroleum engineering.