Larry W. Lake Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering

Mar 16, 2012 | EPS/EPF

The Larry Lake Endowed Presidential Fellowship in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering was established in 2012 by former students to honor their professor, friend, and mentor. Larry W. Lake received his bachelors in chemical engineering from the Arizona State University in 1967 and his PhD from Rice University in 1973. After five years of working for Shell as a research scientist, Dr. Lake’s passion for teaching brought him to The University of Texas at Austin in 1978. Since then, he has not looked back, teaching generations of petroleum engineers.

Dr. Larry Lake

Students have described Lake as “the hardest professor I ever liked.” He pushes his students to reach beyond their perceived limits to discover their full potential. His care and commitment to sharing his extensive knowledge goes beyond PGE classrooms. Lake’s passion for teaching has taken him around the globe. Just in 2011, Dr. Lake traveled 42,000 miles and visited four continents teaching his petroleum engineering principles through workshops and committee meetings.

“The most rewarding part of traveling is catching up with former students, hearing about their experiences post-graduation, and reminiscing about old UT memories,” he said. Throughout the years, Dr. Lake has become a world-known expert in reservoir engineering. In fact, he literally wrote the book on Enhanced Oil Recovery.

His research also focuses on reservoir characterization, geochemistry, and flow through permeable media. He has co-authored three other textbooks and more than 100 technical articles and reports. He also edited the 6-volume Petroleum Engineering Handbook. From 1988 to 1993, Dr. Lake held the Shell Distinguished Chair in Petroleum Engineering. Currently, he holds the W.A. (Tex) Moncrief, Jr. Centennial Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering. Dr. Lake is a 1990 recipient of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Reservoir Engineering Award, the 1996 Lucas Gold Medal from the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the 1999 Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award, and was presented with the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Award for Improved Oil Recovery Pioneer at the SPE/DOE’s 12th Annual Symposium on Enhanced Oil Recovery. In 1997, Dr. Lake received the highest honor for an engineer when he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.

More than his academic and personal accomplishments, Lake is both a husband and father. He and his wife Carole have a daughter, Leslie, and a son, Jeffrey.

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