Iraj Ershaghi, professor of petroleum engineering, this fall will receive the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Western North America Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award.

Ershaghi, who holds the Omar B. Milligan Chair in Petroleum Engineering, is the director of the Petroleum Engineering Program in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and is executive director of CiSoft, the Center for Interactive Smart Oil Field Technology, a research center partnered with Chevron.

He received the award for his widely-used “X-Plot” flood forecasting technique in the field of reservoir description and development. Each year, the SPE recognizes advancements and expertise of select engineers in five global regions for their scientific contributions to the field.

"Iraj has been the heart and the soul of the Viterbi School's petroleum engineering program," said Dean Yannis C. Yortsos.  "This award recognizes not only his preeminence in petroleum engineering, but also the school's."

Ershaghi, who won the SPE Education Service Award in 2006, said that he highly values the recognition by his peers.  He is a 35-year USC faculty member who specializes in smart oil and gas reservoir management, reservoir characterization and enhanced oil and gas recovery processes.

He will receive the honor at the SPE’s annual meeting Nov. 12, 2007 in Anaheim, Calif.