Senior Research Engineer III
Dr. Deniz Paker is a Senior Research Engineer with IPB&F and CCUS Consortiums at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on reservoir multiphase flow simulation, enhanced and improved oil recovery, CCS, in-situ hydrogen generation, complex rock–fluid interactions, PVT characterization, and nanofluid systems. She has made significant contributions to advancing the understanding of EOR and carbon storage processes through the integration of experimental and numerical methodologies.
- Postdoctoral Research Associate – University of Houston
- Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering – Istanbul Technical University
- M.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering – Istanbul Technical University
- B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering – Istanbul Technical University
Her expertise includes laboratory management; experimental design and execution such as core flooding, swelling, wettability, and miscibility tests, as well as numerical reservoir modeling, fluid characterization, equation-of-state (EOS) tuning, and geostatistical analysis.
Research Interests
- Enhanced and Improved Oil Recovery for Conventional and Unconventionals
- Carbon Capture and Storage
- Thermodynamics and PVT
- Interaction of phase behavior and flow in porous media
- Reservoir Simulation, Optimization and History Matching
- Geothermal Energy
Tianjia Huang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Huang is a postdoctoral researcher at the IPB&F Consortium, where he specializes in coupled thermal–hydrological–mechanical–chemical (THMC) processes, fracture modeling, and high-performance parallel computing. Specific applications include underground hydrogen storage, particle transport, and geologic waste disposal, with extensions in carbon sequestration, natural gas hydrate systems, geothermal energy, and enhanced petroleum recovery.
- Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering – Texas A&M University, 2025
- M.S. in Mechanical Engineering – University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2020
- B.S. in Civil Engineering – Xi’an JiaoTong University, 2017
His expertise includes numerical reservoir modeling, high-performance simulator development, modeling fracture systems, and optimizing numerical schemes for robust, scalable multi-physics simulations.
Research Interests
- Numerical Modeling of Coupling THMC Dynamics
- Particle Transport in Porous Media
- Parallel Computing
- Reactive Transport Modeling of Geothermal Systems
- Advanced Compositional Simulation
Sardar Asadov, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Asadov is a postdoctoral researcher at the IPB&F Consortium. His research focuses on advanced reservoir characterization and closed-loop reservoir management, multiphase-flow simulation, and data-driven Machine Learning based optimization for conventional & unconventional oil and gas systems.
- Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering – The University of Tulsa, 2025
- M.S. in Petroleum Engineering – Istanbul Technical University, 2017
- B.S. in Petroleum Engineering – Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, 2014
His expertise includes numerical reservoir modeling, CO₂ and gas Huff-and-Puff process design, hydraulic-fracture simulation, fluid characterization and equation-of-state (EOS) tuning, and gradient-based optimization. Dr. Asadov integrates machine-learning techniques with classical reservoir-engineering methods to automate history matching and improve production forecasting accuracy.
Research Interests
- Reservoir Modeling and Simulation
- Closed Loop Reservoir Management (Numerical Optimization and History Matching)
- Flowing Material Balance Analysis
- Fluid Characterization and EOS Tuning
- CO₂ Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration
- Data Analytics and Machine Learning in Reservoir Engineering
Student
Alok Kumar
Alok Kumar is a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Houston working under the supervision of Prof. Birol Dindoruk. His research focuses on the development of polymer-grafted nanoparticles, aqueous CO₂ nanobubbles, and silica nanopore systems for EOR and sustainable process design. He integrates experimental methods (rheology, TGA, DLS, etc.) with molecular simulations (LAMMPS, DFT) and data-driven modeling to understand interfacial transport and structure–property relationships in complex fluids.
- Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering – University of Houston (2023-present)
- B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering – Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), 2023
His expertise includes nanofluid design, polymer grafting, rheological characterization, CO₂ utilization, and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations.
Research Interests
- Nanobubble and Nanofluid Engineering for EOR
- Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles and Hybrid Systems
- Rheology and Interfacial Phenomena
- Molecular Dynamics and DFT Simulations
- CO₂ Utilization and Storage
- AI/ML for Sustainable Materials Design