NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2004

Contact: Lisa Merkl
713.743.8192 (office)
713.605.1757 (pager)

RECOVERING ‘LOST’ OIL TOPIC OF LECTURE AT UH
Kishore Mohanty to Discuss Ways to Help Near-term Energy Challenge

Improving oil recovery to meet the near-term energy challenge will be discussed at the annual University of Houston Sigma Xi lecture at 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 30, in the UH Athletics/Alumni Center Great Hall.

The 2004 recipient of the Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award, Kishore Mohanty, a chemical engineering professor at UH, will give the lecture. The award, given by the Houston chapter of the research society Sigma Xi, carries a $2,000 prize and honors “distinguished contributions to scientific knowledge and its applications.”

The process of oil recovery, explains Mohanty, involves revisiting abandoned oil fields that still contain oil underground that has been, up until now, beyond access via conventional methods. Mohanty and his associates are researching new technologies that would allow them to go back into the ground to extract usable oil that exists but essentially has been “lost” due to a lack of effective retrieval methods. Reviving such existing oil fields could significantly change the way current energy-resource challenges are viewed.

“With applications in energy, environment and biotechnology, my research focuses on transport of simple and complex fluids in complex microstructured materials, many of which are naturally occurring, such as sandstones, carbonates, aquifers, human bones and tissues,” Mohanty said. “This research is aimed at imaging these structures, understanding the physics of transport, relating the microstructures to transport properties and developing new materials for enhanced targeted transport.”

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, is the global honor society of scientists and engineers that promotes scientific achievement. Sigma Xi has chapters in every college and university in the U.S., and some 180 Sigma Xi members are Nobel laureates and many more have been elected to the National Academies of Science and Engineering.

The UH Chapter of Sigma Xi promotes research at UH by awarding research excellence prizes to faculty and graduate students, as well as organizing this lecture and reception. The event is open to the public.

WHO: Kishore Mohanty, UH chemical engineering professor
WHAT: Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award Lecture and Reception
“Improving Oil Recovery to Meet the Near-term Energy Challenge”
WHEN: 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 30
WHERE: Great Hall, Athletics/Alumni Center, UH campus
Gated visitor parking is in Lot 16F. Metered parking is along Holman.

For more information about the Cullen College of Engineering, visit www.egr.uh.edu.

To receive UH science news via e-mail, visit www.uh.edu/admin/media/sciencelist.html.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.