Even among the largest oil and gas organization serving managers, engineers, scientists and other professionals worldwide, Phaneendra Kondapi stands out. The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Gulf Coast North America Region honored Kondapi, founding director of engineering programs at UH Cullen College of Engineering’s Katy Campus and professor of subsea engineering, with two of its highest awards, for regional distinguished faculty and technical achievements.
The SPE Regional Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty recognizes superiority in classroom teaching, excellence in research, significant contributions to the petroleum engineering profession and/or special effectiveness in advising and guiding students.
It’s not the first time Kondapi impressed the SPE judges. In 2013 he was awarded the SPE Teaching Excellence Award.
This time around, Kondapi grabbed the prestigious faculty award for the highest of reasons – he has been involved in developing the only two subsea programs in the nation (at UH and Texas A&M University).
“It’s a great honor to receive this Distinguished Award and at the same time I feel this award is given to encourage such unique programs and the faculty supporting them,” said Kondapi. “So this honor truly goes to both UH and Texas A&M.”
The SPE Regional Technical Awards acknowledge exceptional contributions to SPE at the section or regional level and recognize singular devotion of time and effort to the programs and development of technical expertise.
Kondapi was awarded the SPE's Regional Projects, Facilities and Construction Award for spearheading the flow assurance technical section of SPE and promoting awareness of industry best practices related to flow assurance and subsea engineering among upstream oil and gas professionals. He also successfully organized the SPE global forum “Flow Assurance: Future State of the Art” and is actively involved in the SPE global training committee and organizing many successful flow assurance and subsea processing sessions at the Offshore Technology Conference.
“It’s truly rewarding for the work done over the years and I am really thankful to SPE for appreciating and recognizing what I have done,” said Kondapi.
Kondapi blends academic and industry experience with more than 20 years of engineering at FMC Technologies and KBR.
“It’s well-deserved recognition for this pioneer of subsea engineering,” said Joseph W. Tedesco, Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean of the Cullen College. “Dr. Kondapi is uniquely suited to expand the Cullen College’s engineering programs in Katy while continuing to provide the city of Houston a vital workforce of highly-skilled subsea engineers.”