MERS Research Team
From left to right: Ahmed Abdullah, Temitayo Adeyemi, Femi Olorode, Chibuzor Igweonu, Sid Ahmed Hammoudi, and Gideon Hikah-Benson.
Principal Investigator
Olufemi Olorode
Dr. Olufemi Olorode is an Assistant Professor in the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana State University (LSU). He has four years of experience in the oil and gas industry as a reservoir engineer at Afren Resources and has been in LSU since 2018. He specializes in unconventional resource modeling, fracture modeling, machine learning, and production forecasting for conventional and unconventional resources. He has authored several publications in the area of numerical modeling of unconventional oil and gasreservoirs. Dr. Olorode received the SPE Journal Outstanding Technical Editor Award in 2018 and serves as a technical reviewer for several journals, including SPE J, JPSE, Energy & Fuels, IEEE TRGS, Energies, etc. He holds MS and PhD degrees in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University and a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Google Scholar: Olufemi Olorode
Current PhD Students
Meisam Adibifard
Meisam Adibifard is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. Meisam has a strong background in petroleum and chemical engineering, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering, as well as two Master's degrees, one in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs from Sahand University of Technology and the other in Chemical Engineering from Mississippi State University. He has a track record of publications in various areas, including machine learning applications in reservoir characterization, computational fluid dynamics, and analytical modeling of fluid flow in porous media. Currently, Meisam is focused on utilizing large-scale molecular dynamics to study nonequilibrium dissociation of gas clathrates.
Personal Webpage: Meisam Adibifard
Temitayo Adeyemi
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Temitayo Adeyemi is a first-year Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a Master’s degree from Louisiana State University, both in Petroleum Engineering. Prior to joining the MERS research group, he spent 2 years working on reservoir surveillance and hydrocarbon production optimization using Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensors (DAS, DSS, and DTS). Via Molecular Dynamics Simulation, he currently investigates the underlying physics and chemistry associated with gas hydrates formation and dissociation. Temitayo has authored and co-authored numerous publications in reputable journals such as SPE Journal, IJMFL, and SPIE. |
Sid Ahmed Hammoudi
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Sid Ahmed Hammoudi is a first-year Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. He has a background in chemistry and chemical engineering, with a bachelor's degree in Process Engineering, as well as two master's degrees; one in chemical engineering from the University of Sciences and Technology, Houari Boumediene and the other in Applied Chemistry & Chemical Engineering from Kogakuin University, Japan. He also has work experience in drilling, Quality control, and market research in addition to research experience in drilling fluids, equilibrium and non-equilibrium Molecular dynamics applied for next-generation batteries. Currently, Sid Ahmed is working on applying a deep learning framework to accelerate coarse-grained MD simulation of CO2 hydrates. |
Current MS Students
Ahmed Abdullah
Ahmed Abdullah is a Petroleum Engineering graduate from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia, specializing in reservoir studies. With 3 years of experience in reservoir engineering, academic research, and data science, his current research focuses on experimental and numerical studies of coupled THM process.
Google Scholar: Ahmed Abdullah
Chibuzor Igweonu
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Chibuzor Success Igweonu holds a B.Eng. degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Delta, Nigeria. His current research focuses on geologic energy storage and recovery techniques and the innovative use of Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) as a method to prevent CO2 and H2 leakage in underground reservoir rocks. He is well vast in Machine Learning/Deep Learning and in the use of reservoir modeling tools, such as CMG, MRST, etc. Before joining LSU, Chibuzor worked as an associate in financial Advisory at Deloitte, Lagos, Nigeria, where he played a pivotal role in securing significant funding for multiple high-profile projects. Before that, he worked for about 3 years as a Well Cementing Engineer at Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited in Nigeria, which further solidified his practical expertise in the petroleum industry, supervising cementing operations and designing well-cementing job programs |
Current Undergraduate Students
Gideon Hikah-Benson
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Gideon Hikah-Benson is an undergraduate student of chemical engineering, who works as a student worker in the MERS group. He joined the MERS group in 2023 and has acquired and demonstrated expertise in the post-processing and visualization of our atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation results. As an advanced Meta Quest user, he fits naturally into our VR visualization efforts. |
Previous Students
Harun Rashid
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Harun Ur Rashid was a Ph.D. student in the MERS research group. He conducted research and published journals focusing on the numerical modeling of fractured reservoirs, such as unconventional oil and gas, geothermal, and underground CO2 storage reservoirs. He holds a master's degree in mining engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a bachelor's degree in petroleum and mining engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh. He actively contributes to the scientific community by providing peer review services for esteemed journals like Energies and the Journal of Computational Physics. Harun graduated from the MERS group in May, 2024 and currently works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Los Alamos National Lab. Personal Webpage: Harun Rashid |
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Hassan Amer
Thelma Ihunde
