MaryWheeler

About

Mary F. Wheeler is a world-renowned expert in computational science. In 1995, she joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin, where she held the Ernest and Virginia Cockrell Chair in the departments of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, and Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, before retiring in 2024. Before joining the faculty at UT Austin, she was the Noah Harding Professor in Engineering at Rice University in Houston.

Wheeler continues to formulate and analyze new scalable, parallel, multiscale, multiphysics algorithms for treating multiple time and spatial scales that arise in complex subsurface phenomena. She and her research team have enhanced the flow simulator, one of the few existing parallel equation-of-state compositional simulators, to include the following capabilities: hysteresis, interfacial tension, coupling of compositional flow with geomechanics and parallel history matching and optimization.

Wheeler’s research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy (DOE), Aramco, BP, Chevron/Texaco, Conoco/Phillips and IBM and impacts energy production through enhanced oil and gas extraction, air quality with carbon sequestration in saline aquifers and water quality with environmental remediation in groundwater.

Wheeler is the director of the Center for Subsurface Modeling (CSM) at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. She also serves as associate director of the Department of Energy Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security.

The U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) established the Mary F. Wheeler Medal in recognition of outstanding and sustained contributions to interdisciplinary and emerging areas, including Earth, environmental and energy sciences (EEES).

Educational Qualifications

Honorary doctorate from the Colorado School of Mines, 2008
Honorary doctorate from Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands, 2006
Ph.D., Mathematics, Rice University, 1971
M.A., Mathematics, The University of Texas at Austin, 1963
B.S., Social Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1960
B.A., Mathematics, The University of Texas at Austin, 1960

Select Awards & Honors

• Honoree – League of Women Voters of South Texas (2026)
• Society of Petroleum Engineers Honorary Member (2014)
• John von Neumann Medal Award – USACM (2013)
• Lifetime Achievement Award – International Society for Porous Media (2013)
• Humboldt Research Award – Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2011)
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences Member (2010)
• Theodore von Kármán Prize (2009)
• National Academy of Engineering Member (1998)
• Noether Lecturer (1989)

Related Websites

• Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences
• Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security
• Mary F. Wheeler Medal

Select Publications