RyosukeOkuno

Ryosuke Okuno smiling in front of large window overlooking trees and buildings on UT Austin campus.
ProfessorH.B. (Burt) Harkins, Jr. Professorship
Energi Simulation Industrial Research Chair on Sustainable Energy Expansion

Research Areas
Research Interests

Enhanced oil recovery; Thermal oil recovery; Oil displacement theory; Numerical reservoir simulation; Thermodynamics; Multiphase behavior and applied mathematics

About

After completing his Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, Ryosuke Okuno worked as a senior reservoir engineer at Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. He previously earned B.E. and M.E. degrees in Geosystem Engineering from the University of Tokyo and worked as a petroleum engineer before pursuing his doctoral studies. He is also a registered Professional Engineer in Alberta, Canada.

Okuno began his academic career as an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta. He returned to the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin as a faculty member in 2015 and is currently a professor.

His research and teaching interests include enhanced oil recovery, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), unconventional oil and gas resources, thermodynamics, multiphase behavior, numerical flow simulation and applied mathematics.

He is the director of the Energi Simulation Industrial Affiliate Program on Sustainable Energy Expansion (EnergiX), previously known as the Carbon Utilization and Storage (CarbonUT), which unites dedicated researchers and industry leaders to address critical challenges in sustainable energy.

Okuno serves as an Associate Editor for SPE Journal and holds the H.B. (Burt) Harkins, Jr. Professor Fellowship in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Educational Qualifications

Ph.D., Petroleum Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 2009
M.E., Geosystem Engineering, University of Tokyo, 2000
B.E., Geosystem Engineering, University of Tokyo, 1998

Select Awards & Honors

  • Teaching Award – Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (2022)
  • Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, Southwestern Region – Society of Petroleum Engineers (2019)
  • Petroleum Engineering Junior Faculty Research Initiation Award – Society of Petroleum Engineers (2012)
  • Associate Editor – Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal
  • Associate Editor Award – Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal (2022 and 2023)
  • Technical Editor Award – Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025)
  • Technical Editor Award – Society of Petroleum Engineers Reservoir Evaluation Engineering Journal (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021)
  • Excellence in Peer Review – Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering (2014)

Select Publications

Google Scholar

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