Paul M. Bommer is a distinguished senior lecturer and holder of the Chevron Lectureship in Petroleum Engineering in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2014, he was awarded the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, which recognizes those who serve students in an exemplary manner and as an incentive for others who aspire to such service.

He has also received the Cockrell School of Engineering’s 2012 and 2011 Faculty Appreciation Award in Petroleum Engineering; the 2009–2010 ConocoPhillips Faculty Development Award; the 2008–2009 Student Engineering Council Award as “Favorite Professor” in Petroleum Engineering; and the 2006–2007 Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Teaching Award.

He is the co-author of several technical papers; one textbook, The Beam Lift Handbook; and one related patent, and his current research interests are in artificial lift. He served on the National Academy of Engineering committee investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster and on one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flow rate technical teams attempting to estimate the flow out of the blowout.

Prior to returning to UT Austin to teach, he worked for 25 years with his brother, Peter, and his father, Cleon, in Bommer Engineering Co., a petroleum engineering operations and consulting firm. His consulting projects have included work with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to help define power generation sources for drilling rigs and completion equipment with the goal of understanding emissions; evaluation and appraisal of hundreds of oil-and-gas-producing properties throughout the United States; numerous field studies including several waterfloods involving detailed well bore studies, material balance estimates, and PVT, petrophysical and well log analysis; expert witness experience with appearances before state and federal district courts and the Railroad Commission of Texas; and the design and management of the drilling and completion of dozens of wells in various onshore Gulf Coast, Rocky Mountain and mid-continent regions. His father, mother and brother are all UT Austin alumni.