Distinguished Alumni Honorees

David Baldwin joined SCF Partners in 1991 and currently is responsible for the firm’s energy transition initiatives. In this role, he oversees SCF’s energy transition strategy, including identifying new platform investments and helping SCF’s existing companies develop exposure to new energy growth markets. Previously, he was co-president of the firm, and led SCF’s efforts financing and helping to build North-American-focused companies.

Yogashri Pradhan is a reservoir engineer for Coterra. At Coterra, she is involved with field development planning in the Delaware Basin unconventional reservoirs. Prior to that, she worked as a reservoir engineer at Endeavor Energy Resources. At Endeavor, she was involved with field development planning for unconventionals in the Midland Basin. Most recently, she was selected for Hart Energy’s 40 Under 40 list.

Kamy Sepehrnoori is a Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Texaco Centennial Chair in Petroleum Engineering. He has been teaching at UT Austin since 1981 and has graduated more than 250 MS and PhD students under his supervision.

Dr. Irwin Harold “Hal” Silberberg (1926–2021) entered The University of Texas at Austin in 1943. After earning his BS in chemical engineering, he continued as a graduate student. His mentor in the doctoral program was Dr. John McKetta, who became a lifelong friend. Hal, known for his wit, liked to joke that he entered grad school in 1947 and emerged ten years later with a wife, four kids and a PhD.

Brian Sullivan is a Licensed Professional Engineer in Texas in petroleum and natural gas engineering and is board certified in oil, gas and mineral law by the
Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Brian is currently a grader for the Oil, Gas and Mineral Law Certification Examination. Starting in the spring of 2019, Brian joined the faculty of the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin where he teaches Oil and Gas Law to upper-division engineering students.

Jerry Windlinger earned a Bachelor of Science (1974) and a Master of Science in petroleum engineering (1976) from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Texas. He has over 50 years of experience in the energy industry, having held roles at Exxon and a 38-year career at Andarko Petroleum Corporation, where he retired as VP of corporate development. Following retirement, Jerry served on the boards of Parsley Energy and RDV Resources.

Will Hickey has served as co-chief executive officer and a director of Permian Resources since September 2022. Prior to that, in 2015, he co-founded Colgate Energy with James Walter and served as Colgate’s president, co-CEO and a member of Colgate’s Board of Managers. Before the formation of Colgate, Will worked for the energy private equity firm EnCap Investments where he evaluated and monitored investments across the oil and gas space with a focus on the Permian Basin. Previously, Will worked for Pioneer Natural Resources where he rotated through numerous engineering positions including chief of staff to the chief operating officer.

Robert “Bob” MacDonald (1941–2014) was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Claude and Ruth MacDonald. He attended public schools in Royal Oak and graduated from Kimball High School where he excelled in trumpet and was voted “Most Likely to Succeed.” In 1963, Bob received Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Michigan (during which time he also performed with the marching band). While there, Bob met Martha Varnell, a graduate music student, and they married in 1962. After five years as a reservoir engineer with Michigan Consolidated Gas, he accepted an offer from Professor Keith Coats to come to The University of Texas at Austin as a graduate student in the Petroleum Engineering department. Bob, Martha and their two children, Robert and Richard, loaded up a U-Haul van and moved to Austin in 1968.

Ken Nelson was born in Austin, Texas, in 1948 and graduated from Austin High School in 1966. Due to exposure to the oil industry when in elementary school, he enrolled in the Petroleum Engineering department at The University of Texas at Austin and graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Highest Honors in 1970. Several logging courses and meetings with Dr. Sylvain Pirson instilled a great interest in geology during his undergraduate years. He began employment with Pan American Petroleum in Midwest, Wyoming, in 1971 as a production and development engineer and took an educational leave of absence to return to UT Austin to earn a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering in 1973 while working for the Texas Petroleum Research Committee. His graduate supervisor was Dr. Ben Caudle.

Dr. Myra Dria is founder, president and CEO of Pearl Resources LLC, which has operated in the Delaware Basin since 2011. A Texas-registered professional engineer, Myra also founded Opal Resources in 2007 and served as president and CEO while it operated in the Midland Basin as a co-venture with Goldman Sachs until its first asset sale to W&T Offshore in 2011. In 2018, she was named to Hart Energy’s inaugural “25 Most Influential Women in Energy” list. Across her career with rigor and imagination, Myra applied an insatiable appetite for learning and challenging the “norm.” She earned a Case Western Reserve University BS engineering degree (polymer), and in the late 1970s, the Sohio engineer traveled to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, contributing to establishing standards for seawater injection in the 2 MMBWPD Prudhoe Bay waterflood. This sparked her interest in facility design and downhole formation damage and led her to earn a PhD in Petroleum Engineering with advisors Dr. Larry Lake and Dr. Robert Schechter at UT Austin.