Christine Ehlig-Economides

With seminal contributions to the development and application of technology in the field of petroleum engineering, and a distinguished track record of leadership in academic and professional settings, Christine Ehlig-Economides is recognized as one of the nation’s most accomplished and influential figures in her field.

She organized and helped establish new petroleum engineering departments at two universities. She developed methods of analyzing well test data from multilayer reservoirs that became the worldwide standard for the oil and gas industry. She serves as a role model for women in engineering and has long advocated for underrepresented minorities in the field. Her career is decorated with some of the most prestigious awards in engineering, including induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.

After graduating from Rice University in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Ehlig-Economides attended KU, where she earned a Master’s in math education in 1974 and a Master’s in chemical engineering in 1977. She went on to Stanford University and earned her Ph.D. in 1979 — her dissertation remains a landmark contribution to the theory and practice in a dominant technology in petroleum reservoir engineering, pressure transient test analysis.

Ehlig-Economides joined the engineering faculty at the University of Alaska in 1980, where she was one of the founding faculty of the Petroleum Engineering Department and served as its first chair.

In 1983, she moved to industry — working at Schlumberger for 20 years. Her management skills were recognized by successive promotions to several critical segments in the company, where she made major contributions in pressure transient analysis and introduced testing methodologies which remain state-of-the-art today. Following her breakthrough accomplishments in research and development, she moved up the management chain and coordinated application of technologies that she and others developed.

While with Schlumberger, in 2000, Ehlig-Economides returned to academia for an adjunct professor role in the petroleum engineering program at the University of Houston, and in 2003, she moved to academia full-time, working for a year as a full professor at Houston. She then worked for 10 years at Texas A&M as the Albert B. Stevens Endowed Chair. She developed new research and education in energy engineering and served as director of the Center for Energy, Environment and Transportation Innovation of the Crisman Institute for Petroleum Research.

Ehlig-Economides returned to the University of Houston in 2014 to provide leadership in the new undergraduate petroleum engineering program and to develop an industry consortium for research about shale oil and gas. She currently serves as a Professor and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair.

The achievements and recognition at the various stops throughout her career are only part of the story. Ehlig-Economides has a remarkable record of service to the industry and advocacy for women and underrepresented minorities in engineering.

Since achieving a career milestone of induction to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2003, Ehlig-Economides immediately immersed herself in committees, boards and study panels to advocate for a diverse NAE membership. She has worked to improve NAE’s membership processes, identifying qualified women, businesspeople and underrepresented minorities for membership across the engineering profession. In 2021, she is chair of the most influential and important NAE committee on member elections and has actively worked to increase diverse membership with the NAE.

Through an active role in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Ehlig-Economides also advises the government on the U.S. energy economy. Her primary involvement was through the landmark study America’s Energy Future, which assessed technologies to increase sustainability, support economic prosperity, promote energy security and reduce adverse environmental impacts.

Ehlig-Economides received recognition for her lasting contributions to the worldwide oil and gas industry in 2010 when she was awarded the Anthony C. Lucas Medal from the Society of Petroleum Engineers. It honors distinguished achievement in identifying and developing new technology and concepts that enhance the process of finding or producing petroleum. She has been selected for Honorary Membership in the Society of Petroleum Engineers-American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (SPE-AIME). This is the highest honor the organization presents to an individual and is limited to 0.1% of SPE total membership. It represents individuals who have given outstanding service to SPE or demonstrated distinguished scientific or engineering achievements in the fields within the technical scope of SPE.

In 1997, Ehlig-Economides received the Lester C. Uren Award from SPE-AIME, which is awarded once per year to a person for technical contributions made before age 45.

Michael and Christine Economides met and married in Kansas and enjoyed 37 years as a couple. His son, John, is also a KU graduate and their son, Alex, was born at the University of California, San Francisco, hospital where John currently does fundamental research in neural biology.