‘Beyond my wildest dreams’: Professor in Earth, Energy and Environment recognized for applied research

Dr. Christopher Clarkson worked in the oil industry before he became an academic — and, this fall, the University of Calgary professor has been recognized by both sectors for his valuable contributions.

Clarkson, PhD, a professor in the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Science, has won awards from the Society for Professional Engineers, Whitson, Technology Alberta, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

“It’s beyond my wildest dreams that I could ever be in a situation where I am being recognized from all of these levels,” Clarkson says in an interview.

“I was never interested in publishing Nature and Science papers, because I am much more applied and want to make sure whatever research we do is meaningful and impactful. That has always been my goal.”

Clarkson started at UCalgary in 2009 after spending 11 years in an industry role.

“What made me choose industry initially is that I realized that was one of the things I valued in professors,” Clarkson says.

His work experience has provided him with real-world examples of how the industry operates, its business cycle and how research could help achieve its goals.

“That was absolutely the best decision I could have made,” says Clarkson. “I did learn the business cycles; I did understand how research could be integrated in the daily operations of the company.

“I wasn’t sure if you could do innovative research when you were in a company.”

The companies, he says, allowed him to publish his work and then, one day, he got an email from a former supervisor who told him about an interesting research chair position at UCalgary.

The premise of the position was exactly what he wanted to do: integrate the disciplines of geoscience and engineering.

“It’s been quite a journey,” says Clarkson, who’s currently the Tamaratt Research Professor in Transitional Energy and ARC/Ovintiv Chair in Subsurface Transitional Energy Pathways.

During his academic journey, he says he’s most proud of his ability to teach students the skills needed to be successful in their careers; his well-read book, Unconventional Reservoir Rate-Transient Analysis, and his continued work with the energy industry.

He leads an industry- and government-sponsored group called the Tight Oil Consortium (TOC) that’s focused on unconventional light-oil reservoirs. He has also recently initiated another industry-sponsored group called Transitional Energy Consortium that’s focused on subsurface transitional energy pathways.

Clarkson has received an NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation for his work with the TOC since 2011.

“It’s special to me because I had applied for an Alberta Innovate grant and it didn’t come through,” Clarkson says, adding that the failure of the grant inspired him to start TOC.

The award recognizes the partnership between the university and industry.

“It’s not just about the researcher,” Clarkson says. “These companies have to be willing to try something.”

The partners involved are a subset of TOC sponsors, Chevron, Shell, Canadian Natural Resources, ARC Resources, Birchcliff Energy, Occidental Petroleum, Artis Exploration and Ovintiv.

As an example of the effectiveness of this partnership, Clarkson’s research team developed a new well-testing method called Diagnostic Fracture Injection Test-Flowback Analysis (DFIT-FBA) that has become an industry standard in both British Columbia and Alberta.

In a letter to the selection committee, Dr. Kristopher Innanen, PhD, the Faculty of Science’s associate dean of research, says the importance of the TOC cannot be overstated.

“TOC has been firing on all cylinders now for over 10 years, generating economic impact, scientific and technological impact, graduate and trainee impact, and fostered deep and ongoing academic-industry ties,” Innanen writes. “TOC is one of UCalgary’s most complete successes in recent times.”

The industry-standard test also led to an ASTech (Alberta Science and Technology) Award for Energy/Cleantech, which recognizes leadership and significant contributions through the discovery, application or implementation in the energy or cleantech sectors that advance science or technology. Clarkson’s team included two of his former PhD students, Dr. Behnam Zanganehm, PhD'19, and Dr. Danial Zeinabady, PhD'23, both of whom now work in industry.

Earlier in the fall, Clarkson received the John Franklin Carll Award, a major international award from the Society of Professional Engineers. The award is named after a well-known geoscientist.

“That struck home for me,” Clarkson says. “I am an engineer in science, a geoscience-focused department.”

Whitson, a company that specializes in petroleum engineering software, recognized Clarkson in September with the Mike J. Fetkovich Technology Award.

“It’s another one of these things that caught me by surprise, rang some emotional bells,” he says. “Mike Fetkovich was a huge inspiration to me when I started in the industry.”