Akhil Datta-Gupta is Professor and holder of LeSuer Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M U. in College Station, TX (USA). He is well-known throughout the industry for his contributions to fast flow simulation methods and dynamic data integration into high resolution geologic models. He is the recipient of the 2009 John Franklin Carll Award of the Society of Petroleum Engineers for distinguished contribution in the application of engineering principles to petroleum development and recovery. Prior to that, he received the 2003 Lester C. Uren Award of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) for significant technical contributions in petroleum reservoir characterization and streamline-based flow simulation. He is an SPE distinguished member (elected, 2001), distinguished lecturer (1999-2000), distinguished author (2000) and was selected as an outstanding technical editor (1996). He also twice received the SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Certificate for the best peer-approved paper (2000, 2006). In addition to his SPE awards, he is a recipient of the AIME Rossitter W. Raymond award (1992), TAMU Tenneco Meritorious Teaching Award (1997) and served as a member of the Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences (2001-2004). He is also the recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Basic Research in Geosciences (2008). His research program is funded by NSF, DOE and oil companies world-wide.