ChBE Alumni Profiles
Name: John Kuzan
Current Position: Research Manager,
Reservoir Modeling,
ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
Degrees: B.S., 1981 - Chemical Engineering, University of Notre Dame
M.S., 1983, Ph.D. 1986 - Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois (focus on fluid mechanics)
Career: Kuzan began his career with ExxonMobil in 1990 as a reservoir
engineer working at the Upstream Research Center in special core analysis.
The "upstream" in the oil business means the part of the business that
extracts oil and natural gas from petroleum reservoirs. Core analysis is
the study of flow (in this case, oil, natural gas, and water) through
porous media (in this case, rock samples from petroleum reservoirs obtained
via the technique of coring). Currently, he is a research manager with a
portfolio that includes modeling the geology of petroleum reservoirs and
fluid flow in those reservoirs.
Along the way, Kuzan has held a variety of positions within ExxonMobil that
include leading one of the teams that developed ExxonMobil's
next-generation reservoir simulator -- the computational tool that
simulates the flow of oil, water, and natural gas in petroleum reservoirs
and to the surface. He has also supervised experimental and computational
sections at the research center. In the early 2000's, he spent several
years developing and refining the approach to ExxonMobil's Breakthrough
Research initiative. Kuzan then served as the Transition Manager for
ExxonMobil's partnership with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's
operating affiliate ZADCO, with responsibilities that included assisting
with strategic directions for the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Institute and
constructing the ExxonMobil Technology Center at Abu Dhabi.
Prior to joining ExxonMobil, Kuzan spent four years on active duty in the
U. S. Army. Along with more traditional Army assignments, he spent a
significant period at the Ballistic Research Laboratory working in
supersonic flow and rocket dynamics. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2002
with 17 years in the Reserve and 4 years of active duty, having held
Company and Battalion command positions.
Interesting Factoid: During his four-year undergrad tenure, Kuzan lettered in Track and Field by
throwing the shot, discuss, hammer, and javelin; he occasionally throws
(albeit far shorter) for the ExxonMobil track team.
Value of Illinois Education: "One clear highlight for me was the level of
exposure to world-class researchers and the high standards of the technical
education. But the story is bigger than that. At the graduate level, my
experience provided a grounding in the fundamental building blocks of an
industrial career that has tended toward management: analytical skills, the
tools necessary for project planning, plus the organizational skills to
execute, manage and steward those plans."
Thoughts for current and prospective Chemical Engineering Students:
"Engineering in general, and chemical in particular, provides such a broad
base of science and technology that it's a great starting point for a
career that can take any one (or two) of several directions -- academia,
industry, law, medicine, research, business, and so forth. The experience
teaches you how to think with respect to technology, and (given the pace of
our world) being grounded in technology is often key to success in any
career."
