Michael is an expert in spatial data analytics, geostatistical reservoir modeling, and machine / statistical learning, He has 19 years of experience consulting and teaching and has published over 65 peer reviewed papers and 1 textbook on the topic. This includes 13 years at Chevron, where Michael was a Chevron company-wide expert responsible for: (1) conducting and managing data analytics, reservoir modeling and related R&D, (2) conducting and reviewing data analytics, reservoir modeling projects and (3) training and establishing standards for reservoir modeling. Recently, Michael accepted a new challenge as a Professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and the Department of Geological Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. For complete list of his accomplishments see his website at www.michaelpyrcz.com and follow him on GitHub GeostatsGuy, Twitter @GeostatsGuy and YouTube GeostatsGuy Lectures for recent news and geostatistics and machine learning resources.

Sarah Karthigan is the GM of Strategy & Innovation, Enterprise Data and Insights at Chevron. She is a reputed leader with a demonstrated history of leading digital transformation initiatives in the energy industry. She was named one of 2021’s 25 Influential Women in Energy in recognition of her outstanding work to accelerate the adoption of data science to enable data-driven decision-making across the integrated oil and gas value chain.

Karthigan started her career at ExxonMobil over a decade ago and has since held various roles of increasing responsibility in the areas of strategic planning, project management, scientific computing, and data science. She currently leads the AI operations practice, which is focused on realizing self-healing strategies, and is also responsible for managing external relationships with multiple technical business partners.