The McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering welcomed a new chairman for the fall 2016 semester. Mustafa Onur (MS ’85, PhD ’89) is a native of Turkey who attended The University of Tulsa under sponsorship from the Minister of Turkish Higher Education. Following his doctorate from TU, Onur taught at Istanbul Technical University where he served as department chairman of petroleum and natural gas engineering and vice department chairman of petroleum and natural gas engineering. He has led several research projects at ITU as well as Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Perak, Malaysia.
Onur refers to Tulsa as his second home where both of his daughters were born. He is proud of TU’s historic reputation for outstanding alumni and looks forward to upholding its success as the nation’s 4th best petroleum engineering program, according to U.S. News & World Report 2016 rankings.
“I like the academic environment, teaching and conducting research,” Onur said. “I want to maintain TU’s position as one of the best petroleum engineering schools in the world and help it reach an even higher ranking.”
Onur said current energy markets are reminiscent of the industry’s status when he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in the early 1980s.
“Most of my friends found employment in different areas of engineering and financing,” Onur said. “We can adapt to other markets until current price fluctuations subside to allow for new investments. We’re looking for stability, but that will take some time.”
Other new faculty for the 2016-17 academic year include Jun Lu, assistant professor of petroleum engineering; John Campbell, applied assistant professor of physics and engineering physics; Mike Stafford, instructor of petroleum engineering; Mark F. Theiling, visiting assistant professor of physics and engineering physics.