From the President
Jennifer Miskimins, 2026 SPE President
Jennifer L. Miskimins is a professor and the department head of the petroleum engineering department at the Colorado School of Mines (Mines), where she holds the F.H. Mick Merelli/Coterra Energy Distinguished Department Head Chair.
SPE President in the News
Journal of Petroleum Technology
Energizing Tomorrow: An Update on SPE Finances
01 June 2026
An update on SPE’s path to financial sustainability: stronger revenues, new partnerships, and emerging opportunities—from geothermal initiatives to AI-driven licensing—are improving the outlook. While challenges remain, recent progress highlights a more resilient Society and a forward-looking strategy focused on long-term member value.
Energizing Tomorrow: SPE and AI
01 May 2026
This month’s column highlights how artificial intelligence is influencing SPE programming, publications, and new tools, while also transforming day‑to‑day operations across our industry. The column explores energy supply implications and practical field applications, showing how SPE is helping members turn AI into a tool for progress.
Energizing Tomorrow: SPE’s Value Proposition
01 April 2026
What makes SPE membership truly worthwhile? Technical resources, professional development, global networking, and industry recognition—SPE membership offers more than meets the eye. In this month’s column, discover how SPE benefits members at every career stage—and why investing in your membership (or your team’s) pays off long-term.
From Denial to Acceptance: AI Emerges as Core Theme at IADC/SPE International Drilling Conference and Exhibition
18 March 2026
ExxonMobil's Jason Gahr uses the five stages of grief to explain how the upstream industry should respond to the rise of AI.
Energizing Tomorrow: Engineering Education, Upskilling, and SPE’s Role
01 March 2026
Petroleum engineering education is at a crossroads, with university enrollments shrinking and a talent gap looming. Take a look at what the data really show about degree trends, why Gen Z is turning away from engineering, and how SPE—from K–12 outreach to lifelong upskilling—is uniquely positioned to impact the industry’s future workforce.
US Energy Secretary Urges Industry To Double Oil and Gas Output
05 February 2026
Major increases in hydrocarbon production require both incremental and revolutionary technologies, industry leaders said during the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference.
Energizing Tomorrow: An Update on SPE Finances
June 2026
In September 2025, 2025 SPE President Olivier Houzé, 2024 SPE President Terry Palisch, SPE CEO Simon Seaton, and I provided SPE membership with a message regarding SPE’s Path to Financial Sustainability and the challenges that the Society was facing on various fronts, along with some proposed solutions. In my column this month, I wanted to provide an update on where SPE is with some of these initiatives, as well as future opportunities that we are investigating.
First, I am pleased to let you know that SPE is in a much better financial position than it was when that article was published in September. After a strong finish in the 2025 calendar year, along with a better-than-expected first quarter in 2026 due to some events outperforming expectations, revenue streams are stronger than they have been since before the pandemic. As a reminder, approximately 70% of SPE’s revenue comes from events...
Listen to the podcast in the embedded player above, or read the full transcript on JPT.
About Jennifer Miskimins
Jennifer L. Miskimins is a professor and the department head of the petroleum engineering department at the Colorado School of Mines (Mines), where she holds the F.H. Mick Merelli/Coterra Energy Distinguished Department Head Chair.
She has over 30 years of experience in the petroleum industry, starting with Marathon Oil Company as a production engineer. Miskimins began teaching at Mines in 2002 and has held various appointments since then. From 2013–2015, she held a part-time appointment at Mines while working at Barree & Associates. In 2016, she returned full-time to the university.
Miskimins served as the first Completions Technical Director on the SPE International Board of Directors. She was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2010–2011 and 2013–2014. She was awarded the 2014 SPE Completions Optimization and Technology Award, and in 2022, she received the SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty.
Miskimins has served on a variety of conference organizing committees, including chairing the 2023 and 2024 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Conference and Exhibition, and as a technical editor for SPE journals, including serving as the executive editor of Production & Operations for 3 years. She was the editor in chief for the 2019 SPE Monograph update “Hydraulic Fracturing: Fundamentals and Advancements.” Miskimins has served on the AIME Board of Trustees since 2018 as an SPE trustee and was the 2022 AIME president.
Miskimins holds a BS from the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology and MS and PhD degrees from the Colorado School of Mines, all in petroleum engineering.