Lotanna Ohazuruike

Lotanna Ohazuruike is a devout Christian, a skilled researcher and an adept petroleum engineering academic. Perhaps the earliest display of his flair for research was demonstrated when, contrary to convention, he designed a wooden power–operated car for a junior secondary school project at the age of 12. Afterward, he graduated from the Nigerian Navy Secondary School in Lagos as a science ace, excelling in the STEM subjects.

He was subsequently admitted into the petroleum engineering programme at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria (RSUST) having emerged as the top engineering student in the entrance examinations. He was awarded a personal computer by the institution for emerging as the overall best engineering student at the end of his first year. He graduated with a first class honors, receiving the Vice Chancellor’s Award of Academic Excellence in April 2014. In his undergraduate thesis, he successfully showed that reservoir pressure transient behavior was more of a wave phenomenon than the generally conceived diffusion phenomenon (SPE–173645–STU). His research won him the Best Paper Award at the 2014 SPE African Region Student Paper Contest in the Petroleum Training Institute, Warri, Nigeria.

Ohazuruike’s service to SPE started with him serving as the membership chairman of the SPE RSUST chapter in 2010 until he eventually became the student chapter president in 2012. He also captained the SPE RSUST team to win the 1st SPE African Region PetroBowl contest in April 2014. He has remained an active volunteer at both the local section and national levels.

Lotanna Ohazuruike is natural teacher. He is a part-time research assistant at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology while studying towards a masters in petroleum engineering and project development at the prestigious Institute of Petroleum Studies, which is jointly run by the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria and IFP School, France. He hopes to be a professor of reservoir engineering.

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