Something of a tradition has grown in Aberdeen over the past few years whereby a number of student prizes and scholarships are awarded in the run-up to Christmas.
And so it was in 2009, with the Energy Institute, ICoTA, Poyry, Wood Group and Talisman Energy figuring prominently.
In the organisation’s energy talent development programme – best paper competition, the following were awarded prizes:
Aberdeen University: Richard Lamond (MSc Energy Futures Renewables); Bernice Shobowale (Energy Futures Oil & Gas); Ani Bede Chinedu (MSc Subsea Engineering), and Usman Abubakar (MSc Safety Engineering).
RGU: Adebayo Aremu (MSc Oil & Gas Engineering); Ademola Odunsi (MSc Oil & Gas Engineering); John Donaldson (MSc Drilling & Well Engineering).
Under the same programme, six students also fought for the Optima prize. They were Bernice Shobowale, Ani Bede Chinedu and Usman Abubakar, of Aberdeen University, plus Adebayo Aremu, Ademola Odunsi and Chima N.C., of RGU.
The winner was Bernice Shobowale with a concise and highly relevant presentation on preventing calcium naphthenate soap scales in production facilities.
The panel judging the presentations comprised John Gallagher, VP technical – Europe, Shell UK E&P; Trevor Garlick, VP renewal – BP North Sea; Roy Aspden, asset support manager/head of decommissioning – Amec; Mike Bowyer, director of industry relations at Halliburton, and Jamie Oag, MD of Optima Solutions UK.
The latest batch were awarded to:
Aberdeen: Energy Enhanced Scholarship – Steven Miskelly; Talisman Energy Postgraduate Scholarship – Nathan Young; Energy Specialist Undergraduate Scholarships – Natalie Salter, Oliver Rae, Hollie Struthers, Jade Leask, Misha Khan, Nico Wares; Energy Undergraduate Scholarships; Kim Littlejohn, Liam Malone, Joanna Russell, Evrard Missakidi, Ian Clark, Mazhar Uddin.
RGU: Scholarship in Post Graduate Engineering – Paul Nowland; Scholarship in Engineering -Stuart Lamb, Dorothy Esson; Scholarship in Business – Victoria Mutch, Katie Moir.
This programme is different in that it addresses key institutions across Scotland and five candidates from universities in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, plus two winners of prizes specific to Banff & Buchan College, were selected last month by the global engineering consultancy under its £140,000 student support programme.
The successful Poyry scholarship students this time are:
The Poyry Engineering Scholarship: Aberdeen – Aparna Anilkumar (MEng Chemical Engineering); Edinburgh – Jamie Richardson (MEng Chemical Engineering); Heriot-Watt – Przemyslaw Walerowski (MEng Chemical Engineering); Strathclyde – Claire Forsyth (MEng Chemical Engineering).
The Fiona Fuller Business Scholarship (RGU-specific): Russell Hogg (BA Hons Management).
Banff & Buchan College awards: Rebecca Thomson and Craig Dingwall (both studying HND Business).
Annually, the Intervention and Coiled Tubing Association European Chapter (ICoTA) rewards academic excellence in the discipline of well intervention.
Last month, two substantial cash prizes were again awarded to postgraduate students on well intervention-related MSc courses at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University. The prize for Best Overall Drilling and Well Engineering Student went to Ndukwe Chima. Winner of the award for the Best Overall Student in the Advanced Well Engineering module was Nnamdi Obinna.
Frank Rattray, of Marathon Oil, current chairman of ICoTA, presented the students with their prizes at the SPE/ICoTA 15th European Well Intervention Round Table staged late-2009 in Aberdeen.
Scholarships awarded for 2009 at RGU: Christopher Dodds, Steven Bain, Malcolm Smith and James Cheng.