{{short description|Polish-American chemical engineer and physicist}} {{Multiple issues|{{BLP sources|date=September 2019}} {{COI|date=September 2019}}}} {{Infobox person | name = Tad Patzek | image = Patzekirelandcrop.jpg | alt = | caption = Patzek, 2018 | birth_date = | birth_place = Gliwice, Poland | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | known_for = Education, modeling of fluid flow in porous media, environmental activism | occupation = Educator and petroleum engineer | website = {{URL|https://patzek-lifeitself.blogspot.com/}} }} '''Tadeusz''' "'''Tad'''" '''W. Patzek''' is a Polish-American chemical engineer and physicist.
== Education == Patzek was born in Gliwice, Poland, on 26 November 1951.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} Between 1969 and 1974, he studied chemical process engineering at the Department of Chemistry of The Silesian Technical University in Gliwice.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} In parallel, Patzek studied applied physics at the Department of Mathematics and Physics.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} After obtaining an MS degree in chemical engineering, Patzek started PhD work at the Chemical Engineering Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice. As a PhD student, Patzek won a Fulbright Scholarship to the US, and enrolled for the 1978/79 academic year at the Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science of the University of Minnesota.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}
== Professional career == Tad Patzek is a professor and petroleum industry analyst at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Greenberg |first1=Jon |title=Rex Tillerson misleads on Russian sanctions opposition |url=https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jan/12/rex-tillerson/tillerson-misleads-russian-sanctions-opposition/ |accessdate=29 March 2019 |work=Politifact |date=12 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kaust.edu.sa/faculty/patzek.html|title=Tadeusz W. Patzek|work=kaust.edu.sa|accessdate=9 October 2015}}</ref>
Until December 2014, he was the Lois K. and Richard D. Folger Leadership Professor and Chairman of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://peak-oil.org/tad-patzek/|title=Board of Directors – Tadeusz Patzek – Peak-Oil.org|website=peak-oil.org}}</ref> He also held the Cockrell Family Regents Chair. Between 1990 and 2008, Patzek was a Professor of Geoengineering at the University of California, Berkeley.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Koerner |first1=Brendan |title=The Premium Premium |url=https://slate.com/technology/2008/01/is-high-octane-gas-bad-for-the-environment.html |accessdate=9 April 2020 |website=Slate |date=15 January 2008}}</ref> Patzek is also a Presidential Full Professor in Poland.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}
Patzek briefed Congress on the BP Deepwater Horizon well disaster in the Gulf, and was a frequent guest on NPR, ABC, BBC, CNN, and CBS.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/24/205210585/why-the-latest-gulf-leak-is-no-bp-disaster|title=Why The Latest Gulf Leak Is No BP Disaster|website=NPR.org|date=24 July 2013 |last1=Joyce |first1=Christopher }}</ref> In January 2011, Patzek became a member of the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee for the United States Department of Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). He co‐wrote a popular book with historian Joseph Tainter, ''Drilling Down: The Gulf Debacle and our Energy Dilemma''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Drilling Down: The Gulf Oil Debacle and Our Energy Dilemma|last=Tainter J. and Patzek, TW|date=July 7, 2012|isbn = 978-1441976765}}</ref>
Since 2003, Patzek has engaged in the study of sustainability and industrial agricultural and agrofuel systems, all viewed through the lens of ecology and thermodynamics. In 2007, Patzek participated in the OECD ministerial meetings<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gaia.pge.utexas.edu/papers/OECD09112007TalkFinal.pdf|title=OECD Dinner Speech|last=Patzek|first=Tadeusz|date=September 11, 2007|website=Patzek's Dinner Speech at the 2007 OECD Ministerial Meeting}}</ref> in Paris that coped with the new biofuel mandates established in the US.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oecd.org/sd-roundtable/papersandpublications/40225820.pdf|title=Can We Outlive Our Way of Life?|last=Patzek|first=Tadeusz|date=September 9, 2007|website=OECD}}</ref>
One of the focal points of Patzek's research has been an effort to obtain realistic assessments of oil, gas, and coal production.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patzek |first1=T. W. |last2=Croft |first2=G |title=A global coal production forecast with multi-Hubbert cycle analysis |journal=Energy |date=2010 |volume=35 |issue=8 |pages=3109–3122 |doi=10.1016/j.energy.2010.02.009 |url=http://gaia.pge.utexas.edu/papers/EnergyCoalPaperPublished.pdf |accessdate=September 17, 2019}}</ref> This work includes new forms of Decline curve analysis, making predictions for the next several decades of production from gas shales.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eftekhari |first1=Behzad |last2=Marder |first2=M |last3=Patzek |first3=Tadeusz W. |title=Field data provide estimates of effective permeability, fracture spacing, well drainage area and incremental production in gas shales |journal=Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering |date=2018 |volume=56 |pages=141–151 |doi=10.1016/j.jngse.2018.05.027 |doi-access=free |hdl=10754/627973 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
Patzek has coauthored some 300 papers and reports.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JHk7dtgAAAAJ&hl=en|title=T. W. Patzek - Google Scholar Citations|website=scholar.google.com|access-date=2019-08-30}}</ref>
==Awards== Patzek, Frank Male, and Michael Marder received the 2013 Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences for the best paper, "Gas production in the Barnett Shale obeys a simple scaling law",<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Gas production in the Barnett Shale obeys a simple scaling theory|last=Patzek, TW, Male, F. and Marder, M.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|date=December 3, 2013|volume=110|issue=49|pages=19731–6|doi=10.1073/pnas.1313380110|pmid=24248376|pmc=3856843|bibcode=2013PNAS..11019731P |doi-access=free}}</ref> in the engineering and applied sciences category.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pnas.org/page/about/cozzarelli-prize |title=The Cozzarelli Prize |publisher=PNAS |accessdate=September 17, 2019}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Patzek, Tad}} Category:Living people Category:Polish engineers Category:1951 births Category:Polish expatriates in Saudi Arabia Category:21st-century American engineers Category:Polish expatriates in the United States Category:Academic staff of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology