Iraj Ershaghi is the Omar B. Milligan Professor and the Director of the Petroleum Engineering program at the University of Southern California. He is also serving as the Executive Director of CiSoft (Center for Smart Oilfield Technologies) and USC Executive Director of USC-KOC Center of Education and Research. Dr. Ershaghi received his B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tehran, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Southern California. His areas of research, publications and consulting are smart oilfield technologies, reservoir characterization, naturally fractured reservoirs, unconventional resources, well testing and improved recovery processes. He is a licensed petroleum engineer and has conducted studies for many U S based and international oil and Gas companies. He worked for Signal Oil and Gas Company and the Oil and Gas division of California State Lands Commission before joining USC. Since being at USC, he has served as a petroleum engineering consultant to Companies such as Texaco, Aera, OXY, Southern California Gas Company, Federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and the U S Department of the Interior, and national oil companies such as Pertamina and PetroVietnam. He has been the recipient of SPE's Distinguished Faculty Award, Distinguished Member Award, Western North America Distinguished Service Award, and Technology Transfer Award for Development of the Smart Oilfield Technology Curriculum. As a fellow of Institute for Advancement of Engineering, he received the Outstanding Educator Award of American Association for Advancement of Engineering, and the Outstanding Educator Award of Orange County Council of Engineers and Scientists. He served as SPE's Distinguished Lecturer during 2006-2007. In 2010 he was the recipient of the SPE’s John Franklin Carll award. In 2012 he received the SPE/AIME Honorary Member Award.