Rao Named Editor-in-Chief of International Publication
January 28, 2020
BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU Petroleum Engineering Professor Dandina Rao was recently announced
as editor-in-chief of Petroleum Science and Technology, an international journal that
publishes original, high-quality, peer-reviewed research and review articles that
explore various aspects of the petroleum industry.
“The publisher (Taylor and Francis) contacted me out of the blue early last year asking if I would be interested,” Rao said. “Then they interviewed me in July 2019 over the phone. Several months later, they offered the position to me.
“Initially, [when I learned I was the new editor-in-chief], a good feeling swept over me, but soon the realization dawned that it is a huge responsibility,” Rao added.
Rao has already begun to put his stamp on the nearly 40-year-old publication, reorienting its focus to upstream aspects of petroleum engineering and science. Now the publication will focus on areas like the fundamental science of fluid-fluid and rock-fluids interactions, the application of novel concepts and processes for enhancing recovery of subsurface energy resources in a carbon-sensitive manner, case studies of scaling up the laboratory research findings to field pilots and field-wide applications, and other salient technological challenges facing the petroleum industry.
One other way Rao hopes to make an impact is by changing the way researchers feel about the review process for such publications.
“The professional journals of science and engineering have a duty to disseminate new knowledge and understanding,” he said. “In this process, we may encounter opposition, which should also be disseminated through discussion papers. We should not be afraid of controversy, as long as the reported findings are well supported by scientific facts. I would also like to provide more emphasis on experimental research, since the experimentalists are becoming a rarer breed day by day
“One other goal is to increase the journal’s visibility and impact factor. But all this will take some time. I hope to begin making strides in these new directions right away.
Rao has previously served on the editorial board of the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology and as technical editor of SPE Journal and SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering. Last year, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Inventors and was honored by LSU with the Rainmaker Award, which is given to faculty who are nationally and internationally recognized for innovative research and creative scholarship. He holds several patents in the United States and other countries and has published more than 120 technical papers.
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Director of Communications
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