Watheq J. Al-Mudhafar is a recipient of the prestigious International Fulbright Science and Technology Award and currently serves as a Distinguished Principal Reservoir Engineer at the Basrah Oil Company, Iraq. He earned his Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering with two minors in Geology and Applied Statistics from Louisiana State University in spring 2016. Prior to that, he received both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Baghdad.His interdisciplinary research focuses on reservoir characterization, geostatistics, statistical reservoir modeling, optimization, and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). During his Ph.D., he served as a teaching assistant and substitute lecturer in Petroleum Economics and Reservoir Management. His dissertation on the Gas-Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) process earned him the 2016 Distinguished Dissertation Award from LSU's College of Engineering. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and presented more than 100 papers at international conferences worldwide.Dr. Al-Mudhafar has six years of field and senior reservoir engineering experience with the South Oil Company, Iraq. He is an active reviewer for 100+ Scopus journals,. He has chaired the SPE Iraq (Basra) Section since 2010 and received SPE Life Membership and the 2011 Regional Grand Prize for member recruitment. He regularly delivers advanced courses in reservoir simulation, field development optimization, and economic modeling.