IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2009 - 40

Ghaniya is a member of
on the CO2 project. Her team
Society of Petroleum Engiconst a ntly work s wit h
neers (SPE), Society of
other ADCO teams in
"You have to
Core Analysts (SCA),
the implementation
and Society of Well
process. The project is
work hard...very
Log Analyst (SPWLA).
fairly complex espehard. I now feel
As the first female rescially as carbon dioxresponsible to
ervoir engineer in the
ide is quite corrosive
maintain a role
UAE, she has crossed
and not easy to hanmodel status."
several hurdles. She
dle. On completion of
says of being a pioneer,
the project by the end of
"in order to get credibil2009, ADCO will be the first
ity in a man's world, you have to
in the Middle East to implement
prove yourself technically-you require a
such a pilot and will be looking to launch
technical advantage to gain respect from
a full-scale project. "Launching the CO2
your peers. You have to work hard...
project and working out all the chalvery hard." She had to work twice as
lenges of implementing it is the most
hard to prove that women are an asset to
interesting thing that I have done while
the industry. "I now feel responsible to
working in the industry," she says.

maintain a role model status. Together
with other women in the industry and in
association with the Society of Petroleum
Engineers, she has begun organizing
workshops to discuss the issues of young
women professionals in the oil industry,
she says.
Ghaniya often participates by giving talks and lectures in major oil and
gas workshops and conferences to discuss technical aspects of enhanced oil
recovery.
In the future, she hopes to work in
more novel technologies that would
bring benefit to the UAE and sustain its
oil production for a long time into the
future.

Pipelining
(Continued from page 31)
will help the students move forward by
showing them where they can find relevant contacts and resources, such as
how to get in touch with national guest
speakers. The IEEE also funds the travel
expenses for the speakers so, while students are responsible for funding their
S-PAC, this large expense is covered
for them. Throughout the process, the
regional representative is available to
provide advice, ideas, and suggestions
as needed.
Watson points out that some of the
best student coordinators have been
female. "When I have worked with
women, I have found them as good or
better than most of the men," he laughs,
citing as reasons their aptitudes at following through, paying attention to
details, and communicating. "I would
certainly like to see more women
involved in engineering and I think
S-PACs encourages that."
As a mentor, Jim Watson is an ideal
person to ask for advice. After a career
with Ohio Edison Company where he
held numerous engineering and management positions, Watson devoted his time
to consulting on career management as
the head of Watson Associates. He has

40

IEEE womEn In EngInEErIng magazInE

1_6pg_Passive.pdf

been recognized for his volunteerism
and devotion to student career development with numerous awards, including
the IEEE Pace Innovation Award, the
IEEE Third Millennium Medal and the
IEEE-USA 2001 Citation of Honor. In
response to these honors, Watson humbly says, "They were very nice. When
peers recognize something you do, it's
always nice." But, he adds, "to be honest,
my satisfaction in life is to see that we
are having a positive impact on the students. A lot of people helped me and this
has been a way for me to give back to our
future engineering community. I've had
a lot of fun with the IEEE." Currently,
Watson is working with Dr. Charles K.
Alexander, IEEE's 1997 International
President, on a book for college students
about nontechnical skills and how engineers can incorporate them into their
careers. With the fledgling job market
today, students should give thanks for
all the help they can get.
For more information on S-PACs
visit: http://www.ieeeusa.org/volunteers/
committees/spac/.
-Leslie Prives

3/7/07

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2009
