Djebbar Tiab is the Senior Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, and Petroleum Engineering consultant. He received his B.Sc. (May 1974) and M.Sc. (May 1975) degrees from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and his Ph.D. degree (July 1976) from the University of Oklahoma-all in petroleum engineering. He is the Director of the University of Oklahoma Graduate Program in Petroleum Engineering in Algeria. At the University of Oklahoma, he taught fifteen different petroleum and general engineering courses including: well test analysis, petrophysics, oil reservoir engineering, natural gas engineering, and properties of reservoir fluids. Dr. Tiab has consulted for a number of oil companies and offered training programs in petroleum engineering in the USA and overseas. He worked for over two years in the oilfields of Algeria for Alcore, S.A., an association of Sonatrach and Core Laboratories. He has also worked and consulted for Core Laboratories and Western Atlas in Houston, Texas, for four years as a Senior Reservoir Engineer Advisor.

Erle C. Donaldson began his career as a pilot plant project manager for Signal Oil and Gas Research in Houston, Texas. Later he joined the U.S. Bureau of Mines Petroleum Research Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, as a project manager of subsurface disposal and industrial wastes and reservoir characterization; when the laboratory was transferred to the U.S. Department of Energy, Dr. Donaldson continued as chief of petroleum reservoir characterization. When the laboratory shifted to private industry for operations, he joined the faculty of the School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma as associate professor. Since retiring from the university in 1990, he has consulted for various oil companies, universities, and U.S. agencies including: the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Navy Ordinance Center, King Fahd Research Institute of Saudi Arabia, and companies in the U.S., Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Thailand.