Roman Shor

About

Roman Shor, Ph.D., P.Eng., is an Associate Professor and Douglas Von Gonten Faculty Fellow in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he is also Co-Director of the Geothermal Consortium. Previously, he was an Associate Professor and the Energi Simulation Industrial Research Chair in Geothermal Systems at the University of Calgary, where he remains an Adjunct Associate Professor, and in 2023 he was a Visiting Professor in the Geothermal Energy and Geofluids Group at ETH Zurich. He holds a BA in mathematics and a BSE and MSE in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MSE and PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining academia, he co-founded R5 Automation, a developer of automation systems for drilling rigs. He is interested in energy systems, the interplay of renewable and traditional energy sources, systems thinking, and sustainability.

He led the Wells for the Future Consortium at Texas A&M and his research interests lie in the areas of drillstring dynamics modelling and control, drilling optimization, drilling systems automation and drilling in extreme environments. His team explores topics in deep drilling systems with the goal of reducing well costs to enable deep geothermal systems. He also applies machine learning techniques to problems in the energy sector and is interested in reducing the impact of drilling operations on the environment and surrounding communities. He collaborates with researchers around the world on topics in geothermal energy, drill string dynamics, and the subsurface as an energy asset. He continues his collaboration with researchers in the Energi Simulation Centre for Geothermal Systems Research at the University of Calgary to help plan, develop and monitor geothermal demonstration projects throughout Western Canada.

Current Projects

• Geothermal energy. Multiple projects investigating drilling for hot and deep geothermal reservoirs, heat recovery from enhanced geothermal systems, systems designs for shallow geo-exchange systems, thermal conductivity and thermal flows in reservoirs, and community engagement.
• Drillstring modeling. By modeling the drillstring using the wave equation, adding the proper form of distributed friction and investigating the proper couplings between vibration modes, it is possible to develop real time physics based models which may be used for control.
• Drill bits and hard rock drilling. Bit–rock interaction modeling, rotary percussive drilling in granite, and novel drilling technologies for deep and hot wells.
• Drilling parameter optimization and vibration reduction through machine learning techniques. By training classifiers using historic datasets which include downhole data, it is possible to identify drilling parameter regions which result in lower drillstring vibration and increased drilling performance.
• Developing advanced closed loop control for drilling operations. To handle latency and delay in drilling systems, realtime models may be used for feedforward and model predictive control to improve drilling performance.
• Wellbore stability and integrity. Geomechanics of high-temperature drilling, drilling and casing design optimization, and wellbore isolation for natural gas storage.
• Machine learning. Applications of machine learning techniques to tool life estimation and fracture optimization. Work ranges from downhole tool life prediction to well cost analysis.

Research Group

Dr. Shor has supervised more than 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Texas A&M University

3 current Ph.D. students

8 current master’s students

4 master’s graduates

University of Calgary

8 Ph.D. graduates, 1 continuing

18 master’s graduates (7 thesis-based, 11 professional)

8 postdoctoral fellows

Former postdoctoral fellows hold faculty positions at Drexel University, the Université du Québec à Montréal and Concordia University of Edmonton, and a research position at CNRS.

Publications

37 journal articles, 58 conference papers (13 peer-reviewed proceedings) and 4 U.S. patents. Full list on Google Scholar.

Highlights: Drilling Systems

• Trivedi, A. S., Shor, R. J. & Kantzas, A. (2026). Energy Partitioning and Fracture Morphology Behaviour in Rotary Percussive Drilling of Granite: Experimental Validation of the Bit Performance Index Model. Geoenergy Science and Engineering.
• Ghaly, E. E. & Shor, R. J. (2026). Plasma-Pulse-Based Drilling Technology—A State of the Art: Research Progress, Comparative Analysis, and Future Directions. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science.
• Mensah-Bonsu, E. K. & Shor, R. J. (2026). Thermal Stress Effects on Rock Failure and Wellbore Stability in High-Temperature Drilling: A Critical Review. ARMA US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium.
• Ambrus, A., Cayeux, E., & Shor, R. J. (2024). Investigation of field scenarios using a 4n degrees of freedom transient torque and drag model. Geoenergy Science and Engineering, 233, 212563.
• Shor, R. J., Mai, A., Manolakos, A. E., Sambrook, J., Trivedi, A., Hess, S., & Arseniuk, S. (2023, March). Enabling High Performance Multi-Lateral Wells: Current Technologies and Gaps. In SPE Canadian Energy Technology Conference and Exhibition. OnePetro.
• Auriol, J., Shor, R., Niculescu, S. I., & Kazemi, N. (2022, June). Estimating Drill String Friction with Model-Based and Data-Driven Methods. In 2022 American Control Conference (ACC) (pp. 3464–3469). IEEE.
• Auriol, J., Boussaada, I., Shor, R. J., Mounier, H., & Niculescu, S. I. (2022). Comparing advanced control strategies to eliminate stick-slip oscillations in drillstrings. IEEE Access, 10, 10949–10969.
• Kandala, S. S., & Shor, R. (2022). Evolution of static and kinetic friction in a horizontal well using an adaptive model-based observer: Field validation. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 208, 109663.
• Kandala, S. S., & Shor, R. (2021, October). Enabling Real-time Estimation of Borehole Parameters in Deep Drilling. In 2021 IEEE Sensors (pp. 1–4). IEEE.
• Zhang, H., Ashok, P., van Oort, E., & Shor, R. (2021). Investigation of pipe rocking and agitator effectiveness on friction reduction during slide drilling. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 204, 108720.

Highlights: Geothermal Energy

• Fry, N., Shor, R. & Mwesigye, A. (2026). Demand, operational conditions, and impacts on geothermal energy networks. Geothermics, 136.
• Carter, G. C., Okoroafor, E. R. & Shor, R. J. (2026). Evaluating Silica Scaling in Enhanced Geothermal Systems Under Different Dispatchable Production Regimes. SPE International Oilfield Scale Conference and Exhibition.
• Chan, C. H., Datta-Gupta, A. & Shor, R. (2025). Fast Marching Method: A new paradigm for rapid simulation of enhanced geothermal systems. Geoenergy Science and Engineering.
• Brasnett, G., Hickson, C., & Shor, R. J. (2023). Mapping Techno-Economic Feasibility of Geothermal Energy Resources in Alberta, Canada. Stanford Geothermal Workshop.
• Kandala, S. S., Mai, A., Vetsak, A. & Shor, R. J. (2022). An integrated model for deep drilling through hard rock. European Geothermal Congress.
• Sambrook, J. V., Manolakos, A. E., Mai, A., Kantza, A., Shor, R. J., Torre, A. & Vetsak, A. (2022). Geothermal Drilling in Deep and Hot Conditions with Conventional Technologies: Rig Design. European Geothermal Congress.
• Trivedi, A., De La Fuente Valadez, J., Kandala, S. S., Mai, A., Shor, R. J. & Vetsak, A. (2022, June). Experimental Study for the Validation of Drilling Optimization Model for Improved Performance in Hard Rock Formations. 56th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium.
• Shor, R. J., Kandala, S. S., Trivedi, A., Valadez, J., Mai, A. & Vetsak, A. (2022). Optimization of Hammer Bit Performance for Rotary Percussive Deep Drilling. Stanford Geothermal Workshop.
• Shor, R. J., Ashok, P. & van Oort, E. (2021). Identifying the Gaps to Achieve the Goal of ‘Geothermal Anywhere’. Geothermal Rising Conference.
• Ashok, P., van Oort, E. & Shor, R. J. (2021). Leveraging Oil & Gas Well Construction Expertise for Deep Geothermal Drilling. Geothermal Rising Conference.
• Adepoju, Y., Shor, R. J. & Chen, Z. (2020). Geothermal Energy Development in the Canadian Cordillera, a Case Study. Geothermal Research Conference.

Granted Patents

• Nojadeh, N. K., Shor, R. J. & Innanen, K. A. H. Guiding drilling operations using a subsurface model based on full waveform inversion of seismic-while-drilling data. U.S. Patent 11,898,433.
• Auriol, J. A. J. R. & Shor, R. J. Methods relating to tool face orientation. U.S. Patent 11,725,499.
• Torres-Verdin, C., Shor, R. & van Oort, E. Sensing formation properties during wellbore construction. U.S. Patent 10,774,637.
• Ashok, P., van Oort, E., Ambrus, A., Pournazari, P. & Shor, R. Utilizing look-up tables representing all models in an automation control architecture to independently handle uncertainties in sensed data in oil and gas well construction. U.S. Patent 10,185,306.

Open Source Projects

Dr. Shor leads the Open Source Drilling Community, part of the SPE Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (DSATS), which seeks to accelerate drillstring dynamics model development through open source collaboration. As part of this, his team is developing DrillPyze, an open source Python library for simulating coupled axial–torsional drillstring dynamics in real time, including bit models, top-drive controllers, hydraulics and wellbore temperature. You can try the model in the DrillPyze Lite simulator or read the DrillPyze documentation.

Recent publications for the Open Source Drilling Community

• Ghaly, E. & Shor, R. J. (2025). Bit-Rock Interaction for PDC Drill Bits: A Review and an Open-Source Library. SPE/IADC Drilling Conference. SPE-223715-MS.
• Yoon, D., Hamidov, E., Endres, L., Gildin, E., Pastusek, P., Shor, R. & Li, X. (2024). Comparing Open-Source Drill String Models: Establishing Test Cases and Methods. SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. SPE-220749-MS.
• Shor, R. J., Kandala, S. S., Gildin, E., Noynaert, S. F., Losoya, E. Z., Kesireddy, V., … & Pastusek, P. E. (2022, March). Progress Toward an Open-Source Drilling Community: Contributing and Curating Models. In IADC/SPE International Drilling Conference and Exhibition. OnePetro.
• Pastusek, P., Payette, G., Shor, R., Cayeux, E., Aarsnes, U. J., Hedengren, J., Menand, S., Macpherson, J., Gandikota, R., Behounek, M., Harmer, R., Detournay, E., Illerhaus, R. & Liu, Y. (2019). Creating Open Source Models, Test Cases, and Data for Oilfield Drilling Challenges. SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference and Exhibition.

Teaching

His open textbook, Introduction to Drilling Engineering, is freely available online.

Current Courses at Texas A&M University

• PETE 225 Introduction to Drilling Systems
• PETE 355 / PETE 661 Drilling Engineering

Teaching Experience

Since 2016, Dr. Shor has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Texas A&M University and the University of Calgary in drilling engineering and drilling systems, well completions, production engineering, well testing, reservoir geology, petroleum economics, energy systems, software design, and engineering design and entrepreneurship. He co-teaches the Geothermal Energy course at ETH Zurich and has given short courses at the Technion and the Sea Education Association.

Contact Information

• Departmental research profile
• Google Scholar profile
• Introduction to Drilling Engineering (open textbook)
• DrillPyze Lite (browser simulator) and DrillPyze documentation
• Open Source Drilling Community
• Wells for the Future Consortium
• Email: roman [dot] shor [at] tamu [dot] edu