Bryan Jolley (MEng '07)

Bryan Jolley used the opportunity as an undergraduate to line up his classes and co-enroll in the M.Eng program during his senior year. He says, “I was interested in using this opportunity to get more in depth in my studies and to make myself more marketable beyond graduation. Cornell’s convenient co-enrollment option made this feasible for me without costing me much more time or money.”

Jolley began the program intending to focus on biotechnology and drug delivery, but quickly discovered he enjoyed the problems from Energy Economics and Engineering. “I just connected more to that aspect of chemical engineering, and it led me to focus my final semester in that direction and led to my current job as a senior reservoir engineer for Royal Dutch Shell.”

In the last 18 months he’s had the unique opportunity to lead a $60-million well from concept to production. “It was rewarding to be involved in all steps of the process, from the initial negotiations between our partner companies, to the technical review of all aspects of the plan, and to the fiscal management of the project,” he said. “It reminded me of many of the lessons I learned both from my senior project and my MEng project at Cornell, and I'm sure my education there helped provide a base for just knowing how to get stakeholders involved and keep them informed throughout a major project.”

Jolley currently lives near New Orleans, Louisiana, with his wife. In his free time he plays the trombone and is active in the Society of Petroleum Engineers.