Morris Muskat
- Birthplace
- Latvia
- Death date
- 1998
- Associated organizations
- Gulf R&D Company
- Fields of study
- Petroleum
Biography
Morris Muskat is credited with being the first to describe the fundamental aspects of resrvoir dynamics. In the 1930s, he wrote the seminal book, The Flow of Homogenous Fluids Through Porous Media. This book, together with his later publication, Physical Principles of Oil Production in 1949, laid a sound analytical foundations for reservoir engineering by combining fluid mechanics with phase behavior. He also published numerous technical papers in a variety of technical fields, including hydrodynamics, lubrication theory, and the mechanics of shaped charges.
Muskat was born in Latvia and joined Gulf R&D Company in 1929. He remained there, working in various capacities until he was named Coordinator, Gulf Oil Corporation, in 1950. In 1961, he was promoted to Technical Adviser, Executive, Gulf Oil, a position he held until his retirement in 1971. Muskat received the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal in 1953 and the Lester C. Uren Award in 1969. He was an SPE Distinguished Member and a 1962-63 Distinguished Lecturer. He died in 1998 at the age of 91.
