Mohan Kelkar is currently chairman and professor at the McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering at The University of Tulsa. His main area of research is in reservoir characterization and modeling. In addition to teaching classes at The University of Tulsa, he has taught more than 300 industry seminars for professionals. He has published more than 70 refereed papers and has made more than 250 technical presentations. He is the author or co-author of three books, including SPE’s Applied Geostatistics for Reservoir Characterization. He is actively involved in SPE and served as general chairman of the 2006 IOR Meeting in Tulsa and as the Mid-Continent North America Regional Director on the SPE International Board from 2010 to 2013.

He received the 2010 SPE Distinguished Membership, 2018 SPE Distinguished Service Award, 2013 Outstanding Petroleum Engineering Faculty Award, 2015 SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Certificate, and was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer (2007–2008).

He holds a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Mumbai, India, an MS in petroleum engineering, and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.