Varadarajan Dwarakanath is technical team lead for the chemical recovery mechanisms group in the Chevron Technical Center, a position he has held since 2020. Prior to his current role, he was recovery mechanisms advisor at Chevron North America E&P (2019–2020), team manager of reservoir performance and characterization (2008–2019), and senior reservoir engineer at the Chevron Energy Technology Company (2005–2008). Prior to Chevron, he was senior geosystems scientist at INTERA Inc. from 1997 to 2005.

He received the 2024 SPE IOR Pioneer Award, has served on the SPE IOR Technical Committee since 2010, and was technical chair for SPE IOR in 2024. He has served as an executive editor for SPE Journal since 2023. He was recognized as a distinguished member of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at UT-Austin in 2012 and serves on the advisory board for the University of Houston’s Department of Petroleum Engineering. He has co-authored more than 15 peer-reviewed papers, 20 conference publications, and 95 patents during his career.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in mining from IT-BHU, India, and master’s and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from UT-Austin.