Recently, the board of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Technology (NTVA) has decided to award NTVA's Honorary Award for 2023 to Senior Specialist, Dr. Tao Yang.

This year's award winner has a long scientific and industrial career in the field of reservoir engineering. Through efforts over many years, the award winner has developed a ground-breaking digital technology that solves the industry challenge of identifying reservoir oil and gas during drilling. This means that you can see whether a well will produce oil or gas while the well is being drilled. The technology leads to significant efficiency improvements while at the same time providing large reductions in CO2 emissions.

The Honorary Award ceremony was held on 26 April at the Royal Residence Ledaal in Stavanger. Deputy Mayor of Stavanger Dagny Sunnanå Hausken hosted the event. Dr. Yang received the award from NTVA president Torbjørn Digernes.

NTVA annually awards an honorary award to a person who has contributed to developing ground-breaking technology. In the past, the award has gone to people who have been responsible for innovation within IT and the internet, development within medicine and for important contributions to the oil and gas industry. The award was first awarded in 2008, and only 1% of the NTVA’s members have received the highest honor in the academy.

Tao Yang is an alumnus who began to pursue the doctorate and majored in chemical engineering at China University of Petroleum in 1993. He is currently a senior technical expert of Equinor, a Norwegian energy giant. He is also Vice Chairman of the Norwegian National Center for Sustainable Utilization of Energy Resources on the Continental Shelf (NCS2030), an outstanding lecture expert of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and concurrently an editorial board member of Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering (SPE Journal) and Geological Energy Science and Engineering (Elsevier Journal). He has won the SPE North Sea Reservoir Engineering Award, SPE Distinguished Technical Editor Award, and SPE Distinguished Member Award. In 2021 he was elected an academician of the NTVA.