Dr. Manhal Sirat holds a PhD Degree in structural geology from Uppsala University, Sweden since 1999. He has more than 41 years of multidisciplinary experience both in industry and academia with project management skills. Dr. Sirat worked in Academia for ca. 16 years worldwide (Uppsala, Hawaii, Philadelphia, RTWH Aachen Universities and at the Petroleum Institute (PI) and at MASDAR Institute of Science and Technology (currently merged together with the Petroleum Institute into Khalifa University at Abu Dhabi, UAE), where he with other Colleagues published a US patent on the applications of smart micro-sensors to map hydro-fractures within stimulated reservoirs. Currently Dr. Sirat is a Professor of Geology at the School of Mining and Geosciences, Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan.

    Within the Industry, Dr. Sirat started his career as an Engineering Geologist (1987-1991) and as a Senior Geomechanics Engineer in Schlumberger (2008-2010), and as Structural Geology and Geomechanics Expert (2010-2016) at ADCO (Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations Ltd.). Finally, he joined the R&D Strategic Planning/Civil Engineering Section in Vattenfall AB, in Sweden, as the Geomechanics/ Geotechnical Expert where he has initiated and completed several projects within the Hydro-Power, Wind-Power and Geothermal energy. After early retirement from Vattenfall AB on Nov. 2018, Dr. Sirat established his own consulting company GeoSolutions, where he provides geological consultation and short industry courses for Civil and geotechnical engineering, and renewable energy, and for Petroleum Industry as well.  

   Dr. Sirat taught several professional academic long-term courses in geology and computer science, and other short-term courses in geology and geostatistics for the oil industry, and has published +100 publications in peer-reviewed international Journals, oil and gas reviewed journals, and conferences and workshops proceedings.  

   His research projects involve but not restricted to Geotechnical Engineering including dam safety issues, wind towers associated scouring, and geothermal energy-related issues, and smart micro-sensors applications. Reservoir Geomechanics and structural geology characterization and modeling with emphasis on fractured reservoirs. Other research interest covers fracture characterization and analysis using structural and geostatistical analyses, and artificial intelligence (neural networks) approach, diagenesis and physical analog modeling of carbonate reservoirs.