MUSKAT

BALTIC STATES (see also List of Individuals)

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21.4.1906 Autz/LV - 20.6.1998 Pasadena CA/USA

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Morris Muskat was born in Latvia. He graduated in 1926 from the Ohio State University as a physicist and in 1929 submitted a PhD thesis to the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. He was then a theoretical physicist of Gulf Research and Development Company in Pittsburg PA and from 1935 to 1948 was a technical director of the physics division in the US Bureau of Mines. At retirement in 1971, he was the Technical Adviser of the Gulf Oil Corporation. Muskat was an associated editor of the Journal of Applied Physics and became a US citizen in 1941. He was a Fellow of the Physical Society, the Institution of Mines and Metal Engineers, the Geophysical Union and presided over the Physical Society of Pittsburg in 1940. He was awarded the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal in 1953 and the Lester C. Uren Award in 1969 from the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He was elected in 1971 Member of the American Academy of Engineering "in recognition of service to industry and the Institute through his creative investigations and published works that provided fundamental insights into petroleum recovery mechanisms and stimulated the application of reservoir engineering to production practice".

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Muskat was an expert in fluid flow through porous media, the physics of lubrication and the theoretical geophysics. Following the massive overproduction of the 1930s and the subsequent low prices that resulted in the virtual collapse of the US oil industry, Muskat published his seminal book in 1937. This work, together with his 1949 book, laid a sound analytical foundation for reservoir engineering by combining fluid mechanics with phase behavior. He also published a large number of papers in diverse fields of interest, including hydrodynamics, lubrication theory and the mechanics of shaped charges.

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_{Anonymous (1951). Morris Muskat. Journal of Petroleum Technology 3(6) Section 2: 2. P Howe, J.W., Rouse, H., eds. (1942). Frontispiece. Second Hydraulics Conference: Iowa. P Muskat, M., Botset, H.G. (1931). Flow of gas through porous materials. Physics 1: 27-47. Muskat, M. (1937). Flow of homogeneous fluids through porous media. McGraw-Hill: New York. Muskat, M. (1949). Physical principles of oil production. McGraw-Hill: New York.}

_{Muskat, M. (1950). The effect of permeability stratification in complete water-drive systems. Journal of Petroleum Technology 2(2894): 349-358.}

_{Warren, J.E. (1998). Morris Muskat. Journal of Petroleum Technology 50(8): 86.}