Morris Muskat was an American petroleum engineer who first described the fundamental aspects of reservoir dynamics. He was one of the first engineers in oil production history to be a trained physicist. His research career with Gulf Oil began in 1929, and he applied basic classic physics to understanding the flow of oil and gas through porous rocks in which they were trapped. In 1931, while working for the Gulf Research and Development Co., he wrote The Flow of Homogeneous Fluids Through Porous Media. This work is widely considered as a seminal publication for reservoir engineering. A second book, Physical Principles of Oil Production (1949), advanced the field even further and provided the analytical foundation for reservoir engineering that exists to this day.

He was also the author of over 100 technical papers and held 15 patents. He was a fellow of the AAAS and the American Physical Society, and a member of AIUME, American Petroleum Institute, the National Academy of Engineering, AGY, and the New York Academy of Science.

Sources

• Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2007. "Muskat, Morris." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [Published in the Encyclopedia of Earth March 19, 2007; Retrieved August 5, 2009]. 
• Alumni Association, “Distinguished Alumni Award 1987 Recipients.” California Institute of Technology. Accessed 5 August 2009.