2025 O’Donnell Award in Technology Innovation: Faye Liu, Ph.D.

Visionary geochemist Faye Liu, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RevoChem LLC, is the recipient of the 2025 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Technology Innovation from TAMEST. She was chosen for pioneering geochemical fingerprinting technology to optimize energy production processes thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface.

Dr. Liu’s Houston-based company utilizes two-dimensional gas chromatography, geochemistry and data analytics to improve efficiency and reduce cost and environmental impacts in the energy industry. Her process takes the chemical composition of a drop of oil and creates a digital fingerprint, which maps out where crude oil is produced from the subsurface and how it evolves through time.

Dr. Liu’s technologies increase the resolution from about 100 compounds to over 2,000 compounds in the same drop of oil. This enables Dr. Liu’s team to profile the thousands of compounds that are naturally occurring in crude oil to be used as a tracer to identify where a drop of crude oil is produced from within approximately 10-to-15 feet thickness accuracy from the subsurface. Monitoring where the oil is coming from is critical for oil companies to understand how far apart and how many wells should be drilled in an area without the need for companies to drill additional monitoring wells or employ more expensive and invasive tools.

This model of utilizing chemical information has created an immense amount of value for the industry and enabled them to make data-driven decisions in a cost-effective and non-invasive way by extracting more oil while also reducing the need for unnecessary drilling. Proven first in the oil and gas industry, Dr. Liu hopes to take this process and infrastructure to a bigger realm. Fingerprinting chemical biomarkers in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) could help trace and recreate flavors or aromas in the food industry, cosmetics and even aid in the early diagnosis of certain diseases.

“Dr. Liu is a true innovator and has used advanced chemical sciences to creatively address oil field issues and applications,” said nominator Oliver C. Mullins, Ph.D. (NAE), Retired Fellow, SLB. “Her methods have revolutionized characterization, development and production optimization and monitoring in unconventional reservoirs while minimizing environmental impacts. Her applications are very strong and I am excited for the great potential in many different arenas. It truly feels like we are watching the future unfold.”

Dr. Liu is one of five Texas-based researchers receiving the TAMEST 2025 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards. Recipients are chosen for their individual contributions addressing the essential role that science and technology play in society, and whose work meets the highest standards of exemplary professional performance, creativity and resourcefulness.

Dr. Liu will be recognized at the 2025 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, and will give a presentation on her research preceding the award ceremony at the TAMEST 2025 Annual Conference: Transformational Breakthroughs in Irving, Texas, at the Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas.

About the O’Donnell Awards:

The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards annually recognize rising star Texas researchers who are addressing the essential role that science and technology play in society, and whose work meets the highest standards of exemplary professional performance, creativity and resourcefulness.

Thanks to a $1.15 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation in 2022, the O’Donnell Awards have expanded to include an additional science award. The awards now recognize recipients in the categories of Medicine, Engineering, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Technology Innovation. (Previously, the TAMEST O’Donnell Awards rotated its science award between physical and biological sciences every year.)

The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards are made possible by the O’Donnell Awards Endowment, established in 2005 through the generous support of several individuals and organizations. View a full list of supporters here.

About TAMEST:

TAMEST was co-founded in 2004 by the Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison and Nobel Laureates Michael S. Brown, M.D., and Richard E. Smalley, Ph.D. With more than 345 members, eight Nobel Laureates and 23 member institutions, TAMEST is composed of the Texas-based members of the three National Academies (National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences) and other honorific organizations. We bring together the state’s brightest minds in medicine, engineering, science and technology to foster collaboration, and to advance research, innovation and business in Texas.

TAMEST’s unique interdisciplinary model has become an effective recruitment tool for top research and development centers across Texas. Since our founding, more than 300 TAMEST members have been inducted into the National Academies or relocated to Texas.

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