"I was lucky to grow up in an environment that fostered the pursuit of knowledge, rather than simple memorizing of details."

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L. Balasubramanian

Born in Madras 1970

B.S. Applied Geology

College of Engineering, Anna University, Madras, 1991

M.S. Applied Geology

IIT, Bombay , 1993

Ph.D. Mathematical Geology and GIS

IIT, Bombay, 1998

Field of work

DecisionPoint* Implementation

Areas of interest outside work

Camping, hiking and treking, reading, watching movies and listening to 1970s-80s rock.

I was born and brought up in Madras (now Chennai) in the Southern Part of India. Most of my schooling and Bachelor education was completed there. Mathematics, physics and chemistry were my favorite subjects in school. I have a firm belief that fundamental education is the foundation upon which innovations are built. I was lucky to grow up in an environment that fostered the pursuit of knowledge, rather than simple memorizing of details. We visited labs and technology centers much before my peers in other schools even thought about them. I feel this initiated my interest in science and technology more than arts. Applied Geology, in an engineering institute was a very attractive opportunity when I finished my high school. Fast paced city life in India does not give one much opportunity to realize the beauty of nature, and I started enjoying the subject greatly. A good dose of the physical sciences along with geology seemed to be the right mix! Masters at IIT Bombay broadened my horizons further and gave me an opportunity to explore possibilities of using the computer in what was mainly a field subject.

I went on to become a research scholar, to work on my Ph.D. This involved modeling of lead and zinc deposits in Rajasthan (the abode of kings). This work consisted of applying stochastic models to understand the genesis of the deposit, as well as constructing mineral potential maps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This would greatly reduce exploration costs, since one could delineate areas of probable mineral occurrence from one's PC and target exploration efforts around these. Essentially reducing the area of exploration and increasing the probability of a strike. The government of India funded this project and I was on the Ministry of Human Resources Development's scholarship throughout.

About this time I decided that my career would be either with an oil services company, or a GIS company. Schlumberger, with its commitment to customers, technology and research was the logical choice. After submitting my thesis in February 1997, I joined Schlumberger in April as a Data Management Geoscientist. I have been working with GeoQuest since then. I was assigned to Abu Dhabi to be part of the FINDER* Data Management Project in September 1997. From May 1998 to July 2001 I was an Applications Support person on site in the 4 major oil companies in Abu Dhabi. There I fine tuned my expertise in Oracle and UNIX. Meeting customers from different backgrounds and cultures, and working with them closely to enhance their productivity was a very interesting task.

In July 2001, I joined DecisionPoint, the Business Performance Information Management Solution product group of Schlumberger. My current role, as Implementation Manager, involves creating and deploying custom solutions for the clients to facilitate more effective decision making.

I married Ponnulakshmi in May 1998, and we have a son, Karthik, born 14th Feb 2000. I like to camp out, go for hikes and treks. Books (both fiction and non-fiction) have been my faithful companions in those lonely periods during fieldwork and at the hostel. I like to watch movies and listen to 1970s-80s rock. Nowadays, my son takes up most of my free time!

*Mark of Schlumberger