Thomas Petersen

Thomas Petersen currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California, a position held since August 2022. Prior to this role, Thomas was a Research Engineer at ExxonMobil from February 2019 to June 2022, where responsibilities included managing a multi-month field trial for a high-budget technology development project. Thomas's academic background includes a Ph.D. in Mechanics of Materials and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where research focused on modeling phenomena in cement paste hydration. Previous positions also include teaching assistantships for undergraduates in Engineering Mechanics and Mechanics and Materials, along with internships and research roles that involved developing reservoir forecasts and using optimization techniques to analyze environmental data. The educational foundation comprises a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University.