Dr. Cunqi Jia joined KAUST in 2025, bringing expertise in petroleum engineering and reservoir simulation to the Earth Systems Science and Engineering program. After earning a joint Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) and China University of Petroleum (East China), Jia pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems at UT Austin, where he developed reservoir simulators for various oil and gas recovery processes. His current work is a continuation of his research into the development and application of compositional reservoir simulators, and extends to enhanced hydrocarbon recovery, subsurface reactive transport, naturally fractured and vuggy reservoirs, geological carbon sequestration, and underground energy storage. Dr. Jia contributes to the journal Geoenergy Science and Engineering as an associate editor. He is presently recruiting postdoctoral researchers and graduate students for his lab in the Physical Science and Engineering Division at KAUST.​

Professor Jia's current research focuses on the development and application of compositional reservoir simulators. His research interests include high-performance reservoir simulation, enhanced oil and gas recovery, fracture and vuggy modeling, acid stimulation, geological carbon sequestration and underground energy storage. He is also interested in life cycle assessment and reactive mining, particularly for critical minerals like lithium. ​