Scott Papka received a B.S. degree in 1992 from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Wichita State University. After graduation, he started his graduate studies at The University of Texas at Austin, where he earned an M.S. degree in engineering mechanics in 1994 and a Ph.D. in the same area in 1998. His career then began at Exxon Production Research Company in Houston, TX. He spent 10 years in research initially investigating new materials for novel applications and eventually working in the area of Offshore Engineering with a focus on LNG ship storage systems. In 2008, he moved to ExxonMobil Development Company where he spent the next phase of his career managing marine, civil, and materials engineering teams that provided support to worldwide projects and operations. During this time, he also had a brief stint as a Project Manager for the Marine Well Containment System Project, which provided the infrastructure to capture and stop the flow of oil into the ocean in the event of the loss of control of a well in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2015, Papka moved to the ExxonMobil Production Company where he continued in a similar role as manager of a group of marine and civil engineers. After nearly a decade of serving in positions outside of research, he returned to the Upstream Research Company in 2017 as the Laboratory Operations Manager, the job he currently holds in the company. The laboratories operated by the group are located in two locations within the Houston area with over a combined total space of 300,000 square feet dedicated to providing experimental testing support to researchers and business units across ExxonMobil.
