This book represents an amalgam of objectives related to the study of petroleum at many,diverselevels. Themostimportantattributeanythrivingtechnical?eldmust have is an injection and infusion of dedicated, expert, young scientists who have absorbed from their elders the fascination of scienti?c mystery coupled with the fundamental satisfaction of revelation and providing contribution. And, of course, these youthful practitioners must also learn to challenge the authority of their - ders. Fromexperienceswithmyownstudents,thisseemsnottobeaproblem. Many chapters in this book are coauthored by young scientists yielding the prognosis of continued health of our scienti?c ?eld. Indeed, I am quite proud that several of my own chapters in this book are coauthored with students and young engineers of enormous capability. It is a humbling honor to help delineate direction of this formidable talent. It is incumbent upon my generation of scientists to provide a vision of the future. In this book, weconnect the scienti?c excellence of the past with a vision for petroleum science, Petroleomics. Medical science of the past has been of singular societal focus with scienti?c discoveries of enormous import. Nevertheless,Genomicsisrevolutionaryinthatcausalrelationsinmedicalscience are being established with scienti?c exactitude and fundamental understanding. Genomics is creating a predictive medical science that was but a dream for p- vious generations. In a similar way, scienti?c advances described in this book are laying the foundations for Petroleomics—the challenge and framework to agitate ouryouthfulcontributors. Petroleomicsembodiestheestablishmentofstructure— function relations in petroleum science with particular focus on asphaltenes, the most enigmatic of petroleum components.
