Ricardo Emanuel Vaz Vargas, Senior Professional at Petrobras, has been named the winner of the 2025 ASME Hermann Rosen Award for Pipeline Innovation. The announcement was made during the official award ceremony held at the ROSEN booth at the Rio Pipeline Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 10, 2025.
The ASME Hermann Rosen Award recognizes innovators of tomorrow whose ideas have the potential to transform the pipeline industry. Endowed by the ROSEN Group and presented in collaboration with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Foundation, the award celebrates innovation, purpose, and the next generation of energy infrastructure leaders.
A panel of industry experts selected Ricardo Emanuel Vaz Vargas for his outstanding contribution to advancing the detection of unwanted events in oil-producing wells. His project, the “3W Project,” challenges the current paradigm of oil well monitoring by encouraging the development and experimentation of machine learning–based approaches and algorithms for various problems related to the detection and classification of undesirable events in offshore oil wells and pipeline systems. The project is established as a collaborative platform featuring a global community of independent professionals, as well as representatives from research institutions, startups, companies, and oil operators from various countries. This allows all involved parties to collaborate and achieve gains that would not be possible in individual projects. Vaz Vargas’s work demonstrates a forward-thinking approach to pipeline safety and sustainability, and reflects the spirit of engineering excellence that the award honors.
“At ROSEN, we believe in the power of engineering talent, dedication, and passion. This has been part of our DNA for over 40 years. For us, the ASME Hermann Rosen Award for Pipeline Innovation is more than a recognition of talented engineers; it’s our commitment to innovation and a tribute to our founder’s legacy. It reflects Hermann Rosen’s guiding principle: empowered by technology,” said Erik Cornelissen, Chief Customer Officer at ROSEN, on the occasion of the award ceremony.
“The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is proud to join together with ROSEN Group to present this award. Through ASME’s programs and awards, we support and recognize today’s brilliant minds and empower the next generation of engineering innovators. We’re glad to have this valuable opportunity to recognize those with the potential to make our world a better place–and work together to advance engineering for the benefit of humanity,” added Thomas Costabile, Executive Director/CEO of ASME.
The Hermann Rosen Award for Pipeline Innovation is not only a recognition of technical excellence — it is a celebration of the people behind the ideas. “ROSEN is deeply committed to innovation and empowers the next generation of pioneers in pipeline innovation. We congratulate all finalists and wish you the best of luck in your careers ahead. Your outstanding ideas in pipeline and transportation engineering are truly inspiring. We are very much looking forward to seeing these ideas advance in the future,” commented Dr. Andreas Opfermann, Chief Executive Officer at ROSEN, during the award ceremony.
This year’s finalists have demonstrated that innovation is driven by curiosity, courage, and a desire to make a meaningful impact by solving real-world challenges. Their work reflects the vision shared by ROSEN, the ASME Foundation, and Hermann Rosen. By honoring Ricardo Emanuel Vaz Vargas, the award acknowledges the collective spirit of all participants and recognizes the individuals whose ideas will shape the future of the industry.
