John B. Cheatham, Jr. received engineering degrees from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, and Rice University, Houston, TX.He is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University. Before his faculty appointment in 1963 he was Head of Drilling Research at Shell Development Company, Houston, TX. He has been President of the Techaid Corporation, an engineering consulting company, since 1976 in addition to his teaching and research at Rice University. His research and consulting activities include work in rock mechanics, drilling technology, drill string mechanics, and mechanical design. He has served on the Editorial Review Committee for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (Journal of Petroleum Technology and Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal) and was the founding editor of the ASME Transactions Journal of Energy Resources Technology. He contributed a distinguished author series paper on wellbore stability to the June 1984 issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology.
Prof. Cheatham is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.