Dear InterPore colleagues,

The summer break (northern hemisphere) has arrived. Streets and offices are quieter. My family and I will be doing rheology experiments (building sand castles at the beach). When the daily stress factors are on hold (funding applications, paper review deadlines, time writing for dozens of projects, etc.), perhaps we see the global reasons for worrying even clearer: The horrible Russian war in Ukraine, forest fires around the globe due to the climate crises, just to name a few. Amidst those bigger pictures, it is just us individuals wandering around with all our personal stories. In that context, we’re saddened by the passing away of Prof. Sjoerd van der Zee. Anton, Majid, and Rien wrote a nice In Memoriam.

It is good to take a break (if possible), reconsider our own priorities and aim for even a bigger impact in the new season. To get you up to speed quickly, various InterPore chapters are announcing local meetings. Also, the Kimberly-Clark lectures (2022 and 2023!) can be booked. And some career-opportunities in the Research Position section.

PS: The next Newsletter is scheduled for August 19.

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

In memory of Sjoerd van der Zee

On June 24, 2022, Sjoerd van der Zee, a great porous media scientist, passed away. He was a professor at Wageningen University and Research in The Netherlands, and an adjunct professor at the School of Chemistry of Monash University in Australia. After his retirement in July 2021, he was diagnosed with A.L.S., for which no cure is available.

Sjoerd was a renowned authority on the transport of impurities and pollutants in the natural environment, both from a theoretical (non-linear modelling) and experimental perspective. His research included the fate and transport of phosphates, heavy metals, pesticides and oil in natural soil-water-plant systems. He also contributed enormously to saltwater intrusion, changes in soil structure due to salinity and sodicity, waste water reuse, and the transport of emerging chemicals and heat in soils.

Through his studies, Sjoerd showed to be an expert in combining physical and chemical interactions of processes governing water flow and contaminant transport in soil and groundwater systems. Many of his mathematical studies were formulated within a stochastic framework to account for subsurface heterogeneity. He published more than 350 scientific articles, of which 220 appeared in peer-reviewed journals. He further contributed to many international conferences and institutional reviews, and coached more than 30 PhD students.

During InterPore2022, a minisymposium (“Porous Media for a Green World: Water & Agriculture”) was dedicated to Sjoerd van der Zee in recognition of his many contributions in research, student education and professional leadership.

Apart from his scientific qualities, Sjoerd was a great person to work with. He was interested in people and always ready to help. He was an amicable, creative, and modest person, but could also be vigorous and persistent in discussions. His great sense of humor was enjoyed by many.

He will be sorely missed.

Anton Leijnse, S. Majid Hassanizadeh, Rien van Genuchten

5th InterPore Brazilian Chapter Meeting

1-2 August, 2022. Online

ZOOM links will be provided upon registration. Attendance is fully free of charge.

The scientific program focuses on advances in the research, methods, and theory of Porous Media systems (including pure and applied sciences, applied mathematics, computational science engineering, experimental and much more) and in close connection to the topics: – Green World. – Synchrotron light, Biosciences, Biorenewables, Nanotechnology. – Oil Science. – Smart Materials.

Complete conference details including the full program, international and national speakers can be found at their website

REMARK: Remember to check the correct time zone to follow the schedule in your local time.

InterPore BeNeLux Chapter Meeting

October 14, 2022, Hasselt University

The 5th InterPore BeNeLux chapter meeting will be held at Hasselt University (Martelarenlaan 42, 3500 Hasselt, Belgium) on October 14, 2022. Unless there are exceptional conditions, the meeting will take place in person. More information about the speakers, the registration procedure (free of charge, but compulsory) and the possibility to submit an abstract for a short presentation or a poster will follow soon. In the meantime, please mark October 14 in your agenda and inform your colleagues about this event.

The organising committee is looking forward to seeing you in Hasselt!

Southern US InterPore Chapter Conference

29 Sep 2023, 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM CST

Hydrogen exhibits maverick behavior that has intrigued many researchers in the last few years. It also provides a promising option for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but as an energy carrier requires large storage to have a meaningful impact on emissions. The Southern US Chapter of InterPore invites scientists and engineers to participate in a one-day conference on hydrogen transport and storage in porous media to share their findings in this rapidly evolving field. The event is designed to maximize participation from academia and industry.

Please find the abstract instructions here.

Deadline for submitting abstracts: 31 May 2023

Kimberly-Clark Lecturer 2022

Professor Jacques Huyghe is the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer of 2022 and you can still apply for his lecture! As such, he shares a topic relevant to the industrial porous media community through a series of lectures at various member and non-member organizations.

The title of his lecture:
Poromechanics in extremely large deformation: swelling and fracture

An abstract of the talk and a short biography of Prof. Dr. Huyghe can be found on our website.

Apply now to request to host one of the 2022 InterPore Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecture series at your institute. Please visit our website for further information on how to apply.

KC Lecturer 2023

The Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer 2023 is Professor Adrian Bejan from Duke University, USA. Adrian Bejan was awarded the 2018 Benjamin Franklin Medal for “his pioneering interdisciplinary contributions in thermodynamics … and constructal theory, which predicts natural design and its evolution in engineering, scientific, and social systems.” More on his impressive resumé can be found on our website.

His lecture, entitled: Vascular materials: Predicting Design Evolution, will focus on one of his major contributions: evolutionary design illustrated in the case of multiscale vasculature, a methodology that can be used generally to predict the evolution toward flow access, miniaturization, high density of heat transfer, and the scaling up (or down) of an existing design. (full abstract)

How to host Adrian Bejan at your institute

Please visit our website for further information on how to apply.

Call for Award Nominations

InterPore recognizes young and senior scientists for their contributions in the field of porous media research as a sign of appreciation and as a stimulus for more excellent work. To ensure that the awards go to worthy awardees, we need you to nominate the candidates!

Please find more information about the InterPore Awards on this flyer.

InterPore Members can promote their publications to the community via the InterPore In Journals Section of the Newsletter. If you wish to do so, please submit your publication highlight to newsletter@InterPore.org. Clearly indicate which of the authors is an InterPore member (or the institute with an Institutional Membership). Note that we will not review the entries nor does InterPore endorse the published work. Furthermore, we publish on a “submitted first, published first” basis. The highlighted publication should be no older than 6 months (available online).

The highlight should be short (max 100 words) and contain an illustration. Please note that we offer this opportunity exclusively to InterPore members. If you would like to become a member, please have a look here.

PhD positions

• PhD on Infrastructures and subsurface water bodies. Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
• PhD on Characterization of the hydraulic properties of porous asphalt for the optimization of wastewater collection and treatment systems. Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Research Assistant

• Research Assistants: Interdisciplinary research project on permeable breakwaters. Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg

If you have a job opening in your institute and would like to promote it internationally, please send the description and weblink or PDF to newsletter@interpore.org, and we’ll be happy to add it to the list.