Dear InterPore friends,

My association with September is back to school, back to work, back to looking forward! And looking forward we do indeed, as preparations of InterPore2023 are already ongoing in full force. Keep an eye on the InterPore social media channels and our Newsletter for the latest updates.

I readily admit that I can become completely immersed in bug-fixing (too) complex coding or fiddling around in the lab. That is why I liked so much the idea from Tannaz Pak, our liaison officer with the ISC, to not only report on ISC activities, but also foster discussions on topics related to science and society at a different level. Ideal when waiting for a huge simulation run or slow column experiment.

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

InterPore2023

InterPore2023 is in the making! Currently, mini-symposia are coupled to organizers, promotion strategies are being developed, and we can already make a start with announcing confirmed plenary speakers.

Invited speaker:
Nathalie Tufenkji
McGill University, Canada

Title:
Porous Graphene Oxide Macrostructures for Water Treatment Applications

Nathalie Tufenkji is Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University where she holds the Tier I Canada Research Chair in Biocolloids and Surfaces. She works in the area of particle-surface interactions with applications in protection of water resources, plastic pollution as well as the discovery of natural antimicrobials.

Providing clean, safe water reliably in an affordable manner is a major global challenge. A wide variety of water pollutants, including heavy metals, dyes, pesticides, and pharmaceutical compounds pose a threat to public and environmental health. Engineered nanomaterials, such as graphene oxide (GO), offer tunable multifunctionality for effective removal of a diverse range of contaminants from water. This talk will describe approaches for the preparation of GO-based macrostructures that can be used in water treatment.

Find all our plenary speakers here.

Did you know….Edinburgh?

InterPore2023 will be in Edinburgh. While Edinburgh has a lot of things to offer with respect to science and porous media, we start the feature with another famous feature in Edinburgh:

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival, which in 2018 spanned 25 days and featured more than 55,000 performances of 3,548 different shows in 317 venues. Like our annual conference, it was hit hard by travel restrictions with COVID and stayed mostly digital over the last two years, so it was great to have people flocking the city center again this summer. We are looking forward to seeing porous media people exploring Edinburgh at InterPore 2023.

WikiPore

With the new porous-media-knowledge platform called WikiPore, anybody who has an account with InterPore can submit an article or a brief introduction about software related to porous media. All you need to do is to log into “My InterPore” and then click either “Submit Wikipore Article” or “Submit Wikipore Software”.

InterPore2022 Summary

InterPore2022 was the 14th annual meeting of the International Society for Porous Media and the society’s first hybrid conference.

The scientific portion of the conference was held over four days. Satellite short courses were held prior to and post-conference. A total of 635 participants from 38 countries and over 140 different organizations attended the meeting. 221 participated in-person in Abu Dhabi and 414 joined online through Whova, the conference’s online platform. Four plenary and eight invited speakers gave lectures during the conference. These lectures were recorded and made available for any-time viewing on Whova. Throughout the course of the conference, 362 oral presentations from 24 minisymposia were given during 69 parallel sessions.

The hybrid nature of the conference allowed authors to present their work either in-person or online during the sessions. Viewing was possible either in the session rooms at Khalifa University, or through online presentations. 133 posters were also presented during the conference, either displayed during the conference or in digital form. Four exhibitors were physically present during the event, while others joined online.

In addition to the scientific portion of the conference, social and networking events were also held, and included a welcome reception, lab tours, a visit to the Grand Mosque and a gala dinner.

Reactions to the hybrid nature of the conference were largely mixed, with both in-person attendees and online participants finding positive and negative points in the format.

To view the full post-conference report, please visit the event website.

Short Course by Rainer Helmig

The next short course to be hosted by the InterPore Academy for Porous Media will be taught by Prof. Rainer Helmig of the University of Stuttgart.

Lecture title: Porous Media Free Flow Coupling

Dates: November 14, 21, 28 and December 5 and 12 (from 3 – 6 pm CET).

Location: Online

Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Helmig

Please click here for more details and information.

ISC Annual Report

The International Science Council has published their 2021 annual report. The report is a fascinating read on the developments the ISC has achieved in 2021. In a nutshell, ISC has had several key projects all working to contribute the main vision of ISC which is to advance science as a global public good.

The report discusses the work done by the different committees of the ISC as well as the key projects and initiatives. If you are interested to learn about how science contributes to the sustainable development of our planet (e.g., discussion on sustainability, climate change, and policy making) there will be many examples for you to read about it in the report.

ISC Discussion Time

With your research team discuss (1) what you understand from science as a global public good, and (2) why is this an important discussion to have? You can reflect on the activities and projects of ISC to develop those discussions.

In ISC news items we propose topics for group discussions with your research team, either during a coffee break or in a dedicated session.

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 in this flyer.

Promote your Publication

InterPore Members, do you want to promote your publication to the community? If so, please submit your highlight to newsletter@InterPore.org. 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 (500 characters) 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.

Post-doctoral fellow

• Post-doc position focusing on water-rock interactions in subsurface energy systems including geologic CO2 sequestration and H2 storage. Water-Rock Interactions in Subsurface Energy Systems (WRISES) environmental engineering group, Auburn University, Alabama, US

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.