Dear InterPore colleagues,

Every new year starts with good intentions. Apparently, we need some kind of key moments in time, plot points in our lives, to express good intentions. We always intend to do good, right?

One obvious plot point would be getting one of those jobs in the list (“yes, sir, I’ll do good!”). Actually, that is likely being preceded by a professor telling a funding body, “yes, ma’am, I’ll do good” !

Myself, I intend to do a little bit more in a little less time. So, I watched the interesting seminar from Maša Prodanović (see below), because I missed the live broadcast. And, when I publish my next porous media paper, I will definitely promote it here in the InJournals section. That is not an editor privilege–no, if one of the authors is an InterPore member, anyone can do it. Imagine your paper featured in this newsletter and on our InterPore website–now, that’s something to aim for!

Best wishes for 2023!

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Abstract submission for online presentations and in-person posters will remain open until 01 May 2023! Submit your abstract here.

Did you know….Edinburgh?

InterPore2023 will be in Edinburgh. Edinburgh has a lot of things to offer with respect to science, science history and porous media. This week: “Dynamic Earth”.

Situated at the foot of Edinburgh’s spectacular Salisbury Crags, Dynamic Earth invites you to take a journey through time to witness the story of planet Earth. You’ll be embarking on the interactive adventure of a lifetime – the lifetime of our planet! It’s a chance to experience the primeval forces of nature as they shaped our planet and go on a 4D adventure around the world. Travel back to the beginning of time in the Deep Time Machine, plunge into the ocean depths in a yellow submarine, fly high above ice-cold glaciers and marvel at their power as they carve out entire continents. Dynamic Earth is also home to one of Scotland’s only fully digital, state-of-the-art 360° Planetariums, with a wide variety of live presenter-led shows and films showing throughout the year. Whether you want to learn or play, Dynamic Earth will satisfy kids and scientists alike.

Minisymposia

Sponsors

We are proud to announce that Thermo Fisher Scientific has renewed their sponsorship of InterPore conferences and will also join us as an exhibitor at InterPore2023! We thank them for their continued support and look forward to visiting their booth in Edinburgh!

Renew your membership with InterPore!

Happy New Year and thank you to all our members for your continued support of InterPore. Renew your membership today to expand your professional network and stay up to date on the latest news and events.

As a reminder, InterPore members are eligible for a variety of exclusive benefits including:

• Significantly reduced registration fees at InterPore events
• Recognition of top scientists by prestigious awards
• Ability to publish Research Spotlights and InJournals
• Opportunity to publish job announcements on the InterPore website
• And many more

To renew your membership, follow this link to the members sign-in page to log into your account and begin the process. For any help or additional information, please reach out to us at membership@interpore.org.

Thank you, and we look forward to welcoming you at one of our events soon.

Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer

Lecturer 2022: Prof. Jaques Huyghe

The Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer Series of 2022 featured Prof. Jaques Huyghe from the University of Limerick, Ireland, and the Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands.

Prof. Huyghe has had the opportunity to present his lecture in a variety of universities and institutions all over the world, like the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the University of Auckland and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

We would like to thank Prof. Huyghe for his engagement and dedication this past year and extend our thanks to all the institutions which have showed such great interest in his lecture.

Lecturer 2023: Prof. Adrian Bejan

Prof. Adrian Bejan, from Duke University, USA, is the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer of 2023.

The title of his lecture is Vascular materials: Predicting Design Evolution, and it will focus on 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. An abstract of the talk and a short biography of Prof. Bejan can be found on our website.

The interest in Prof. Bejan’s lecture is already very high, and he has successfully presented it in various institutions from Italy to Japan and the USA. Currently in planning are presentations at the Technical University of Berlin and the University of Arizona.

Apply now to request to host the 2023 InterPore Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecture series at your institute. Please visit our website for further information on how to apply.

Webinar with Maša Prodanović

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for all those who joined this Tuesday’s webinar with Maša Prodanović titled “Flow and transport coefficients in porous media: from direct simulation to automated prediction.”

We received a tremendous amount of interest in this first session and regret that not all were able to attend. For any who missed out, you now have the chance to view a recording of the webinar on our website here.

“Dynamic NMR relaxometry” as a simple tool for measuring liquid transfers and characterizing surface and structure evolution in porous media

Benjamin Maillet, Rahima Sidi-Boulenouar, Philippe Coussot

We review the possibilities of a simple though powerful technique which provides various direct, quantitative information on the liquid distribution inside the porous structure and its variations over time due to fluid transports and/or phase changes. It relies on the analysis of the details of the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) relaxation of the proton spins of the liquid molecules and its evolution during some process such as imbibition, drying, phase change, etc, of the sample. This rather cheap technique then allows to distinguish how the liquid distributes in the different pore sizes or pore types, and how this evolves over time; since the relaxation time depends on the fraction of time spent by the molecule along the solid surface this technique can also be used to determine the specific surface of some pore classes in the material.

Langmuir 2022, 38, 15009–15025
Corresponding Author: Philippe Coussot

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

• Two funded PhD positions (75%): Development of Groundwater and Soil Remediation Technologies, Stuttgart University, Germany
• Six PhD positions at the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering, Madrid, Spain

Post-doc

• Post-doctoral researcher on modelling CO2 storage in the deep aquifiers of the Negev Desert (Israel), The Geological Survey of Israel
• Post-doctoral Researcher in Digital Rock Physics, TotalEnergies
• Post-doctoral research position in reactive transport modeling. Brown University, USA
• Postdoctoral Research Associate/Fellow in Computational Stochastic Mechanics, Geomechanics and Mining Materials, Sydney University, Australia

Other

• Research Assistant in flow and reactive transport in porous and fractured media. Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, Germany
• Research Associate in Lattice Boltzmann Modelling of Salt Precipitation, Department of Chemical Engineering & Analytical Science, Manchester University, UK

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.