Dear InterPore colleagues,

The ISC published a report entitled “Flipping the Science Model”(pdf) in which collaboration instead of competition is promoted. “Solutions through solidarity, sustainability and science” is the motto for the 77th UN General Assembly, in relation to the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG).

I always have this cynical voice in the back of my head, about member states waging wars, running espionage activities, being overrun by populism… And yet, the only way forward is through solidarity and through collaborations. And that is, of course, exactly what InterPore stands for, and many other associations as well. Sharing knowledge, for example, is critical. In that light, the InterPore Academy launches the “Study Plan in Porous Media”, making classes from international experts available to everyone. We’ve got the Chapter meetings, the KC Lecturer, the InterPore Journal, and InterPore2024 coming up.

So, I do believe we work hard to do the right thing. Very important, and also very enjoyable!

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Preparations are underway for InterPore2024, the 16th Annual InterPore Meeting to be held 13-16 May 2024 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Qingdao, China.

Call for MS Organizers

Program Committee is finalizing the list of Minisymposia and is looking to add new organizers. Interested parties should email conference2024@interpore.org by 11 September with a copy of their CV and/or ResearchGate link and their area of interest.

Abstract Submission

The call for abstracts will open in early October. Stay tuned for the official announcement!

Plenary Speakers

The list of plenary speakers has been finalized and includes:

Zhangxing (John) Chen University of Calgary, Canada

Susumu Kitagawa Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences Kyoto University, Japan

Svetlana Mintova CNRS, Laboratory of Catalysis and Spectrochemistry (LCS), ENSICAEN Normandy University, France

Changying Zhao Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Your Next Submission?

Now that our very own Society Journal has been launched, we hope to receive plenty of submissions from the InterPore community. To help us with our planning, we would be grateful if you could take a moment to let us know if you are planning on submitting one of your ongoing research and findings to the InterPore Journal?

To complete this short poll, please click here.

If you are still undecided or need more information, we would love to hear from you and to know what would help you in your decision of where to submit. Just send an email to the Editor-in-Chief Nima Shokri or to the Managing Editor Laura Lenz.

As previously mentioned, we plan on publishing the following types of articles (more information can also be found here):

• Original research papers, technical notes, and review articles that present the state-of-the-art on porous media research and applications and offer perspectives for future research and development.
• Open datasets and source codes relevant to the porous media research, as they can offer a valuable resource to the porous media community.
• Letters to the Editor, short communications, invited commentaries and papers, and opinion pieces.

There will be a minimal article processing charge (APC) for all published articles. This charge will range from no cost to a maximum amount of €1000, depending on type of paper and whether the corresponding author is an institutional member of InterPore. An APC waiver fund will be set up for authors from LMI countries as well as those who may lack the funds needed; 20% of all fully paid APCs will also be directed into this fund. For more information, please see here.

Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer 2024

Prof. Ruben Juanes
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Apply now to request to host the 2024 InterPore Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer at your institute. Please visit our website for further information on how to apply.

Hosts may select one of two lecture options:

1. Fluids, Fingers, Fractures and Fractals: Patterns in Porous Media
2. Man-made Earthquakes and the Energy Transition

An abstract of both lectures and a short biography of Prof. Juanes can be found on our website.

German Chapter Meeting

The next meeting of the German Chapter of InterPore will take place at the KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and will be organized at the Mathematical Institute for Machine Learning and Data Science (MIDS) by the Chair of Geomatics and Geomathematics.

The conference provides a national forum for interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration of experts from numerous German research institutions, universities, and industry. The topics of the conference therefore deal with all issues of porous media research, from experiment to theory and from science to industrial application.

Registration will be open through 3 September.

See here for more information.

WAIC Chapter Meeting

The West Africa InterPore Chapter will hold its annual meeting & symposium on 27-28 October 2023.

For the first edition of its annual meeting, WAIC invites researchers and industry professionals to submit abstracts from now until 15 September. This symposium aims to foster interdisciplinary discussions and collaborations among researchers, engineers, and industry stakeholders to address the pressing challenges associated with mining activities in Africa, particularly the critical issue of mining waste management.

Abstract submission deadline 15 September

Visit the WAIC Meeting & Symposium page to learn more and submit your abstract.

BeNeLux Chapter Meeting

The sixth BeNeLux InterPore Chapter meeting will be held at Luxemburg University on 11-12 April 2024.

The InterPore BeNeLux chapter meeting has the focus on Porous Media in Computational Biology and Soft Tissues and aims to bring together researchers, experts, and clinicians from diverse disciplines to explore the fascinating intersection of porous media, computational biology, and soft tissues. This meeting will provide a platform for sharing the latest advancements, innovative techniques, and cutting-edge research in these fields. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, we aim to advance our understanding of biological systems and their interaction with porous materials, thereby unlocking new possibilities for medical applications, tissue engineering, and computational modelling.

Click here for more details.

Northeast-Midwest US InterPore Chapter

The kick-off meeting and steering committee nomination for the Northeast-Midwest US InterPore Chapter will take place on 22 January 2024 with invited speaker Ruben Juanes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Stay tuned for more details!

InterPore Study Plan

Introducing the Study Plan in Porous Media (SP-PM) from the InterPore Academy

The InterPore Academy has now launched its first systematic and comprehensive Study Plan in Porous Media (SP-PM), as the first available organic professional development opportunity for students, scientists and practitioners focused on the modeling, design, optimization, and analysis of engineered and natural porous structures. The study plan includes online/in-person (non-graded) classes on porous media theory, numerical and data-driven methods and experimental techniques targeted to porous media applications. Each course will include frontal lectures for 12/14 hours (plus additional resources made available at the lecturer’s discretion). The courses will be taught at the graduate level, by renowned experts in their respective fields. The vision of the InterPore Academy Porous Media Study Plan is (i) to build the foundational and specialized knowledge needed to quantitatively study porous media in a variety of different applications, (ii) to connect the attendees directly with lecturers across different institutions and continents, and (iii) to continue fostering and building our vibrant and diverse PM community.

Foundational Courses will include:

• Fundamentals of porous media structure and characterization
• Introduction to single phase flow and transport in porous media
• Multiphase flow and transport in porous media
• Mechanics of deformable porous media
• Heat transfer in porous media
• Interfacial chemistry/geochemistry and reactive transport in porous media
• Experimental methods for flow and transport in porous media

We look forward to your participation!

A list of courses and lectures can be found here (pdf).

Webinar by Inga Berre

Pre-announcement Join us on 10 October 2023 for a free webinar with Inga Berre, University of Bergen, entitled “Modeling of flow and deformation in fractured formations.”

Duration: 1 hour
Date/Time: 10 October 2023, 4 PM CEST
Location: Online

More details will follow soon!

Call for 2024 Rien van Genuchten Early Career Award Nominations

The Rien van Genuchten Early Career Award is given to an early-career researcher whose focus is the general topic of “porous media research for a green world”. This may involve significant theoretical, experimental and/or modeling advances addressing major soil, hydrologic and/or environmental problems facing our planet.

The award consists of a certificate and a conference grant of €1,500 for participation in the next InterPore Conference. Details on the requirements and nomination process can be found on our website.

Nomination deadline is 01 November 2023. Please nominate a worthy recipient!

The deep arbitrary polynomial chaos neural network or how Deep Artificial Neural Networks could benefit from data-driven homogeneous chaos theory

Sergey Oladyshkin, Timothy Praditia, Ilja Kroeker, Farid Mohammadi, Wolfgang Nowak, Sebastian Otte

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are widely used in mathematical computing and physical modeling. Deep Artificial Neural Networks are popular but rely on Gaussian distribution of neural signals, which may not be true in various applications. To address this, we propose Deep arbitrary polynomial chaos neural networks, integrating homogeneous chaos theory into modern neural networks, allowing adaptive data-driven multi-variate orthonormal representations and capturing high-order neural effects. Benchmarking, including multiphase flow of carbon dioxide in porous media, shows that this novel concept outperforms conventional networks, promising better learning of complex phenomena. Further development is needed to address various porous media challenges.

Neural Networks 166, 85-104 (2023)
Corresponding Author: Sergey Oladyshkin

Minkowski functional evaluation of representative elementary volume of rock microtomography images at multiple resolutions

Saeid Sadeghnejad, Marcel Reinhardt, Frieder Enzmann, Pit Arnold, Bianca Brandstätter, Holger Ott, Fabian Wilde, Sarah Hupfer, Thorsten Schäfer, Michael Kersten

Although the representative elementary volume (REV) analysis for hydraulic properties is straightforward, it is computationally expensive. This study estimated hydraulic pore-scale properties during REV evaluations by Minkowski functionals. One carbonate and two sandstone samples were scanned at multiple resolutions by both laboratory and synchrotron tomography (DESY). After reaching the REV for porosity, the REV for the Minkowski integrals (mean and total curvature) agreed well with the permeability REV for large-volume image sizes. We also showed that the properties obtained from the rebinned images differ entirely from that of actual scans at the same resolution.

Advances in Water Resources 179, 104501 (2023)
Corresponding Author: Saeid Sadeghnejad

InterPore Members can promote their publications to the community via the InterPore InJournals 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

• PhD in Integrated numerical-experimental analyses of the safety of porous rocks under cyclic loading, TU Delft, Netherlands
• PhD in Multiscale modelling and simulation of cyclic storage of H2 in heterogeneous porous rocks, TU Delft, Netherlands

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.