Dear InterPore colleagues,

I joined a symposium on Data Science and how data scientist are fitted into a (research) organization. Perhaps the easiest way is considering “data science” as doing numerical experimentation^*. Lab experiments require lab technicians, researchers, equipment, maintenance, protocols, etc… I believe numerical experiments have very similar, or analogue needs.

Within the InterPore community, I am not sure whether we make clear distinctions between data (numerical) scientists and experimental scientists. We surely have specialists and also many who are doing both. In any case, we’re all joining InterPore webinars, chapter meetings, InterPore2024, read each others latest papers and look for jobs…, as you can read below.

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Maša Prodanović, Professor and Associate Department Chair of Hildebrand Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering at University of Texas Austin, tells us why Qingdao is a great location for InterPore2024. Join Maša and many more at InterPore2024!

Submit your abstract by the 02 January deadline

Call for Abstracts Deadline

The abstract submission deadline has been moved to 08 January. As opposed to previous years, there will be no extension of the deadline! This deadline applies to in-person oral presentations only. Submissions for in-person posters and online presentations will be accepted until Friday, 19 April 2024.

Call for 2024 Conference Courses

We welcome submission of proposals for Conference Courses at InterPore2024. Courses will be organized as satellite events of the InterPore Annual Meeting in Qingdao on the following dates:

• Sunday, 12 May 2024
• Friday, 17 May 2024

The standard duration of a given course will be half a day (3-hour lecture). Proposals for non-standard duration, if well justified, will be considered.

The main criteria for selection of proposals include track record of the proposers as well as the opportunity to ensure diversity to a full extent across the set of courses.

To submit your proposal, please complete the following submission form.

Invited speaker

In anticipation of InterPore2024, we’re introducing the invited speakers in today’s and forthcoming Newsletters. This week: Xiaofan Yang.

Xiaofan Yang
Beijing Normal University, China

Simulating flow and solute transport in subsurface environments: From pore-scale to beyond

Xiaofan Yang is the Assistant Dean and Professor in Hydrology of the Faculty of Geographical Science at Beijing Normal University (BNU), China. She holds a BEng from Tsinghua University (China), a MSc from KTH (Sweden) and a PhD from Kansas State University (USA). Her research interests include subsurface hydrology, computational hydrology and multiscale modeling and simulations, with specific focus on reactive transport modeling, groundwater modeling, flow and reactive transport in porous media.

Research of the multi-scale, multi-phase, and multi-processes system is of great interest in understanding subsurface environments. However, the coupled flow and transport processes are complex yet challenging for model development and utilization. In this talk, we present a suite of at-scale and multi-scale models that we developed and utilized in recent years for simulating flow and transport processes, with intercomparison and benchmarking cases, including: (1) pore-scale models for… (read more)

And now for Qingdao!

Qingdao has a lot of things to offer with respect to science, science history and porous media. This week: Badaguan Scenic Area

Qingdao Badaguan Modern Architecture, one of the most worthwhile attractions in Qingdao, is so named because it is distributed alongside eight roads named after important ancient passes. The Badaguan buildings were designed and built by German architects at the beginning of the 20th century, followed by architects from the United States, Russia, Japan and other countries as well as Chinese architects. These were basically completed in the 1940s, forming a cluster of more than 300 villas of different architectural styles from more than 20 countries. With a total floor area of 145,368 square meters, it is known as the “Expo of Architecture of All Nations”.

Platinum Sponsor for InterPore2024

Dear Colleagues,

We are happy to announce a future Special Issue to InterPore Journal titled: Coupled Flow Processes in Fractured Porous Media Across Scales: Recent Advances in Experimental and Modeling Efforts. This special issue is associated with the session of the same title taking place at the 2023 AGU Fall Meeting this December in San Francisco, USA.

Scope and Objectives: The interaction of fluid flow with mechanical-chemical-biological-thermal-processes in fractured geological formations often governs subsurface phenomena and applications ranging from long-term radioactive waste isolation, enhanced geothermal reservoir management, groundwater remediation, carbon sequestration, and hydrogen storage.

For further information, click here (pdf 177 kB).

Best regards from the Guest Editors, Jeffrey D. Hyman (Lead Guest Editor), Peter K. Kang, Adriana Paluszny, Jan-Olof Selroos, Dani Or

InterPore2025 Program Committee

To ensure a smooth transition of tasks related to the program of our annual conferences, a Program Committee parallel to the existing one has been installed. To differentiate between the two parallelly existing Program Committees, the newly created committee has temporarily been designated “Program Committee InterPore2025”. After InterPore2024 has ended, “Program Committee InterPore2025” will be named “Program Committee” and will be responsible for the program of future conferences. The Chair of the new committee, Jaime Gomez-Hernandez, has assembled his team, including Vice Chair Eleonora Secchi, and they are already beginning to put together an exciting program for InterPore2025 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mark your calendars for 19-22 May 2025!

Chair (InterPore2025) Jaime Gómez-Hernández Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain

Vice-Chair (InterPore2025) Eleonora Secchi ETH Zurich, Switzerland

For the full committee, see our website.

ISC: World Science Day for Peace and Development

Last week on 10 November, the International Science Organization (ISC) posted the following statement on their website in honour of the World Science Day for Peace and Development. As a member organization of the ISC, we would also like to endorse this statement:

“This week we commemorate World Science Day for Peace and Development, celebrated on 10 November every year. The ISC, which brings together science organizations in all regions of the world, is a unified and strong global voice for science, promoting scientific collaboration across geographical and disciplinary borders. As members of the global scientific community, we celebrate the remarkable contribution of science and technology to advancing human development. At the same time, we recognize the very real suffering of civilians affected by conflicts around the world, throughout history to the present day, where scientific knowledge and technology are used against the public good. Let us reflect as the scientific community on how to foster the role of science in achieving peace. Our hearts go out to victims of conflict who endure unimaginable hardship, and our concern extends to the world at large, for which we nurture a vision of life within sustainable social and planetary boundaries, and harmony amongst and between people and nature.”

Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lectureship 2023 wrapping up

Prof. Adrian Bejan, from Duke University, USA, is bringing his lecture year to an end.

The next and last presentation of his award winning lecture, Vascular materials: Predicting Design Evolution, will take place online at the Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer, India, during the ISHMT Golden Jubilee Lecture Series, on 7 December.

The deadline for submission of requests to host the 2024 InterPore Kimberly-Clark Lecturer, Prof. Ruben Juanes is 31 December 2023. Please visit our website for further information on how to apply.

Chapter News

Kick-off Meeting of the Northeast-Midwest US InterPore Chapter

Monday, 22 January 2024, 1-4 PM EST, online Following the formation of the Northeast-Midwest US InterPore Chapter (US-NEMW Chapter), we are now thrilled to announce the virtual chapter kick-off meeting.

Agenda Highlights:

1. Steering Committee Opportunities: Discover how you can play a key role in shaping the future of US-NEMW Chapter by exploring opportunities to join the steering committee.

2. Brainstorming Session: Contribute your ideas and insights as we collectively explore innovative ways for our chapter to make a meaningful impact on the porous media community in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and beyond.

3. Featured Speakers: We are honored to host two distinguished speakers: Prof. Ruben Juanes (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Prof. David Cole (Ohio State University). Register now and join us for an engaging session filled with valuable discussions and insights. The flyer for the kick-off meeting is available here.

For any inquiries or if you need more information, feel free to reach out to us at NEMW_chapter@interpore.org.

Please note that meeting capacity is limited, and priority registration will be granted to participants from the Northeastern and Midwestern United States.

Saudi InterPore Chapter Meeting

The 2nd Annual Saudi InterPore Chapter Meeting will take place online from 27-28 November 2023. Prof. Dr.-Ir. Majid Hassanizadeh will deliver the keynote speech.

The full agenda and details can be found here.

Participants may also download the presentation template here.

Report on Norway InterPore 6th National Workshop

The 6th meeting of the Norway InterPore Chapter was held in Oslo on 9 November 2023. The meeting was organized by Marcel Moura and Janne Hoff and was hosted by PoreLab and the University of Oslo at the Oslo Science Park conference center.

About 45 participants attended the workshop with a good balance between university, industry, and research institutes. The workshop counted 10 presentations by invited speakers, of which 6 were from universities and 4 from industry / research institutes.

Read the full report here.

Academy Webinar Announcement

Mark your calendars!

Our next free InterPore Academy webinar will take place on 30 January. Vahid Niasar, University of Manchester, InterPore President-Elect, will present “Fundamentals of multiphase flow and transport in porous media.”

Duration: 1 hour
Date/Time: Tuesday, 30 January 2024, 4pm CEST
Location: Online

We look forward to seeing you there!

Call for abstracts: EGU2024

14-19 April, Vienna, Austria

We would like to cordially invite you to submit abstracts to the following session at the next European Geosciences Union general assembly (14-19 April 2024):

ERE3.1 – Secure subsurface storage for future energy systems

Storage of energy (e.g., hydrogen, heat) and carbon dioxide in subsurface geological formations is of key importance in the transition to a carbon-neutral economy relying on renewables-based power and heat generation. This session offers a platform for interdisciplinary scientific exchanges between different branches of storage expertise, and aims to address challenges concerning the storage of fluids in geological reservoirs from core- to field-scale. A detailed session description can be found when following the above link. Note that the deadline for the submission of abstracts is the 10 January 2024, with the deadline for support applications being the 1 December this year.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Vienna (again).

Johannes Miocic, Niklas Heinemann, Elina Ceballos, Mayukh Talukdar and Wenzhuo Cao

Groundwater Week

5-7 December 2023, Las Vegas, Nevada (USA)

Join the National Ground Water Association in celebrating 75 years of excellence during Groundwater Week 2023. This annual event provides a unique opportunity for professionals from all sectors of the groundwater industry to come together to exchange knowledge, share ideas, and learn about the latest advancements in science and technology.

Design considerations for dynamic fluid flow in porous media experiments using X-ray computed micro tomography

T. Pak, N. Lopes Archilha, S. Berg, I. B. Butler

X-ray micro computed tomography (µCT) has become an advanced non-destructive tool to analyse the internal structure of opaque materials such as porous media. The range of accessible spatial and temporal resolution makes µCT the method of choice to study dynamics processes such as multi-phase fluid flow within porous media at the micro-meter scale. This review paper provides an overview of X-ray transparent flow cells. A range of designs are compared, and their advantages and limitations discussed. Design concept of flow cells are embedded in reviewing the respective range of applications which have benefited from µCT imaging studies.

Tomography of Materials and Structures 3, 100017, 2023.
Corresponding Author: Tannaz Pak

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

• Machine Learning aided prediction of multiphase fluid flow in porous media, Colorado School of Mines, USA
• Design and Statistical Analysis of a Flowline Risk Assessment Model, Colorado School of Mines, USA
• Charge-density-based ML framework for efficient exploration and property predictions in the large phase space of concentrated materials, Colorado School of Mines, USA
• Granular materials (computational CFD-DEM and grain-based experiments), Colorado School of Mines, USA

Other

• Data scientist position to improve re-usability of Earth scientific lab data, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, 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.
It is also possible to post the position on the InterPore website. Log in through MyInterPore and click “Submit a Job Opening.”