Dear InterPore colleagues,

In my home country of the Netherlands, the 5th of December is known as the day of “Sinterklaas”. It has strong similarities to Santa Claus for Christmas (but the tradition is older). It usually boils down to giving presents to (primarily) kids.

I feel a little bit like Sinterklaas today, with an enormous bag (e-mail) with news – presents, important updates on InterPore2024, Chapter news, calls for abstracts, lectures, scientific achievements, awards… there is plenty for everyone! And also plenty for InterPore, because it is a good time to check your membership extension. 😉

A final remark on the 5th of December: That day is also the International Volunteer Day. A good day to check for local opportunities and perhaps sign up to help InterPore with some practical help.

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Maja Rücker from Eindhoven University of Technology tells us why she and her group will attend InterPore2024 in Qingdao and why you should too. Join Maja and many more at InterPore2024!

Abstract submission deadline is 08 January.
No deadline extensions will be made for in-person oral presentations!

SUBMIT

Visa

China has just announced that through 30 November 2024, ordinary passport holders from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia can do business or travel in China without a visa for up to 15 days.

In addition, Norway has been added to the list of 54 countries whose passport holders are eligible for the 144-hour visa-free transit policy.

More information on visas & entry information can be found on our website.

Exhibitors and sponsors!

Is there a specific company you would like to see as exhibitor and/or sponsor at InterPore2024? Do you work for a company which you think would be a good exhibitor or sponsor? Let us know – email us at conference2024@interpore.org. Information for prospective exhibitors and sponsors is available here.

Submit Your 2024 Conference Course Proposals by 15 January!

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

Standard duration of a given course will be a half-day (3-hour lecture). Proposals for non-standard duration, if well justified, will be considered. 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 before 15 January 2024.

Invited speaker

In anticipation of InterPore2024, we’re introducing the invited speakers in today’s and forthcoming Newsletters. This week: Zhangxing (John) Chen

Zhangxing (John) Chen
Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China / University of Calgary, Canada

Title: Reservoir Simulator Development: The Past, Present and Future

Professor Chen holds Chair Professorship at Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China and NSERC/Energi Simulation Industrial Research Chair and Alberta Innovates Industrial Chair at the University of Calgary, Canada. His research interest is in Reservoir Engineering, Reservoir Simulation and Hydrogen Production.

Reservoir simulators have been developed in the past 70 years. They have been widely used to predict, understand, and optimize complex physical processes in modeling and simulation of multiphase fluid flow in petroleum reservoirs.

The speaker has engaged in the development of reservoir simulators for over 30 years. In this plenary presentation, the speaker will give an overview on the development of conventional and unconventional reservoir simulators, the incorporation of parallel and AI algorithms into these simulators, and the quantum computing potential to solve reservoir simulation problems. The present status, existing challenges, and future prospects on reservoir simulators will be… read further

And now for Qingdao!

Qingdao has a lot of things to offer with respect to science, science history and porous media. When in need for a short break, have a look at this nice video from Qingdao.

Platinum Sponsor for InterPore2024

2024 EGU Henry Darcy Medal

Life-long active InterPore member Alberto Guadagnini will be awarded with the Henry Darcy Medal during the next EGU meeting. The medal is awarded for outstanding scientific contributions in water resources research and water resources engineering and management. Congratulations!

Call for bids for InterPore2026

There has been an update in the call for bids for InterPore2026. An alternative date has been added, the 2 options are as follows: the week starting 18 May 2026 or 26 May 2026.

InterPore2026 is planned to be held in a European country.

We would like to invite all potentially interested venues to send a short bid to Oleg Iliev, with a copy to Karolin Weber by 15 December 2023.

To view the requirements for the short bid, please click on the link.

Dear Colleagues,

Starting this Friday, it will be possible to submit your paper for the following future Special Issue to InterPore Journal: Coupled Flow Processes in Fractured Porous Media Across Scales: Recent Advances in Experimental and Modeling Efforts. As previously reported, 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.

This special issue will be focused on 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).

We look forward to receiving your papers!

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

Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer 2024

Prof. Ruben Juanes, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, is the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer of 2024.

As the winner of this year’s distinguished award, Prof. Ruben Juanes will be giving one of his two lectures at selected institutions. Hosts may select one of two options:

• Option A: Fluids, Fingers, Fractures and Fractals: Patterns in Porous Media
• Option B: Man-made Earthquakes and the Energy Transition

If your university/institution is interested in hosting Prof. Juanes, please download and fill out the application form and send it to Sandra Bartsch (e-mail) by 31 December 2023.

After receiving the application, we will keep you informed on any decisions made by Prof. Juanes and InterPore officials. For more information, you can also visit our website.

Prof. Juanes and InterPore are looking forward hearing from you!

InterPore Annual Report

Our first-ever annual report, representing calendar year 2022, is available to view. We hope this report provides a concise picture of InterPore activities that occurred throughout the year and that you’ll find it informative (and maybe a bit nostalgic).

Volunteer Opportunity!

Are you familiar with how YouTube channels work and with the editing and uploading of video content, or are you someone who may not be a YouTube expert, but is willing to volunteer your time to learn to help us out?

If yes, we would love to hear from you!

The InterPore YouTube Channel needs an overhaul, and we are in search of one or multiple members to volunteer their time in managing and improving our channel so that it offers more for all.

Ideally, we need help in the following areas:

• Improving the content that is already available as well as new content for search engine optimization (SEO)
• Suggesting new content to include on the channel
• Working with rest of InterPore organization in promoting our YouTube channel and obtaining content for it
• Scheduling content
• Building playlists and improving existing playlists
• Replying to comments as well as encouraging interaction and discussion on the channel
• Interacting with other relevant YouTube Channels
• and more….

If you are interested, please send an email to Karolin Weber.

Membership Renewal Drive

Thank you to all our members for your continued support of InterPore. We greatly value your participation in this vibrant and rapidly expanding community. It is again that time of year — we would like to invite you to renew your membership to stay connected with the InterPore community and enjoy all that we have planned for 2024!

As a reminder, InterPore members are eligible for a variety of exclusive benefits including reduced fees for all InterPore events and recorded course offerings, discounted access to partner publications, the ability to promote publications and job postings through the InterPore website and newsletter, and eligibility for recognition through our esteemed InterPore awards, and much more.

This year, we are offering a special 25% discount for all individual members that renew or upgrade their membership between now and 31 December 2023.

For Standard Individual Memberships:

For Lifetime Memberships:

Please follow this link to the member sign-in page to log into your account and take advantage of these savings. For any help or additional information, please reach out to us.

Chapter News

Northeast-Midwest US InterPore Chapter

The Northeast-Midwest US InterPore Chapter kick-off meeting will be held virtually on Monday, 22 January 2024, 1-4 PM EST, featuring two distinguished speakers: Prof. Ruben Juanes (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Prof. David Cole (The Ohio State University).

More information can be found on the flyer.

Register here

2nd InterPore Saudi Chapter Annual Meeting

The 2nd Interpore Saudi Chapter Annual Meeting was held online for two days (Nov. 27 – 28, 2023).

During the Annual Meeting, three keynote speeches and 22 presentations from eight different countries (Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Norway, Lebanon, China, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia) were delivered.

The meeting was attended by more than 35 participants, and it covered topics related to pore-scale modeling and algorithms for porous media flow, reservoir geomechanics, uncertainty in reservoir modeling, and numerical insights in modeling multiphase flow phenomena in porous media.

See the full report here.

France InterPore Chapter Winter School

The France InterPore Chapter is is organizing a winter school entitled APPRISE (Fundamentals of trAnsport Phenomena in PoRous medIa across ScalEs).

This event, termed a thematic school by the CNRS, will take place at the Centre Paul Langevin in Aussois (Alpes, France) from 5-9 February 2024.

The school is limited to 30 participants.

Additional information regarding this event is available here.

Academy Webinar with Vahid Niasar

Join us for our next free InterPore Academy webinar on 30 January!

Title: Leveraging Pore-Scale Physics for Enhanced Understanding of Darcy-Scale Multiphase flow and Transport through Porous Materials
Speaker: Vahid Niasar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Manchester, UK
Date/Time: Tuesday, 30 January 2024, 4-5 pm CET

The study of multiphase flow and transport in porous media stands as a critical domain in understanding various natural and engineered systems, spanning from hydrocarbon reservoirs to fuel cells. Pore-scale modelling and experiments have emerged as indispensable tools in unravelling the fundamental mechanisms in two-phase flow and solute transport in porous media. This presentation presents an integrative approach leveraging pore-scale modelling techniques and complementary pore-scale experiments to elucidate the intricacies of two-phase flow and transport in porous media. The synergy between advanced numerical simulations and experimental observations allows for a comprehensive investigation into the dynamics of fluid-fluid displacement, capillary effects, wettability, and solute transport within the complex pore structures.

They key areas covered in this talk include capillary phenomena, single-phase and two-phase solute transport in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.

Visit our Webinars page for updates and to join the Zoom.

InterPore Academy Study Plan: Multiphase flow and transport

The next installation of the InterPore Academy Study Plan in Porous Media “PORE 1-3 Multiphase flow and transport in porous media” will take place Mondays online from 8 – 29 January 2024 (19:00-22:00 CEST).

Lecturers:

Sibani Lisa Biswal Rice University, USA	Maja Rücker TU Eindhoven, Netherlands	Cyprien Soulaine CNRS, France

This course will introduce students to basic principles in multiphase flow in porous media.

Please visit our Academy Courses website for more details.

Professional Course on Drying

18-21 March 2024, Magdeburg, Germany and online

The course “Drying – Fundamentals and Applications” has been offered successfully by Prof. Evangelos Tsotsas and his team for 10 years on an annual basis. It is designed for people from various backgrounds (engineers, chemists, technologists, researchers) and from different industries (chemicals, food, pharmaceutics, materials) who need to learn more about the drying of porous media, understanding the fundamentals of modern drying technology, and how to apply them in order to produce solid or particulate products with superior properties by using more efficient and sustainable drying processes. For more information and registration, please go to the website. Looking forward to meeting you in Magdeburg or online.

Nanothermodynamics: Theory and Applications

Dick Bedeaux, Signe Kjelstrup, Sondre K. Schnell

This book explains and applies the systematic thermodynamic theory of small systems proposed by Hill. It uses and extends his method. The basic ideas of the theory are highlighted, and the power of the theory in and away from equilibrium is demonstrated in several applications. Hill’s theory applies also to small particle numbers. It accounts for small-system effects. Size and shape are central. There are scaling laws, which help us determine and understand the small system and large system-limit better. The book cover shows scaling of spheres. Kirkwood-Buff integrals are defined and calculated also for small volumes.

World Scientific, Singapore, 2024
Corresponding Author: Dick Bedeaux

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.

Post-doc

• Postdoctoral Fellow in experiments and CFD on evaporation, PoreLab, department of Chemistry, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
• Post-Doctoral Researcher Position: Research Software Engineer for C++ Porous-Media Simulator Development, Department of Hydromechanics and Modelling of Hydrosystems (SFB1313), University of Stuttgart, Germany

Other

• MSc project on water extraction from the moon surface, TU Delft, Netherlands. Inquiries can be sent to Denis Voskov

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.”