Editorial

Dear InterPore colleagues,

Where to start… proudly mentioning a porous material-pioneer was awarded the Nobel Prize? Isn’t that what we’re all aiming for? Probably and hopefully not, I would say. But we can make each other very happy with an InterPore award. Please check out the nomination opportunities.

InterPore2026 is shaping up further, papers advertised, webinars/PMTTT, etc. What stood out to me in particular is a call from our EquiPore platform for mentors. I really don’t know what to expect, but I signed up. Who fill follow?

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Abstract Submission Opens Monday!

Researchers are invited to submit their abstracts to one of our 20 minisymposia, covering a wide range of topics in porous media science. We look forward to receiving your submissions and building an exciting scientific program together from 13 October onwards!

Call for Conference Courses

Submission of proposals for Conference Courses at InterPore2026 is open! Courses will be organized as satellite events of the InterPore Annual Meeting in Nantes on the following dates:

• Monday, 18 May 2026

• Saturday, 23 May 2026

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. 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 all courses.

To submit your proposal, please complete the submission form.

Testimonial Spotlight

Sarah Perez on InterPore2026

Sarah Perez, Co-Chair of InterPore’s Student Awards and Grants Sub-Committee, invites you to join InterPore2026, taking place in Nantes, France, from 19–22 May 2026! In her testimonial, Sarah shares what makes the InterPore Annual Meeting such a unique and inspiring experience for the porous media community: "InterPore annual conferences are truly unique and bring together a vibrant, interdisciplinary community focused on porous media science. The conferences are not so big that you feel lost, but large enough to offer a rich diversity of research topics. It really feels like a research family."

Your turn! As we prepare for InterPore2026, we’d love to feature more community voices. If you’d like to share a short (1–2 minute) video about your InterPore experience, please send it to conference2026@interpore.org. Selected videos will be highlighted in our newsletter, on the InterPore website, and across social media.

Grant Writing Workshop

Following the strong interest and positive feedback from InterPore2024, we are excited to bring back the Grant Writing Workshop at InterPore2026!

Join Professor Nima Shokri (Director of Institute of Geo-Hydroinformatics, Hamburg University of Technology) as he once again guides participants through the essentials of persuasive grant writing — from crafting compelling proposals to designing effective project budgets and mastering the art of revisions.

Details and registration info coming soon – seats will be limited!

Sightseeing hunt...in Nantes!

InterPore2026 will be in Nantes. This week's cultural highlight: The Erdre River

The picturesque Erdre River in western France is often described as one of the country's most beautiful rivers. North of Nantes, it widens into a series of calm, lake-like sections surrounded by wooded banks and parks. It finally flows into the Loire River at Nantes. Several historic castles and manor houses, such as Château de la Gascherie and Château de la Poterie, are scattered along its course. The river is a popular destination for boating and kayaking, and many cyclists ride along the towpath. It is navigable from Nantes, where river cruises operate, offering scenic tours of the Erdre’s châteaux and natural landscapes.

Photo credit: taken from “Nantes - Erdre” by Guillaume Piolle, CC BY 3.0

Congratulations to Nobel Laureate Susumu Kitagawa

InterPore sends its most heartfelt congratulations to Prof. Sususmu Kitagawa and his fellow laureates on this extraordinary achievement for their pioneering work on metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) — and celebrates the impact of porous materials research on shaping a more sustainable, innovative future. You may remember Prof. Kitagawa from his plenary talk during InterPore2024 in Qingdao.

Photo credit: taken from "Susumu Kitagawa" by 日本学士院ホームページ, CC BY 4.0

EquiPore Mentorship Program

EquiPore is launching a new structured mentorship program to support our InterPore community.

The aim is to support the development of porous media enthusiast by providing a safe space to ask pressing questions to mentors of our community. The intention is to run dedicated mentorship session every half year, with the first meeting starting 3 December 2025, 4pm CET. If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please sign up here by 31 October 2025.

Kimberly-Clark Lectureship 2026 - Apply now to host!

Prof. Lyesse Laloui, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, is the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer of 2026.

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

Lecture 1: Tailoring Soil Properties through Bio-Geo-Chemical Engineering

Lecture 2: Carbon Dioxide Injection into Deep Aquifers: a Geomechanical Perspective

For detailed information about the lectures, please visit Prof. Laloui’s page.

If your university/institution is interested in hosting Prof. Laloui, please fill out the application form in our website by 31 December 2025. After receiving the application, we will keep you informed on any decisions made by Prof. Laloui and InterPore officials.

Prof. Laloui and InterPore look forward to hearing from you!

Science, Policy, and Diplomacy: A New Opportunity for InterPore

InterPore2025 featured a moving talk about near-future water shortage around the Rio Grande basin. Manageable by policy, requiring a clear-cut policy-science connection. How to link our science to policy and diplomacy? Please read the full statement on our website and participate in the online questionnaire.

InterPore Awards 2026

Nominate a worthy recipient today! InterPore proudly recognizes researchers for excellence across disciplines and at all career stages. Do you know someone whose work deserves to be celebrated? Let’s honor and highlight the outstanding contributions shaping the porous media community.

Deadline: 15 November 2025

Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lectureship Award

Since 2018, the InterPore community has annually nominated a leading porous media researcher recognized for their international achievements and exceptional presentation skills. Each recipient of the “InterPore Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer on Porous Media Science & Technology” has advanced the field by addressing a wide array of porous media topics.

Over the course of the program, nine distinguished lecturers have presented more than 150 lectures in over 30 countries, reaching both academic and industry audiences. This lectureship has fulfilled our commitment to advancing and sharing knowledge in the understanding, description, and modeling of natural and industrial porous media systems.

Kimberly-Clark has decided to conclude the Distinguished Lecturer program, with Dr. Lyesse Laloui honored as the ninth and final awardee. Kimberly-Clark remains a dedicated supporter of InterPore and is actively exploring new opportunities to strengthen connections between academia and industry within the InterPore community.

Upcoming Academy Webinar with Jan Martin Norbotten

21 October 2025

Professor Jan Martin Nordbotten, University of Bergen, presents a webinar on the topic of "Understanding data and simulations for flows in porous media," discussing:

• Verification and validation of model predictions

• Methods for intercomparison of data and experiments

• Digital twins and data integration

Figure credits:  Martin Fernø, Lluís Saló-Salgado, Jan Martin Nordbotten

2025 Prize Recipients from SIAM Activity Group on Geosciences

Congratulations to the 2025 SIAM Activity Group on Geosciences prize recipients, Jakub W. Both of the Universitetet i Bergen (UiB) and Rainer Helmig of the Universität Stuttgart!

They will be recognized and deliver lectures at the 2025 SIAM Conference on Mathematical & Computational Issues in the Geosciences, taking place 14-17 October in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

Our Journal, Our Community

InterPore Journal is our society’s own open-access platform — created by and for the porous media community. With minimal APCs and a dedicated waiver fund, we ensure that everyone can share their research, regardless of financial means.

Detecting nucleation of water in superhydrophobic PTFE powders using Inverse Gas Chromatography

Mohammad Hossein Khoeini, Azahara Luna-Triguero, Maja Rücker

Understanding nucleation onset on superhydrophobic surfaces is key to designing materials that boost condensation heat transfer, improve water harvesting, and prevent fogging. In our short communication, we investigate nucleation onset on PTFE using both Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS) and humidity-controlled Inverse Gas Chromatography (IGC). While DVS detects condensation onset through mass uptake, IGC identifies the onset with higher precision by probing vapor–surface interactions. Crucially, IGC provides surface-energy information, which, combined with the onset humidity, allows estimation of nucleation-site geometry. Together, these capabilities highlight IGC as a powerful approach to detect nucleation onset and characterize nucleation sites, offering practical guidance for designing superhydrophobic surfaces that promote sustained dropwise condensation.

A Novel Robust Optimization Framework for Underground Hydrogen Storage

Zhilei Han, Zeeshan Tariq, and Bicheng Yan

The authors introduce a powerful new approach to accelerate optimization of Underground Hydrogen Storage (UHS) systems. Their framework combines advanced compositional reservoir simulation with deep learning–based surrogate models and stochastic optimization. By training CNN-BiLSTM-Attention models on extensive simulation data, the authors created fast, accurate surrogates that were integrated into a genetic algorithm to maximize the net present value of UHS projects.

Check out the Events at InterPore

There is always something going on at InterPore! We have courses, workshops, and webinars through the InterPore Academy, Chapter Meetings across the globe, and the Annual Meeting in a new and different location every year. Check out the offerings through the button below.