InterPore News featuring the 75th PMTTT session

Sent on: 04-12-2025

Dear InterPore colleagues,

It seems not so long ago, the introduction of the PMTTT, or in full, the Porous Media Tea Time Talks. Yet, they’re celebrating their 75th session already. What a great achievement! A special session will feature three of the original co-founders who -- probably not a coincidence -- are now leading scientists in their fields.

Are you a young scientist? Let your ideas for initiatives be heard!

To wrap up my part: The deadline for award candidates is very near. Please check the details below.

All the best,

Matthijs de Winter
Editor-in-Chief
InterPore News

Invited Student Paper Award – Now in Its 3rd Year!

InterPore2026 features the third edition of the Invited Student Paper Award! This award recognizes outstanding student presentations at the InterPore Annual Meeting, with winners invited to submit a paper to InterPore Journal for publication.

Eligibility:

  • Must be a student at the time of abstract submission.
  • Must present original work at the meeting.

How to Apply:
Interested students should indicate their interest during abstract submission.

👉 full details

The InterPore Foundation is once again offering conference grants to support researchers from low- and middle-income countries and graduate students attending InterPore2026.

The grants cover conference registration fees, and a limited number of recipients will also receive up to 500 € to help offset travel costs. The application deadline is 05 January 2026.
You can learn more about the program and submit your application here. 

You can also support this initiative by making a donation to the InterPore Foundation.

We are pleased to welcome Tiziana Tosco of Politecnico di Torino as an invited speaker at InterPore2026. Her talk, “Designing the nanoremediation of contaminated aquifers: from laboratory tests to field implementation,” highlights cutting-edge advances in using engineered nanoparticles to clean polluted groundwater. Nanoremediation offers a powerful in-situ approach, but its success depends on [👉…continue reading]


Mixing, Dispersion & Reaction Processes Across Scales

Lead Organizer: Veronica Morales – University of California Davis, USA

MS08 focuses on how solutes mix, disperse, and react in heterogeneous porous and fractured media—processes central to groundwater remediation, geothermal systems, water treatment, and more. The session welcomes contributions on pore- to field-scale transport, mixing, heat and particle dynamics, and the effects of heterogeneity on reactivity.

By bringing together experimental, numerical, and theoretical perspectives, MS08 aims to advance our understanding of the coupled processes that shape transport behavior across scales. Abstract submissions are warmly encouraged.

High-Temperature Heat & Mass Transfer in Porous Materials

Lead Organizer: Benoît Rousseau – University of Nantes, France

Refractory porous materials—such as carbon felts and ceramic foams—are essential to carbon-free energy systems and reusable spacecraft. Their performance depends on accurately understanding heat and mass transfer at extreme temperatures, where radiation, conduction, convection, and fluid flow interact in complex ways.

MS18 brings together researchers developing experiments, models, and advanced material architectures to better capture these coupled processes. We welcome contributions that advance high-temperature porous media science and its applications in energy and space.

Thermo Fisher is a longstanding supporter of the InterPore community, contributing to the advancement of porous media research and innovation through their cutting-edge technologies and active engagement.

The Exhibitor & Sponsor Prospectus for InterPore2026 is now available! If you know companies or organizations that might be interested in exhibiting or sponsoring, please put us in touch.

InterPore2026 will be in Nantes. This week's cultural highlight: the Petit Beurre

The Petit Beurre is a famous type of shortbread from Nantes. It was invented in 1886 by Louis Lefèvre-Utile and was inspired by some English products of the time. A Petit Beurre is glazed with milk before baking to give it a homemade appearance. The biscuits produced by the Lefèvre-Utile (LU) company are the most commercially successful variety, although the name is not exclusive to the LU company. The Petit Beurre LU is decorated with 4 corners in the shape of ears, 14 teeth in length, 10 teeth in width, making 52 teeth in total. It has 24 indents on its surface. These numbers can be interpreted as the 4 seasons, the 52 weeks of the year, and the 24 hours in a day.

Photo credit: “Biscuits Petit Beurre de la société LU” by Plbcr, CC BY-SA 3.0 

Our Sponsors

We are delighted to welcome four new members to the InterPore Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Committee, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee | InterPore:

Rehab M. El-Maghraby, Sonia Fidder, David Rieder and David Rieder Andry Razakamanantsoa. A short introduction can be found here.

We also thank Yuhang Wang, who has recently stepped down from the DEI Committee, for his dedicated service and contributions to the InterPore community.

The DEI Committee will help advance InterPore’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the porous media community.

👉 read more

We are launching a new initiative, dedicated to supporting scientists who are also parents. MiniPore aims to foster a more inclusive scientific environment by creating a space where experiences can be shared openly and supportively. MiniPore gives a voice to those striving to balance the demands of academic life with the joys and challenges of parenthood.

Whether you're already navigating this journey or planning to start, MiniPore is here for you!

Come and meet fellow InterPore members, help shape the direction of the group and be part of a supportive network.

When: 2 December 2025 at 14:00 CET

Where: MiniPore | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

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 on 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!

The InterPore Foundation is proud to launch a new video series highlighting the tremendous value and impact experienced by recipients of our Conference Grant Program.

Through this program, we provide grants up to $500 to researchers from academic institutions in low- or middle-income economies and to graduate students to participate in the InterPore annual meeting.

🔗 Learn more about the program:InterPore Foundation Grants | InterPore

We begin our video series with Tatiana Danelon, a grant recipient who attended InterPore2024 in Qingdao, China. In her testimonial, Tatiana shares how the conference expanded her network, deepened her expertise, and inspired her future research.

Watch Tatiana’s story here.

Your generosity makes stories like Tatiana’s possible.
Make a donation here.

InterPore is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to support our social media presence! We are currently seeking:

  • A new Chair of the Social Media Team
    • The Chair will coordinate postings across all InterPore social media accounts in collaboration with each account manager.
    • As Chair of the Social Media Team, you will also serve as a member of the Communication Committee and work with its members to align communication efforts.
  • A Content Manager for our Facebook Account, and …
  • Someone interested in getting us started and managing a future Bluesky account

If you enjoy communicating science and engaging with the porous media community, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact Laura.Lenz@interpore.org if you are interested.

InterPore welcomes Diya Kumbhat as the new LinkedIn Content Manager for InterPore. Diya is a PhD candidate at Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, Germany, where she researches underground hydrogen storage and flow in porous media. She holds degrees from ETH Zürich and Manipal University, India, and brings experience in social media management and scientific editing.

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to Serveh Kamrava, who has served for several years as InterPore’s LinkedIn Account Manager and Chair of the Social Media Team. Her creativity, dedication, and leadership have helped grow our online presence and community engagement. We wish Serveh all the best as she focuses on her next endeavors.

Please join us in welcoming Diya and thanking Serveh for her outstanding contributions!

At InterPore Journal, we believe everyone should have the chance to share their research — regardless of financial means. Our APC Waiver Fund helps authors who need support with article processing charges, ensuring equitable access to publishing across our community.

Each paid APC contributes to this shared fund, which InterPore supplements every year to keep the support going.

👉 Learn more about the APC Waiver Fund and how to apply

Madrid, 19-20 November 2025

Only one week left to register for the InterPore Spain Chapter Meeting.

Have a look at the preliminary program and details here.

👉 Register Here

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

👉 InterPore Awards 2026

75th Porous Media Tea Time Talks

 

 

Join live: 👉 LinkedIn

2 December 2025

Underground Hydrogen Storage in Depleted Hydrocarbon Reservoirs: Uncertainties in Reservoir Integrity by Dr. Samintha Perera from the University of Melbourne.

👉 more info

InterPore warmly congratulates Prof. Alberto Guadagnini, Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Vice-Rector for Research at Politecnico di Milano, on being awarded the International Honorary Fellow Award by the Geological Society of America (GSA) — one of the oldest and most respected scientific institutions in the field of geosciences.

👉 Learn more about the award

The International Science Council (ISC), in partnership with the International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA), has announced the launch of a new training program aimed at strengthening the ability of ISC Members and their communities to engage effectively at the interface between science and public policy.

If you’re interested, sign up before 30 November 2025. In addition, InterPore would like to here back from you how it was.

👉 more info

Luoyi Yan, Rahima Sidi-Boulenouar, Wafae Bagui, Jaime Gil-Roca, Benjamin Maillet, Laurent Brochard, Philippe Coussot

Wood, plants, and cellulosic materials contain a large amount of bound water inside solid, up to 30% of the dry mass, in the form of nano-inclusions of water molecules which can easily exchange with vapor and free water. Here, to isolate bound water dynamics, the accessible pores of the materials were filled with oil and the bound water distribution tracked by NMR and MRI during desorption. The measurements reveal that the diffusivity of bound water is independent of the direction despite the strong anisotropy of wood, and varies exponentially with the inverse of the temperature. These findings imply that bound water enables efficient long-distance moisture transport in any direction through wood or plant structures, whatever their state, as long as a local bound water deficit exists.

👉 Phys. Rev. Applied 24 (2025)

Eliyahu M. Farber, Nicola M. Seraphim, Kesha Tamakuwala, Andreas Stein, Maja Rücker (Interpore member), and David Eisenberg

Porous materials are at the heart of numerous energy applications ranging from subsurface engineering to batteries, electrolyzers, fuel cells, insulation, and solar fuel production. They act as facilitator for key processes such as mass, heat, pressure, radiation and charge transfer. Our review emphasizes that optimizing the structure of porous materials requires a cross-disciplinary approach. By reviewing our current understanding of processes within porous materials across applications, we invite porous material researchers to join efforts across applications and disciplines in developing the next-generation porous components for a future sustainable energy landscape.

👉 Science 390. 6772 (2025)

Job Offers

PositionLink
Postdoctoral Research Position on Effects of Parameter Variations on Radionuclide Transport on the Host-Rock Scale. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Leipzig, Germany Show Job Offer
Research Assistant (PhD Student) on underground hydrogen storage. Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, Germany Show Job Offer
PhD Project: Habitat dependence of tipping points in upland soils and implications for natural flood management, University of Southampton, UK Show Job Offer

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