Jesús Carrera
Research Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences Institute Jaume, Spain

TITLE OF TALK: Distinguishing mixing and spreading in multiphase transport through heterogeneous media

Jesús Carrera (Vigo, Spain, 1957) is “Research Professor” at the “Jaume Almera” Institute for Earth Sciences (CSIC, Spanish Council for Scientific Research). He works on groundwater modeling with emphasis on the inverse problem (estimation of groundwater parameters so as to make sure that model simulations reproduce actual measurements) and reactive transport (simulate the movement of contaminants in aquifers including chemical reactions with other solutes and the solid phase) and the effects of heterogeneity (effective parameters, upscaling and characterization).

Efi Foufoula
University of Minnesota McKnight Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. She is co-director of the NSF Science and Technology Center National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED)

TITLE OF TALK: New directions in computational geomorphology

The availability of high resolution digital elevation maps from laser altimetry (LiDAR data at 1-2 m resolution) offers new opportunities for geomorphologic research. In this talk two directions will be discussed: (1) the use of high resolution elevation data for geomorphologic feature extraction (such as channel morphology, river networks, hillslope-scale heterogeneities, and landslide scars) to inform model development, and (2) new stochastic theories for geomorphic transport based on non-local constitutive laws which require advanced computational methods for implementation.

Andrea Rinaldo
Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Dipartimento IMAGE, and Director, International Centre for Hydrology "Dino Tonini", Universita' di Padova, via Loredan 20, Padova I-35131, Italy

TITLE OF TALK: Reactive transport on networks: rivers as ecological corridors for species, populations, pathogens of water-borne disease

Born in Venice (Italy), 1954. Degree in Hydraulic Engineering, University of Padua, 110/110 summa cum laude (1978). PhD, Purdue University, 1983. Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources ECHO/ISTE/ENAC at EPFL (Lausanne, CH) and of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Padua (IT). Dalton Medal (European Geophysical Society) 2005; AGU Hydrology Section (formerly Horton) Award, 1999. Foreign Member, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2006), US National Academy of Engineering (2006). Author and coauthor of books and of more than 200 papers, 119 of which published in refereed Journals.

Edward Sudicky
Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo

TITLE OF TALK: Integrated Modelling of Surface-subsurface Flow Systems over Multiple Scales

Dr. Sudicky is a full professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Waterloo, and he currently holds a senior-level Canada Research Chair in the field of Quantitative Hydrogeology. Dr. Sudicky’s research interests relate to the development and application of advanced numerical models of hydrological processes, including surface and subsurface flow and contaminant transport, the transport and fate of organic compounds in groundwater, multiphase flow, geostatistics, stochastic analyses of subsurface flow and transport, and field characterization techniques.

Hamdi Tchelepi
Associate Professor, Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University

TITLE OF TALK: Numerical simulation of CO2 Sequestration in Deep Saline Aquifers

Prof. Tchelepi helps develop algorithms and tools for accurate and scalable modeling of flow and transport in natural porous media with application to oil recovery processes and CO2 sequestration. Specific areas of interest include numerical simulation of unstable miscible and immiscible porous media flows, multiscale formulations for multiphase flow and transport in large-scale heterogeneous systems, and stochastic methods for dynamic data integration and quantification of prediction uncertainty.

Mary F. Wheeler
Director, Center for Subsurface Modeling,
Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences
The University of Texas at Austins

TITLE OF TALK: Computational Environments for Coupling Multiphase Flow, Transport, and Mechanics in Porous Media for Modeling Carbon Sequestration