Earth Sciences Division Staff: Quanlin Zhou

Biographical Summary

Dr. Zhou is a career research scientist with the Hydrogeology Department in the Earth Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California.

He began his career at Hohai University, Nanjing, China as an undergraduate and a graduate in Hydrology and Water Resources. Upon his graduation, he continued his career at Nanjing Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources, conducting flood-control and water resources management research on the Three-Gorge Project and the South-North Water Transfer Project. He then pursued PhD studies in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, developing numerical techniques for modeling of seawater intrusion and density-dependent flow, leading to completion of his doctoral thesis. As a post-doctoral researcher at MIT,  he developed numerical codes to investigate phenomena of DNAPL migration in heterogeneous porous media and compared numerical-modeling results to stochastic- analysis ones.

At LBNL, Dr. Zhou has been leading  and involved in research projects in the following topics: (1) analytical and numerical modeling of geologic carbon sequestration, integrated modeling of basin- and plume-scale physical processes, dynamic storage capacity for full-scale deployment scenarios, understanding of the effect of multiscale heterogeneity on CO₂ migration, long-term trapping, and storage efficiency at core scale, laboratory scale (1-5 m), pilot scale (~100 m), and large-scale storage demonstration scale (kilometers), subsurface heterogeneity tomography, and early warning and detection of CO₂ leakage; (2) predicting unsaturated flow and radionuclide transport in heterogeneous fractured rock in support of the nuclear waste disposal project, diffusive transport in fractured rock and layered porous media at multiple scales and in multiphase flow conditions; (3) conceptual, numerical, and inverse modeling of large-scale contaminant plumes, with physical, chemical, microbial (biodegradation) processes in support of on-site remediation and natural attenuation.

Education

• 1996–1999, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering, Sept. 1999.
• 1987–1990, Hohai University, Nanjing, China, M.Eng. in Hydrology and Water Resources, July 1990
• 1983–1987, Hohai University, Nanjing, China, B. Eng. in Hydrology and Water Resources, July 1987

Honors and Awards

• “Outstanding Performance Award”, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2007
• “The Miriam and Aaron Gutwirth Award”, the Gutwirth Foundation, Israel, 1999.
• “The Irmay Prize", Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, 1998.

Professional Experience

• 11/2008–Present, Geological Research Scientist (Career), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA
• 06/2006–11/2008, Geological Research Scientist (Career-Track), LBNL, Berkeley, CA
• 06/2005–06/2006, Senior Modeler, ETIC Engineering Inc, Oakland, CA
• 09/2002–06/2005, Geological Scientist, LBNL, Berkeley, CA
• 03/2001–09/2002, Geological Postdoctoral Fellow, LBNL, Berkeley, CA
• 10/2000–03/2001, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, WI
• 10/1999–09/2000, Postdoctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
• 07/1990–10/1996, Senior Engineer (Engineer for 1990­­–1995), Nanjing Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing, China