Subsurface Hydrophysics Lab

The Subsurface Hydrophysics Group is focused on gaining a fundamental mechanistic understanding of fluid, solute, and colloid transport processes in subsurface environments. The image above highlights the complexity of the pore space (black regions) that fluids navigate as they flow through the subsurface. Our approach often leverages in situ imaging—such as X-ray computed tomography, positron emission tomography, or optical imaging—combined with analytical, numerical, and data science methods to describe transport processes in these complex geologic and environmental systems across time and length scales. Due to the fundamental nature of this approach, and the ubiquity of fluid transport in porous media, this work has important applications across a range of environmental and geological processes including contaminant migration in the vadose zone, heat recovery in geothermal energy systems, bacteria transport in the subsurface, and carbon dioxide transport and immobilization in geologic carbon storage projects.

We are currently recruiting graduate students for Fall 2023 who are interested in doing research on bacteria transport in porous media or PFAS fate and transport in the vadose zone.

December 2022:

• Vy Le was awarded an AGU Outstanding Student Poster Award for her poster titled ‘Measurement of Bacteria Transport and Immobilization in Heterogeneous Geologic Materials using Novel Radiolabeling Methods‘. Congrats Vy!

November 2022:

• Will Gnesda’s new paper in Environmental Science & Technology made UW-Madison research news

October 2022:

• Vy Le successfully passed her PhD qualification exam

August 2022:

• Visiting undergraduate student Liam Warren from Beloit College finished his Water@UW Summer Scholars project titled ‘Colloid-facilitated Heavy Metal Contaminant Transport – Role of Sorption and Colloid Composition‘.

July 2022:

• Collin Sutton passed his PhD qualification exam
• Vy Le successfully completed and defended her MS thesis titled ‘Measurement of Bacterial Colloid Attachment and Unraveling the Effects of Heterogeneity and Salinity on Subsurface Bacteria Transport Using Positron Emission Tomography’. She will be continuing on for her PhD in the group starting this fall.

May 2022:

• Our work was featured in a recent news article by the Unversity of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute.
• Undergraduate Sophia Thompson was awarded a highly prestigious Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship.

April 2022:

• Our collaborative research on PFAS contamination in Rhinelander WI was featured on the local news in northern WI.