Subsurface Hydrophysics Lab

The subsurface hydrophysics group is focused on gaining fundamental mechanistic understanding of fluid, solute, and colloid transport processes in heterogeneous porous and fractured media. 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 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.

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. Congrats Sophia!

April 2022:

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