Flow and transport research of unsaturated porous media has seen much progress recently. Unfortunately, much still needs to be done to improve predictions and decision-making in real life. The main objectives of the conference are to disseminate the latest research in modeling porous media at different scales (molecular, pore, laboratory, field, regional and global scales), to promote the exchange of research between various disciplines and regions of this world, to encourage joint research, and to build a network of contacts for young scientists.
The concept of porous media is used in several areas of science and engineering, such as geomechanics, soil and rock mechanics, geology, civil and petroleum engineering, bioremediation, the geosciences (hydrogeology, geophysics, biology), and materials science. Multiphase flow in porous media is an important topic and has stood out as a primordial field of research in these areas of research, including for devising new forms of energy (e.g., fuel cells and capturing carbon dioxide). Many natural systems such as soils, rocks, zeolites, biological tissues (bones, wood), as well as engineered materials such as cement, plastics, ceramics, paper, and pharmaceutical products, can be classified as porous media.
The conference will be at the occasion of the 80th birthday of Martinus Th. (Rien) van Genuchten. Rien was born and spent his youth on a small farm in the south of the Netherlands. He graduated from Wageningen University (BSc and MSc) and obtained his doctorate at New Mexico State University in the USA. He worked for almost 30 years at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory in Riverside, California, and since 2008 has worked at UFRJ where he is now a Collaborating Professor in the Nuclear Engineering Department. He now divides his time between UFRJ in Brazil and Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Contemporary hydrology is unthinkable without Rien’s many contributions, which established links between agriculture, soil science, hydrogeology, the environmental sciences and civil engineering. During his 50-year career, he created an important scientific system based on improved understanding of fluid flow and contaminant transport processes in variably saturated porous media, including interactions of soils with the atmosphere and groundwater. His work profoundly improved predictions of field phenomena and motivated an avalanche of studies along similar lines to address the dynamics of water and chemicals in natural and engineered porous media.
Registration and Presentation
Important Information and Guidelines
Visa and Letter of Participation
