KC Distinguished Lecturer Series by Prof. Mark Knackstedt

Prof. Mark Knackstedt has recently wrapped up the first leg of his North American tour as the 2019 Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer. His tour included a total of eight stops in western US and Canada. On April 30th, Prof. Knackstedt visited the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he was a Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series speaker. Following his lecture, Prof. Knackstedt met with scientists in the fields of geophysics and geochemistry to discuss experimental characterization and modeling of coupled multiphase flow as well as geochemical and geomechanical processes at pore scale. Prof. Knackstedt also toured the tomography beamline at the Advanced Light Source, which has been applied for characterization of geomaterials and in situ flow-through experiments. This visit offered an opportunity for in-depth discussions of the state-of-the-art and research needs of porous media characterization and modeling in the context of Earth sciences. On May 2nd, Prof. Knackstedt visited the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona. More than 30 students and faculty from multiple departments had the opportunity to attend the lecture, including the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences, and the Department of Mathematics. Before the lecture, Prof. Knackstedt had individual meetings with faculty and students to discuss challenges and opportunities on various research topics related to porous media, including applying the digital imaging and characterization technologies and the associated image-based modeling approaches to other porous materials such as soil and unconventional shale rocks. Another stop on his tour was at the University of Wyoming where his talk attracted students, researchers and faculty members across various departments. Prof. Knackstedt went through the initial stages where digital rock physics started and matures as we have today. He provided various examples and also discussed some of the challenges. According to his host at the university, Professor Tahmasebi, “the presentation was full of realistic and very interesting examples of complex porous media on which novel imaging techniques have shown promising and previously undiscoverable results. His final remarks on the future of rock physics were inspiring and very useful for students and researchers.”

A second North American tour includes 4-5 sites on the East Coast and in the Midwest of the US. A European tour will follow where Prof. Knackstedt will be lecturing at Shell Corporate Labs, the University of Utrecht, Bosch Research Labs, GERC Nottingham, Imperial College, Ghent University and University of Eindhoven.

Missed your chance to host the 2019 Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer? Apply now to host Veerle Cnudde, the 2020 Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lecturer. Prof. Cnudde will be presenting her lecture entitled, “Unravelling pore-scale processes in geomaterials” at select organizations.