Committee

Jamie Andrews works as leading advisor for CCS in the Low Carbon Solutions Unit in Equinor.  He holds a degree in Natural Sciences and a Ph.D in quantum mechanics from the university of Cambridge U.K. After working as a production technologist for Shell, he joined Equinor (then Statoil) in 1995, where he spent his first two years researching formation damage and completion issues. He spent the next 7 years in different asset teams working on production optimization, well performance and well completion issues. In 2004, he accepted a position as geomechanics specialist in the company’s central technology unit in Stavanger. For the last decade his primary focus has been caprock integrity modelling and injection processes. He has worked on several CCS projects in Equinor and most recently has been deeply involved in the geomechanical characterization of the storage complex for the Northern Lights project and assessing the potential for thermo-mechanical induced damage during CO₂ injection.  In his current position as leading advisor for CCS he is responsible for maintaining company best practices and guidelines, providing technical support and QAA to ongoing projects, guiding R&D activities, running internal CCS courses and networks.

Jens Birkholzer is a Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) where he serves as the Director of the Energy Geosciences Division. Jens’ research is related to evaluating the feasibility and environmental sustainability of a broad portfolio of geo-energy applications, with particular focus on geologic carbon sequestration. He has over 400 scientific publications, about 170 of which are in peer-reviewed journals. Jens leads the international DECOVALEX Initiatives as its Chairman, is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and a Senior Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology.

Frédéric Cappa is Professor of Geophysics at the Université Côte d’Azur (France) in the Geoazur Earth Sciences laboratory. His research aims mainly at understanding better the role of fluids in the mechanics of the Earth’s crust, especially seismic and aseismic fault deformation. He is interested in developing new approaches combined from geophysical observations and numerical modelling for the study of fractured rock hydromechanics, fluid flow, earthquakes, injection-induced seismicity, and the dynamics of aseismic slip on faults and its interactions with earthquakes in crustal rocks.

Antonino Cilona is a geologist specializing in structural geology and rock mechanics. He obtained his doctorate in 2012 from the University of Camerino, where he focused on fault mechanisms in porous carbonates. Following his PhD, he pursued a postdoctoral position at Stanford University in 2014, broadening his expertise on fault seal in siliciclastic rocks. Since joining Shell GSNL in 2015, he has contributed to various teams. Antonino’s scientific interests lie in fault fractures and fluid flow at multiscale, applying machine learning to geology, as well as developing innovative approaches to model the geomechanical aspects of CO₂ injection in depleted reservoirs.

Valentin Gischig currently works as lecturer and senior researcher at the Department of Earth Science at the ETH Zürich. Previously he worked at the Swiss Federal Office of Energy as research program manager (2021 – 2023), with CSD Ingenieure AG (2018 – 2021) and in different research positions at ETH Zürich and UBC Vancouver (2007-2017). He holds a PhD in Engineering Geology and a Diploma in Geophysics.

Yves Guglielmi is a Geological Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His principal interests cover fundamental research in the hydromechanics of fractured and faulted rock. He focuses on the in situ understanding of the relationships between hydraulic, elastic and strength properties, rheology and induced seismicity of faults and fractures through field observation. Applications of his research concern giant rock landslides, and geo-energy (nuclear waste disposal, reservoir seal integrity and deep geothermal energy). He has been the Principal Investigator of several national and international programs on CO₂ storage in deep reservoirs and on giant landslides in the European Alps.

David Jaeggi studied geology at ETH Zurich, where he also wrote his dissertation on the pore structure of a high-permeability reef complex. He then worked for several years in the private sector as a consultant for subsoil and natural hazards and has been working for the Swiss National Geological Survey at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory since 2010. At Mont Terri, in addition to experiments related to monitoring, characterization of the rock and hydraulic properties, he is also involved in the CO2LPIE experiment, which deals with the integrity of the rock matrix under the influence of periodic CO₂ injections.

Martin Jiskra is a Policy Advisor at the Federal Office for the Environment working on the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) necessary to reach Switzerland’s long-term climate targets. His main responsibilies are is the support of Research and Innovation and the development of policy framework. He holds a Master degree in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Geochemistry, both from ETH Zurich.

Rolf Kipfer  (RoKi) is a research scientist the Department of Water Resources and Drinking Water of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) where he leads the Environmental Isotopes research group. He is Professor at the Institute for Biogeochemistry and Pollution Dynamics of the Department of Environmental System Science (D-USYS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). He holds a PhD in Natural Science of ETHZ where he lectures on aquatic physics, tracer hydrology and noble gas isotope geochemistry.

Michael Kühn studied Chemistry and Geology at the Leibniz University in Hannover and received his PhD in Geochemistry from the University of Bremen. He was lecturer and research scientist at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg and there achieved an Engineering doctoral degree in Hydrology. Recently he is head of the section Fluid Systems Modelling at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and holds the Professorship for Hydrogeology at the University of Potsdam. His research focus is on geochemical water-rock-interactions which he simulates with numerically coupled process models to assess systems for nuclear waste disposal, subsurface CO₂ storage or geothermal energy production.

Axel Liebscher is Head of the R&D Division at the German Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE). He holds a Ph.D. in geology from the Technical University of Berlin with a background in petrology, geochemistry and fluid-rock interactions. Axel was leading scientist to the German CO2-storage site at Ketzin and Head of the Centre for CO2- and underground storage at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. He is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ECCSEL, the European Research Infrastructure for CO2 Capture, Utilisation, Transport and Storage (CCUS) and was delegate to the international standardization process for CCUS.

Herfried Madritsch is a structural geologist by training with a PhD degree from the Universities of Basel and Franche Comté gained in 2008. Between 2009 and 2022 he worked as project manager for NAGRA (National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste) exploring the subsurface of northern Switzerland to locate the best suitable nuclear waste repository site ultimately acting as section head geology and geophysics. Following the site proposal he joined National Geological Survey of Switzerland in late 2022 as Coordinator Geoenergy. In this role he is now concerned with evaluation  CO₂ storage potential within the country.

Roman Makhnenko is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Roman has a background in mechanics and applied mathematics and obtained his MS (2009) and PhD (2013) degrees in geological and civil engineering from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, after which he worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at EPFL. Currently, Dr. Makhnenko is developing a rock mechanics program at Illinois that includes modern high-pressure/high-temperature rock testing and modeling for geo-energy projects such as CO₂, H2, and nuclear waste storage and geothermal systems.

Frédéric Mathurin is a senior researcher working at BRGM (French Geological Survey). His expert field focuses on geochemistry and reactive transport modelling in deep subterranean geosphere associated to underground storage/repository. Frédéric completed his Ph.D. studying the mobility of natural radionuclide analogues in the fractures at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (Swedish URL). Since he joined BRGM, Frédéric has been involved in research projects aiming to select site where CO₂ storage could be tested at pilot scale and enhance the development of onshore storage. On this subject, the BRGM team pioneered (in situ & 1:1 scale) well integrity assessment in the URL of Mont Terri.

Christian Minnig holds a Master degree in Geology from the University of Bern. After over 10 years of industry experience in geotechnical engineering, upstream O&G and geothermal sectors and working 7 years for the Swiss Geological Survey, he now works as technical specialist at the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, among other things advising the government on CO2 Storage and supporting the management of the federal R&D and P&D programs.

Andreas Möri has a background in structural geology, worked as a consultant and project manager in various fields of applied geology and did his PhD on in-situ matrix diffusion in crystalline rocks. He has spent much of his working life underground in various rock laboratories. Andreas Möri has been working at swisstopo’s Swiss Geological Survey since 2007 and is head of the Georesources Division. Currently, the focus is on the development of basic data for the coordinated use of geological resources in the subsurface, such as geothermal energy, geological storage of CO₂, mineral resources and groundwater.

Herwig Müller holds a degree in Engineering Geology from Technical University Graz, Austria. He joined Nagra 2008, leading various projects concerning site investigations and monitoring as well as experiments in underground rock laboratories. Between 2011 and 2015 he was the lead project manager for the implementation of the “Full-Scale Emplacement” experiment at Mont Terri. From 2016 until 2019, as Nagra’s exploration manager, together with his team, Herwig was responsible for the preparation of Nagra’s deep exploratory drilling campaign, which was completed 2022 after 9 boreholes with a multitude of borehole & laboratory measurements. Since January 2022 Herwig is the head of Nagra’s International Services and Projects Division.

Christophe Nussbaum is a senior scientist in geosciences and holds a PhD in structural geology. In 2005, he officially joined the Mont Terri Project as Project Manager. Today, he is employed by the Swiss Geological Survey at swisstopo, where he is the Director of the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory. For the past two decades, he has been involved in numerous research projects related to high-level radioactive waste disposal in claystone and geological carbon sequestration. Since 2015, he is also a lecturer in geo-energy for master students in civil engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL, Lausanne.

Philip Ringrose is a specialist in CO2 storage and reservoir geoscience at the Equinor Research Centre, Trondheim, Norway and Adjunct Professor in CO2 Storage at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He has published widely on reservoir geoscience and flow in rock media including textbooks on Reservoir Model Design and How to Store CO2 underground. His research interests include geology, petrophysics, multiphase flow and geophysical monitoring. He is also Honorary Professor (Sustainable Geoenergy) at the University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences, Edinburgh, UK.

Jean-Charles Robinet is a specialist in transport and interactions of solutes and gas in clay-rocks systems and multi-scale analysis of natural structures. In 2008, he obtained his PhD thesis in geosciences University of Poitiers (France). Since 2009, he has been working at Andra (French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency) in the Scientific and technical division. Since 2022, he has been in charge of the Waste, Radionuclides, Chemicals and Geoscience Unit. In charge of coordinating several Andra R&D and national research groups about chemistry and transfer in complex environments.

Jonny Rutqvist is a Senior Scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California. Dr. Rutqvist has applied coupled geomechanical modeling to geologic carbon sequestration and caprock integrity since the 1990s. He heads the development of the TOUGH-FLAC simulator that is extensively applied for modeling clay barrier functions, including caprock and fault integrity. https://eesa.lbl.gov/profiles/jonny-rutqvist/.

Elin Skurtveit is a structural geologist at NGI, a leading centre of research and consultancy in engineering-related geosciences. Elin follows up several projects related to CO₂ storage and has a passion for integrated research combining geology, geomechanics and rock physics. She is involved in experimental work and has a broad experience in rock characterization, including fault zones and fractures.

Víctor Vilarrasa is a tenured scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and member of the Young Academy of Spain and the Global Young Academy (GYA). He is beneficiary of the Starting Grant from the European Research Council GEoREST to investigate induced seismicity and coordinator of the Doctoral Network of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions SMILE on coupled processes induced by low-carbon geo-energy applications. He is General Secretary of the Commission on ‘Coupled Thermal-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Processes in Fractured Rock’ of the International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM). Víctor has received several awards, including the Chin-Fu Tsang Coupled Processes Award.

Gabriela von Goerne is head of the sub-department subsurface use at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Germany. She holds a PhD in geology. Her main research topic covered fluid-rock interactions, first focus on the mineral tourmaline and ore-bearing fluids at CSIRO Australia, later focus on geological storage of CO₂ at the GFZ Potsdam, Germany. Gabriela contributed as lead author to the IPCC Special Report on « Carbon dioxide capture and storage ».

Christopher Wibberley is a senior technical advisor at Total EP, specializing in structural geology, hydrodynamics and seals. After Oxford, and a PhD at Leeds, he did post-docs at Montpellier and Kyoto before Cambridge and then settling down (for a while) at the University of Nice – Sophia Antipolis as a lecturer. After his “Professorship research habilitation” he moved to Total in 2007 where he has mainly worked as a specialist in the technical headquarters in Pau, along with a 3-year spell in Exploration in the Republic of Congo.

Stefan Wiemer is the director of the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) and chair of Seismology at ETH Zurich. He earned his diploma from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany in 1992 and completed his PhD at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1997. Stefan Wiemer’s research focuses on earthquake processes and their effects, including statistical seismology, seismic hazard assessment, earthquake predictability, induced seismicity, and earthquake early warning. He holds various positions of trust, serving on the ERC Grants Evaluation Panel, the International Expert Panel on Mining Effects, and the ETH Tenure Committee. In 2021, he joined the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Research Center of Geosciences (GFZ), the Board of Trustees of the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), and became the president of the Swiss Geophysical Commission. He has been actively involved in earthquake-related initiatives in Switzerland, leading the publication of the national earthquake hazard model in 2004 and 2015 and the national earthquake risk model in 2023. Additionally, he serves as the deputy director of the Bedretto Lab.

Alba Zappone is a specialist in rock physics currently working at the Earth Science Department of ETH Zurich, Switzerland. She is also affiliated to the Swiss Seismological Service. Alba earned her Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Milan, Italy. The link between physical parameters and rocks microstructures is her main scientific interest, together with the aspect of upscaling from laboratory experiments to field observations. She works on projects concerning Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Carbon Sequestration. She is also developing a database of physical properties of rocks in cooperation with the Swiss Geophysical Commission.  She is involved in teaching and mentoring students at ETH Zurich and abroad.

Martin Ziegler studied engineering geology at the Technical University of Munich and wrote his dissertation at ETH Zurich on the age and formation mechanisms of exfoliation joints in the Aar Granites. He continued his studies at ETH Zurich as postdoc and worked on the characterization of the deep Basel EGS reservoir fracture network and as senior research assistant on clay rock swelling, self-sealing, and progressive rock failure processes. In addition, he has been conducting geoarchaeological research in the Theban necropolis in Egypt since 2015. Since 2021, he is working at the Mont Terri URL of swisstopo. At Mont Terri, he develops novel monitoring systems and is involved in experiments related to heat, gas, and radwaste storage.