STOMP Developers and Users

Mark White has more than 30 years of experience developing and applying world-class multifluid, coupled-process subsurface numerical simulation capabilities for PNNL and is the principal developer of the STOMP suite of simulators. STOMP is currently being used to provide new understanding of subsurface process behavior, with applications in environmental restoration, environmental stewardship, carbon sequestration, conventional and unconventional fossil energy production, and geothermal systems. Most recently, his work has been focused on developing embedded fracture, fault, and borehole modeling capabilities into STOMP.

Signe White is an earth scientist with expertise in developing and applying numerical simulators to find solutions to subsurface energy and environmental problems. Her primary research interests include the storage of CO₂ in subsurface reservoirs, conventional and unconventional fossil energy production, geothermal systems, and subsurface transport of gases. She is a STOMP developer, user, and shortcourse instructor, and she maintains the STOMP online user guide. Signe earned her M.S. in Geology from Indiana University.

 

Diana Bacon is a computational scientist whose research has focused on developing and applying subsurface simulators to understand the fate and transport of radionuclides, carbon, and pollutants in groundwater. She’s currently using STOMP to train deep learning models for pressure management and groundwater protection during carbon storage operations as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Risk Assessment Partnership and SMART initiative. Dr. Bacon holds a Ph.D. in Geology from Washington State University.

 

Jeff Burghardt is a staff scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) with over 10 years of experience in subsurface engineering research with a background in computational solid mechanics. His past research experience in the petroleum industry includes perforation and completion design for hydraulic stimulation, fracture conductivity optimization, wellbore stability, and stress estimation. Since joining PNNL in 2016, his research has focused on coupled porous media flow and geomechanical simulations, uncertainty quantification and reduction for state of stress and rock mechanical properties for CO₂ storage and geothermal reservoir development.

Mark Rockhold is an earth scientist/environmental engineer with expertise in subsurface flow and transport modeling and data assimilation for site characterization and parameter estimation. His current research interests include reactive transport modeling, development and calibration of alternative conceptual models, and joint inversion using hydrologic and geophysical data. He has been a STOMP developer and user for a wide variety of applications. Mark earned his Ph.D. in Bioresource Engineering (Water Resources) from Oregon State University.

 

Yilin Fang is an earth scientist with expertise in subsurface flow and reactive transport and high-performance computing.  She is a STOMP developer and user.

 

 

 

Fred Zhang is a research scientist for the Subsurface Computational Hydrology Team within the Hydrology Group at PNNL. Prior to joining PNNL in 2001, he completed his PhD studying land resource science, soil physics, and vadose zone hydrology and later was a post-doctorate investigating the fingering phenomenon of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in saturated porous media. At PNNL, Fred serves as a computational hydrogeologist specializing in development and application of simulation and monitoring tools for use in characterization and interpretation of complex flow systems, predictive modeling of fluid flow and contaminant transport in the vadose zone and saturated zone, and field monitoring of natural and/or engineered systems.

Scott Waichler is a hydrologist with expertise in data analytics, surface and subsurface modeling, and visualization. His work as a STOMP user includes modeling and pre- and post-processing for groundwater flow and reactive transport problems. Scott’s academic degrees are B.S. Geology, Stanford University; M.S. Hydrology/Hydrogeology, University of Nevada, Reno; and Ph.D. Bioresource Engineering, Oregon State University.

 

Alexander C. Hanna is a data scientist at PNNL and has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering with an emphasis in Hydrogeology and Resilient Infrastructure. He also has an M.S. in Hydrogeology and a B.S. in geophysics. He has experience in software development of educational video games and geomechanical inversion software.

 

 

Xuehang Song is an earth scientist at PNNL specializing in groundwater flow and transport modeling, data assimilation, high-performance computing, and geostatistics. He is especially interested in novel model and data integration methods to improve subsurface characterization. He is a STOMP user and also contributes to code development. Dr. Song earned his Ph.D. in Hydrology & Water Resources Engineering at Wuhan University.

 

 

Xiaoliang He (aka Bryan) is a post-doc research associate specializing in computational fluid dynamics. His expertise includes, but is not limited to, subsurface flow modeling, high-resolution numerical simulation, turbulence, and turbulence modeling. Since joining PNNL in 2019, he has been using STOMP/eSTOMP to perform reactive transport simulations and has implemented multiple modules in various versions of the code. Bryan earned both his M.S. and Ph.D. from Oregon State University.

 

Nicolas Huerta is a geologist/petroleum engineer with expertise in reactive transport, well integrity, and subsurface energy systems. His primary research interests include geologic carbon storage, oil and gas exploration and production, and contaminant transport. He is a currently a STOMP user. Nicolas earned a B.S. and M.S. in geology at UC Davis and an M.S.E. in petroleum engineering and Ph.D. in geological science at UT Austin.

 

 

Ramesh Sarathi is a chemical engineer with expertise in modeling subsurface multiphase flow and reactive transport for a variety applications, including nuclear waste management, Enhanced Oil Recovery, and geothermal energy. His research interests include numerical methods for forward and inverse modeling. Ramesh helps to develop and maintain STOMP.