Ivan Lunati

Ivan Lunati has been Swiss National Science Foundation Professor at the Institute of Geophysics of UNIL since July 2009.

He studied physics at the University of Milan, Italy. During his diploma thesis, he visited the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers in Bordeaux (France) and became interested in the dynamics of fluids through porous media. In April 1999 he joined the Institute of Hydrodynamics of ETH Zurich, where he earned his PhD in April 2003. In February 2004 he moved to the Institute of Fluid Dynamics as a postdoctoral researcher and in July 2005 was promoted to senior scientist. After visiting the Chevron Simulation Research Team in San Ramon, California (Fall 2005), he came back to Zurich and then moved to the EPF Lausanne where he worked as senior scientist in the Environmental Engineering Institute. In 2009 he was awarded a SNSF Professorship and joined the University of Lausanne.

His research activity has covered several topics including determination of model parameters by solution of inverse problems; stochastic description of porous media; interpretation of field measurements, especially solute- and gas-tracer tests; numerical modeling of reservoir and pore-scale processes; experimental techniques such as neutron tomography for visualization of moisture contents in geological materials. In recent years, he has specialized in multiphase flow in porous media addressing issues related to multiscale modeling of reservoirs and repositories, modeling and conceptualization of pore-scale processes, as well as fundamental issue in the description of capillary forces; recently, he started working on coupled energy and mass transport.

Research Interests

• Multiphase flow and transport in porous media
• Wetting and capillary phenomena
• Coupled energy and mass transfer
• Nonlinear phenomena
• Unstable fluid flow
• Multiscale modeling of physically complex systems
• Numerical methods for simulation of nonlinear flow
• Stochastic methods

Current Teaching:

Hydrogeology, Bachelor of Science in Geoscience and Environment
Fluid Transport in the Subsurface, Master of Science in Geoscience and Environment

Professional Experience:

2009-present
Swiss National Science Foundation Professor
Institute of Geophysics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2006-2009
Senior Scientist
Environmental Engineering Institute, EPF Lausanne, Switzerland
2005-2006
Senior Scientist (Oberassistent)
Institute of Fluid Dynamics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
2005
Visiting Scientist
Simulation Research Team, Chevron ETC, CA, USA
2004-2005
Post-doc
Institute of Fluid Dynamics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1999-2003
Research Assistant
Institute of Hydromechanics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1997-1998
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Laboratory of Energetic and Transport Phenomena, ENSAM Bordeaux, France

Education:

2003
Ph.D., ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1998
Degree in Physics (Summa cum Laude) University of Milan, Italy

Current Research Group

Marc-Antoine Habisreutinger, Postdoc
Interface dynamics (microscopic and macroscopic); deformable porous media

Rouven Künze, PhD student
Multiscale modeling of flow instabilities

Andrea Ferrari, PhD student
Wetting phenomena; pore-scale modeling of multiphase flow

Laureline Josset, PhD student
Stochastic hydrology and model reduction

Francesco Ciocca, PhD student (co-advised with Marc Parlange - EPFL)
Coupled heat and mass transfer
 

Former Group Members

Riccardo Maniero, Postdoc (1/12/2009-31/11/2010)
Wetting phenomena; flow with interfaces