I am a Senior lecturer (equivalent to associate professor) focusing on Multi-scale imaging and characterization of rocks (Digital rocks) in geoenergy reservoirs and subsurface energy storage. I am the Academic lead/co-chair of Women@manchester staff network (with ~900 members), and facluty head of internationalisation for student recruitement at the university, and leading on subsurface energy and storage at University of Manchester at Harwell. I also hold external roles as Deputy-editor-in-chief for the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology and Vice Chair of the Enery Group, The Geological Society.

My current research aims to build novel and advanced 3D/4D digital approaches and correlative experiments to fully understand the complicated pore networks and the reactions of subsurface energy (e.g. natural gas, geothermal, hydrogen and CO₂) with rocks under subsurface conditions (e.g. temperature, pressure, and chemistry) cross multiple scales (nm to cm). Machine learning tools and image based modeling are applied for enhanced understanding of these topics. My research aims to achieve the goal of enabling economic growth and environment protection via applications of clean energy extraction and subsurface energy storage.

I have secured > £3 million grant as PI and participated in > £10 million pounds project as a co-I/WP leads from both UKRI and industries in the last seven years. These project covers a wide range of topics including shale gas, carbon storage, geothermal and aquifer heat storage, underground hydrogen storage, nuclear waste disposal, using multi-scale, multi-dimensional, multi-model and machine learning assisted imaging and characterisation. 

Additionally, I lead >25 fully funded synchrotron beamtime sessions (>100 days) as PI and another >10 sessions (> 40 days) as co-I , at national and international synchrotron facilities including Diamond Light Source (DLS), Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), DESY Photon Science, The Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNSL) and The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) to develop new in-situ imaging capacity in varied applications in energy decarbonation field.

Digital Rock Manchester for Energy Decarbonization

1. Multi-scale Imaging characterisation of pores and rocks (sub-nano scale to m-scale)

2. 4D imaging and image based modeling of porous materials' evolution under subsurface thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) conditions (250°C; 3600Psi; multi-phase flow; complex chemistry) 

3. Upscaling of pore network and microstructure of porous materials from nm-scale to m-scale, linking to km-scale

4. Machine learning assisted imaging processing, characterisation and analysis 

The applications include shale gas/oil, carbon storage and sequestration, geothermal and aquifer heat storage, nuclear wate disposal, hydrogen storage and compressed air storage etc.

PhD applications and research collaborations are welcome to contact [email protected]

PhD applications and research collaborations are welcome. More details see research interests.

Contact [email protected] for more details

Senior Lecturer 2024-

Presidential fellow/ Lecturer, University of Manchester 2020-2024

NERC & STFC Research Fellow, University of Manchester 2018-2022

PDRA, University of Manchester, 2016-2017

PhD Petroleum geosciences, University of Manchester, 2012-2016

MSc Petroleum geology, Jilin University, 2009-2012

BSc Petroleum geology, Jilin University, 2005-2009

PDRAs:

• Dr. Jingyue Hao (current)
• Dr. Heather Braid (current)
• Dr. Ke Wang (former)
• Dr. Jing Zhang (former)
• Dr. Takshak Shende (former)

PhD students as the primary supervisor: 

• Chenzi Shi (graduated)
• Heather Braid (graduated)
• Ziyu Zhang (graduated)
• Xin Zhong (2022-)
• Camilo Salazar (2022-)
• Ali Bony Kaya (2023-)
• Sonu Sudhikumar Seena (2023-)
• Bengang Chen (2023-)
• Jeffrey Akuoko (2023-)
• Chunmiao Ma (2024-)
• Yifan Yin (2025-)

PhD students as a co-supervisor:

• Ke Wang (graduated)
• Georgy Borisochev (graduated)
• David Johnson (graduated)
• Shuangyi Gong 
• Aristarchos Mavridis 
• Peter Castellucci
• Muhammad Faisal Abbasi 
• Daniel Ronald
• Josh Marsh 
• Abdelrazik Elfar
• Yue He
• Wei Hao
• Razlin Abd Rashid 
• Holly Mills 
• Xinyi Li

Visitors:

• Dr. Aluizio Jose Salvador (University of Sao Paulo; former)
• Dr. Qian Zhang (Chinese Academy of Sciences; former)

CHEN60482 Advanced Subsurface Modeling (2021-2024)

CHEN20020 Laboratory Projects 2 (2022-2024)

CHEN60490 Subsurface Engineering Design (2024-)