Your academic journey spans several countries Colombia, Spain, Germany, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. What motivated you to pursue such a global scientific path ?

« I hold a BSc in Physics from the National University of Colombia, an MSc in Mathematical Engineering from the University Carlos III of Madrid, and a PhD in Computational Physics from the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

I completed a postdoctoral research stint in Geotechnical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and served as an Australian Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, where I contributed to the development of the Australian Computational Earth System Simulator.

I was a Senior Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. More recently, I moved to the Centre for Integrative Petroleum Research at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, where I focus on grain-scale dynamics of dunes and pore-scale reservoir simulations. »

You specialize in complex systems and granular materials. What draws you to these topics, and what do you see as the next big questions in this field ?

« My main motivation for studying complex systems was to understand the dynamics of stock markets. I initially moved to Europe intending to pursue a PhD in this area but was instead offered a full scholarship to work on granular media.

After completing my PhD, my focus shifted to developing multiscale simulators for the computational engineering of geomaterials. After 20 years of research, I believe that the most effective approach is to extract data from high-resolution imaging, then process this data to derive contact networks and pore networks from geomaterials.

These networks enable the investigation of material behaviour at engineering and field scales using graph theory, particularly percolation theory. »

In your recent work, you used IPSDK Explorer for 3D image analysis. How has this tool integrated into your research workflow, and what have been the main benefits ?

« IPSDK Explorer provides many functions that allow me to convert raw images into pore networks and contact networks efficiently. I utilize percolation theory to derive material properties from these networks. Looking ahead, I believe this approach can be further developed into highly efficient solvers that could be integrated into IPSDK Explorer for analysing material behaviour.

This would represent a significant advantage, as many other image analysis packages rely on computationally expensive solvers such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) or Lattice Boltzmann methods. »

You’ve authored a book on soil deformation. Do you have plans for another book or perhaps a science communication project ?

« This book was published in 2004 and focused on using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to understand soil deformation. In the outlook of that book, I suggested that the future of soil micromechanics lay in statistical mechanics.

At that time, I was unable to fully incorporate percolation theory (a statistical mechanics framework) to interpret results, largely because I was unaware of the finite-size effects on material behaviour. Looking back, I believe DEM has become somewhat outdated and could be replaced by new class of solvers that directly apply Finite Element Methods and Percolation Theory on contact networks.

My motivation for using IPSDK Explorer is that it allows me to generate realistic contact networks for granular materials, enabling further advances in this area. »