Ruben Juanes

I am a geoscientist with a strong interest in the physics of multiphase flow in porous media.
My research focuses on advancing our fundamental understanding and predictive capabilities of the simultaneous flow of two or more fluids through rocks, soils and other porous materials.
Research in my group combines theory, simulation and experiments that elucidate fundamental aspects of multi-fluid flow, which we then apply for prediction of large-scale Earth science problems in the areas of energy and the environment, including geological carbon sequestration, methane hydrates, and ecohydrology of arid environments.

Loosely speaking, our research areas are:

• Methane: methane hydrates in nature; methane venting from freshwater sediments

• CO2: Geological carbon sequestration; capillary and solubility trapping; geomechanics

• Oil: Enhanced oil recovery; flow instabilities; mixing; flow through fractured media

• Water: Water infiltration; gravity fingering; ecohydrology of arid environments

I teach courses in computer programming (undergraduate), soil mechanics (undergraduate), groundwater hydrology (graduate) and computational methods for flow in porous media (advanced graduate). My current teaching schedule is:

• Fall 2021:

  • 1.000: Computer Programming for Scientific and Engineering Applications

• Previous semesters:

  • 1.723: Computational Methods for Flow in Porous Media (stellar website)

  • 1.079: Rock-on-a-chip

  • 1.035: Structural and Soil Mechanics (stellar website)

  • 1.72: Groundwater Hydrology (stellar website)

• Courses at other institutions

  • PGE383: Computational Geomechanics (UT Austin)

  • PE120: Fundamentals of Petroleum Engineering (Stanford)

  • PE224: Advanced Topics in Reservoir Simulation (Stanford)

  • PE260: Environmental Aspects of Petroleum Engineering (Stanford)

  • PE281: Applied Mathematics in Reservoir Engineering (Stanford)

  • E77: Introduction to Computer Programming for Scientists and Engineers (UC Berkeley)

  • CE100: Elementary Fluid Mechanics (UC Berkeley)

Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building 1-363
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Phone: (617) 253-7191
Email: juanes@mit.edu