NicolásEspinoza

Nicolas Espinoza wearing formal suit jacket, leaning against railing in front of large laboratory equipment and smiling.
Associate Professor Frank W. Jessen Centennial Fellowship in Petroleum Engineering

Research Areas
Research Interests

Mechanics and physics of natural porous solids; Methane recovery from microporous organic rocks; Methane hydrate-bearing sediments and geological carbon sequestration

About

Nicolás Espinoza is a professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his civil engineering diploma from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina) in 2006, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008 and 2011. Espinoza worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Laboratoire Navier within École de Ponts ParisTech from 2012 to 2013.

He primarily teaches reservoir geomechanics while leading the Energy Applied Geomechanics Laboratory (EAGLe), a research program focused on the mechanics and physics of natural porous solids.

The main fields of application of Espinoza’s research are carbon geological storage, geothermal energy, geologic hydrogen and energy recovery from unconventionals. He has co-authored over 125 technical articles, guided eight graduate students towards a Ph.D. degree, served as an expert reviewer for several scientific and engineering journals, and given seminars at various leading research and educational institutions. He shares geomechanics educational content through YouTube and GitHub with over four thousand subscribers and 300k views.

Espinoza’s research combines analytical methods, experimental measurements, field observations and computational methods to solve thermo-chemo-hydro-mechanical coupled processes in porous media. The ultimate objective of his research is to solve grand scientific challenges in reactive and deformable porous media with applications to energy and environmental engineering.

Educational Qualifications

Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011
M.S., Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008
Engineering Diploma, Civil Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 2005

Select Awards & Honors

  • Energy and Fuels Rising Star – American Chemical Society’s Energy & Fuels (2022)
  • James Lai Outstanding M.S. Student Award, Geosystems – Georgia Institute of Technology (2009)
  • Georgia Tech Tower Award for Academic Performance during M.S., OMED – Georgia Institute of Technology (2009)

Select Publications

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