Benzhong |Robin| Zhao (email) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at McMaster University. Robin's background is in civil & environmental engineering, specializing in multiphase flow in porous media with applications to low-carbon energy systems. He earned his BASc from the University of Waterloo, SM and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked on the fluid mechanics of geological carbon dioxide sequestration. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto, where he worked on developing more efficient electrochemical devices for renewable energy storage.

Tian Lan is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab. Tian holds a bachelor's degree (2016) and a Ph.D. (2021) from Wuhan University, where his research focused on the transition of displacement patterns for multiphase flow in porous media. Following his Ph.D., he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Wuhan University (2021–2024), during which he explored the impact of pore-scale mechanisms on capillary pressure curves. Currently, his research focuses on the physical and chemical mechanisms of underground hydrogen storage. Check out Tian’s Google Scholar profile.

Behnia Azizzadeh is a Ph.D. student in the lab. He earned bachelor's degrees in geology and mining engineering from the University of Tehran in 2021 and 2022, respectively. He then pursued a master’s degree in petroleum exploration engineering at University of Tehran, where his research focused on developing generative adversarial deep learning algorithms for seismic inversion to enhance accuracy for identification of hydrocarbon reservoir. He was awarded silver and bronze medals at the Earth Science Olympiad in 2020 and 2021. His current research focuses on developing deep learning algorithms to model the transport and behaviour of radionuclides in porous media. Check out Behnia’s Google Scholar profile.

Nima Shakourifar is a PhD student in the lab. Nima got his BSc in petroleum engineering from the University of Tehran in 2015. His interest in numerical modelling led him to complete an MSc program in reservoir engineering at the Sharif University of Technology in 2018, where he worked on implementing high-order finite element methods to simulate multicomponent flow in porous media. Currently, his research is focused on developing numerical models to capture the evolution of oxygen bubbles in PEM water electrolyzers.

Mohammad Salehpour is a PhD student in the lab. Mohammad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from University of Garmsar (2017), followed by a Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from Shiraz University (2020). His past work focused on geologic CO2 storage at reservoirs using microfluidics. Currently, his research aims to understand the controlling factors of underground hydrogen storage. Check out Mohammad’s Google Scholar profile.

Alumni

Graduate Students

Mahtab Masouminia was a PhD student in the lab. She developed novel experimental methods for investigating the impact of wettability on multiphase flow in porous media and the effectiveness of face masks for source control. Mahtab is currently a postdoctoral associate in the Higgins Lab at McMaster. Check out Mahtab’s Google scholar profile.

Negar Shahsavar was a PhD student in the lab. She studied the interaction of flow and chemical reaction in porous media. Check out Negar’s Google scholar profile.

Michelle Ragany was an MASc student in the lab. She conducted her master’s research on improving the efficiency of the agriculture infrastructure using closed loop systems.

Mohamed El-Morsy was a PhD student in the lab. He conducted his PhD research on using machine learning technologies to predict the properties of digital rocks. Mohamed is currently a consulting engineer. Check out Mohamed’s Google scholar profile.  

Ashkan Irannezhad was a PhD student in the lab. He conducted his PhD research on the impact of mixed wettability on multiphase flow in porous media. Ashkan is currently a postdoctoral associate in the Higgins Lab at McMaster. Check out Ashkan’s Google scholar profile.

Dan Zhao was an MASc student in the lab. He conducted his master’s research on implementing geological carbon sequestration in the Alberta oil sands. Dan is currently a Carbon Analyst at Clearblue Markets.

Undergraduate Students

Endi Hajdari (2020-2022)

Jack Rynard (2021)

Charlotte Neumann (2020)

Ruby Yee (2020)

Marisa Caluori (2020)

Katelyn Wylie (2019)