Dr. Jens Birkholzer is a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab). As an internationally recognized expert in subsurface energy applications and environmental impact assessment, he currently serves as the Director for the Energy Geosciences Division (EGD) in the Earth and Environmental Systems Area (EESA). In addition Dr. Birkholzer leads the Sustainable Energy Systems Program Domain in the Energy Geosciences Division. He received his Ph.D. in water resources, hydrology, and soil science from Aachen University of Technology in Germany in 1994. Dr. Birkholzer joined LBNL in 1994, left for a management position in his native Germany in 1999, and eventually returned to LBNL in 2001. He has over 300 scientific publications, about 100 of which are in peer-reviewed journals, in addition to numerous research reports. He serves as the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control (IJGGC) and is also on the Board of Editorial Policy Advisors for the Journal of Geomechanics for Energy and Environment (GETE).
Dr. Birkholzer’s scientific emphasis centers on understanding and modeling coupled multi-phase fluid, gas, solute and heat transport in complex subsurface systems such as or fractured rock or heterogeneous sediments. As a scientist in a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Lab, his research is related to evaluating the feasibility and environmental sustainability of subsurface energy applications, particularly the use of deep subsurface formations for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and for the storage of CO2 for geologic carbon sequestration. Using a combination of numerical, theoretical, observational and experimental approaches, he focuses on the complex couplings between thermal-hydrological-mechanical and chemical processes activated by subsurface energy manipulations.