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OUR TEAM

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The USC leadership and research team is made up of the Director and Center Lead Behnam Jafarpour, Professors Birendra Jha, Yan Liu, Iraj Ershaghi, Donald Paul, and Roger Ghanem, Associate Professors Felipe de Barros and Birendra Jha, and IUCRC Administrator Samantha Danner, together providing academic leadership, strategic direction, and operational support for the Center’s activities.

Behnam Jafarpour

  • Professor (Center Director)
  • Data Science, Optimization

Birendra Jha

  • Associate Professor
  • Multiphysics Simulation

Yan Liu

  • Professor
  • Machine Learning

Iraj Ershaghi

  • Professor
  • Well Testing

Donald Paul

  • Professor
  • Energy Industry Lead

Roger Ghanem

  • Professor
  • Risk & Uncertainty

Felipe de Barros

  • Associate Professor
  • Subsurface Flow

Samantha Danner

  • IUCRC Administrator
  • samantha.danner@usc.edu

The Penn State team is made up of the Site Director Sanjay Srinivasan, Associate Professors Tieyuan Zhu and Eugene Morgan, Professors Parisa Shokouhi, Derek Elsworth, Hannah Wiseman, and Seth Blumsack, and Assistant Professor Anne Menefee, together providing academic leadership and multidisciplinary expertise in support of the Center’s research and outreach activities.

Sanjay Srinivasan

  • Professor (PSU Site Director)
  • Geostatistical Characterization

Tieyuan Zhu

  • Associate Professor
  • Geophysical Monitoring

Anne Menefee

  • Assistant Professor
  • Geochemistry & Rock Minerals

Parisa Shokouhi

  • Professor
  • Lab Geophysics Monitoring

Derek Elsworth

  • Professor
  • Permeability & Injectivity

Hannah Wiseman

  • Professor
  • Energy Law & Regulations

Seth Blumsack

  • Professor
  • Energy Policy & Economics

Eugene Morgan

  • Associate Professor
  • Data Assimilation

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Behnam Jafarpour

Dr. Jafarpour is a Professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering and serves as Principal Investigator and Director of the CO2SMART NSF IUCRC. He leads the Subsurface Energy and Environmental Systems Lab and holds the Energi Simulation Industrial Research Chair in Subsurface Energy Data Science. His research focuses on integrating system theory and machine learning with multiphysics flow and transport modeling for characterization, forecasting, and optimization of subsurface energy and CO₂ storage systems.

Birendra Jha

Dr. Jha is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Civil and Environmental Engineering, with expertise in geoscience and subsurface energy systems. He received his M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University and his S.M. and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT. His research focuses on coupled multiphysics processes in porous media, integrating theory, computation, and machine learning to address energy and environmental challenges.

Yan Liu

Dr. Liu is a Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biomedical Sciences at the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Peking University and her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, and previously worked at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Her research focuses on machine learning and artificial intelligence, including time-series modeling, explainable AI, and efficient algorithms for optimization and sampling.

Iraj Ershaghi

Dr. Ershaghi is the Omar B. Milligan Chair in Petroleum Engineering and a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. He serves as Director of the Petroleum Engineering Program and leads CiSoft and the Ershaghi Center for Energy Transition Research. His research focuses on low-carbon engineering, greenhouse gas monitoring, and advanced modeling of complex reservoirs for energy and smart oilfield applications.

Donald Paul

Dr. Paul is the William M. Keck Professor of Energy Resources and Executive Director of the USC Energy Institute, leading major initiatives in smart oilfield technologies, energy informatics, and cyber-physical systems. He previously spent 33 years at Chevron Corporation, retiring as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from MIT and an honorary doctorate from the Colorado School of Mines.

Roger Ghanem

Dr. Ghanem is the Tryon Chair in Stochastic Methods and Simulation and a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on probabilistic modeling and computational stochastic mechanics for uncertainty quantification in physical and engineered systems. He develops uncertainty-aware modeling frameworks for applications including structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, and dynamical systems control.

Felipe de Barros

Dr. de Barros is an Associate Professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His research focuses on stochastic groundwater hydrology and environmental fluid mechanics, integrating modeling, theory, and data to quantify uncertainty and predict subsurface flow and transport.

Samantha Danner

  • samantha.danner@usc.edu

Samantha Gordon Danner serves as the IUCRC Administrator for the center. Samantha Gordon Danner is a Special Project Manager at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, where she specializes in the preparation and submission of large engineering research proposals. Her work focuses on quantitative research with applications in audiovisual speech and language analysis, volunteer-assisted data collection, and civil data science. Her interests include climate justice, housing and homelessness policy, and research advocacy.

Sanjay Srinivasan

Dr. Srinivasan is the PSU Site Director and the John and Willie Leone Family Chair in Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State University, where he also serves as Director of the EMS Energy Institute. His work focuses on subsurface characterization and scaling of flow and transport processes for geological CO₂ sequestration from pore to field scale. His research emphasizes geostatistical reservoir characterization and improved management of reservoir recovery processes.

Tieyuan Zhu

Dr. Zhu is an Associate Professor whose research focuses on quantitative geophysical imaging of near-surface and critical-zone geological structures. His work spans seismology, fiber-optic seismic sensing, wave physics, and applications in CO₂ sequestration and geothermal exploration. He leads interdisciplinary efforts integrating seismic and GPR methods with advanced wave-physics analysis to address challenges in geohazards and subsurface energy systems.

Anne Menefee

Dr. Menefee is an Assistant Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State University and a co-funded faculty member in the Institutes of Energy and the Environment. Her research focuses on sustainable energy and carbon management, particularly subsurface systems for low-carbon energy production and CO₂ sequestration. She examines geochemical–geomechanical processes and life-cycle impacts of emerging CO₂-enhanced energy recovery technologies.

Parisa Shokouhi

Dr. Shokouhi is an Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State University. Her research focuses on acoustics, wave propagation, and vibrations in fractured and heterogeneous media, with applications in nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring. She integrates experimental methods, signal processing, and machine learning to analyze ultrasonic and acoustic data for material characterization and failure prediction.

Derek Elsworth

Dr. Elsworth is the G. Albert Shoemaker Chair and a Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering and Geosciences at Penn State University. His research focuses on computational rock mechanics and the mechanical and transport behavior of fractured rocks. His work spans applications in geothermal energy, geological CO₂ sequestration, unconventional resources, and volcanic systems.

Hannah Wiseman

Dr. Wiseman is a Professor of Law at Penn State Law and a Wilson Faculty Fellow in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Her scholarship focuses on energy, oil and gas, environmental, and administrative law, with emphasis on regulation and governance of energy and environmental systems. She has published extensively in leading law journals and co-authored foundational works on energy law and environmental governance.

Seth Blumsack

Dr. Blumsack is a Professor in the John and Willie Leone Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State University and serves as Faculty Review Committee Lead for the Institute of Energy and the Environment. His research focuses on electricity and natural gas systems, emphasizing energy infrastructure resilience, regulation, and management of complex networks. His work integrates network science, risk analysis, and policy to address challenges in modern energy infrastructure.

Eugene Morgan

Dr. Morgan’s research focuses on Bayesian inversion methods for extracting information from seismic data, with particular emphasis on seismic attenuation for reservoir characterization. His work integrates stochastic inversion, prior geological knowledge, and uncertainty quantification to improve subsurface property estimation. He also applies statistical methods, big data analytics, and machine learning to well-production data to enhance forecasting and operational decision-making.