Renjie Zhou

I am a hydrogeologist with research interests in subsurface contaminant transport. After finishing undergraduate studies in petroleum geology, I went to Texas A&M University (College Station) and received my Ph.D. degree in geology (hydrogeology) in 2018. 

My research interests lie in groundwater hydrogeology and interdisciplinary topics of geochemistry and sedimentology. In particular, I am interested in: 1) fluid flow and mass transport in subsurface geological formations; 2) geothermal studies and heat transport in the fractured porous media; 3) tracer elements and isotopes transport in the deep-sea carbonate as they grow from aqueous solution. 

In my research, I mainly use quantitative methods (both numerical modeling and analytical modeling) to address the problems. By developing new models or improving existing models, one can simulate and predict the future conditions and conceptualize the internal processes based on the historical and current field/experimental data. Groundwater modeling is critical for water management because we really need to predict the consequences of proposed actions, such as new constructions and contaminant remediation. More than that, people also use models to reconstruct past conditions. In one of my recent projects, the geochemical conditions in the past 50 million years are reconstructed and analyzed with a numerical model. 

My non-academic interests include reading books, watching movies and traveling with my family.