 Alexandra Kushnir | Alexandra Kushnir is a Research and Teaching Associate at EPFL. She uses experimental techniques under in situ pressure and temperature conditions to understand the structure and behaviour of Earth materials. The majority of her research has focused on the evolution of permeability, with particular emphasis on volcanic and geothermal systems. She completed her Ph.D. in 2016 at the Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans (France) and worked as a postdoctoral researcher and research project manager at the Institut Terre & Environnement de Strasbourg (France). She is now the head of the Rock Physics and Geofluids Laboratory at EPFL, whose goal is to understand how rock-fluid interactions modify the permeability of rocks.
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 Chris Marone | Chris Marone has a dual position as a professor at Sapienza University in Rome, as well as a professor at the Penn State Rock Mechanics Lab at Pennsylvania State University. He is an expert on the physics of earthquakes and faulting and the mechanics of frictional sliding, using a combined approach of laboratory experiments, analysis of field data, and numerical studies of faulting and dynamic rupture. The laboratory work is focused on frictional and rheologic properties of brittle materials, and recent numerical work includes machine learning approaches for unraveling fault mechanics. This work is funded by the ERC grant TECTONIC, which is a combined approach between laboratory work and field observations.
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 Alexis Cartwright-Taylor | Alexis Cartwright-Taylor is a geophysicist and experimentalist at Heriot-Watt University. Her research interests include the micro-mechanics of damage localisation and faulting, fluid-rock interactions relevant to the energy transition, the statistical physics of fracture phenomena, and the controls on and predictability of material failure. Specifically, she combines high-resolution, time-resolved (4D) x-ray micro-tomographic imaging of in-situ rock deformation with seismology and statistical physics approaches to better understand the processes behind catastrophic material failure. She finished her Ph.D. in 2015 at University College London and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh. In her new role as assistant professor in the Geoenergy Group at Heriot-Watt, she will focus on understanding and quantifying the micro-physical subsurface processes relevant to achieving Net Zero (i.e. the use of geothermal energy, seasonal storage of H2, long-term storage of CO2), and the associated risks of damage and induced seismicity.
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