Research scientist Haruko Wainwright has been selected to lead a new initiative named “Environmental Resilience” within the Energy Geosciences Division. EESA’s environmental resilience efforts will focus on the development and application of science-based methodologies to prepare for, respond to, and recover from environmental disasters that are broadly related to using the Earth’s subsurface for energy production and storage, and to the disposal of energy-related waste. The team’s work is addressing topics that include the Fukushima nuclear accident, environmental contamination from nuclear weapons production, and environmental concerns associated with CO2 storage. The new initiative is part of the Resilient Energy, Water, and Infrastructure program domain led by Peter Nico.
In her new role, Wainwright will be responsible for strategic development, identification, dissemination, and coordination of funding opportunities related to environmental contamination. She will apply experience gained over the past 10 years while participating in projects designed to address environmental contamination issues such as those at the DOE-EM site and in the aftermath of the Fukushima incident. Her expertise includes regional-scale monitoring of areas affected by environmental contamination, subsurface characterization, reactive transport simulations, and uncertainty quantification. Wainwright has also taken an active role in Berkeley Lab’s Watershed Function SFA and Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment(NGEE)-Arctic projects. She is currently a member of IAEA’s technical group for “Modeling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments,” which develops guidance on applying models to assess human exposure and radiological impacts on the environment.