Biography

I grew up in Kallax, a small village outside my hometown Luleå in northern Sweden, some 200 km below the Arctic Circle. I went to the Luleå University of Technology where I completed my Masters and Technical Licentiate degrees in Civil Engineering and Rock Mechanics under the supervision of Prof. Ove Stephansson. In 1991, I moved with Prof. Stephansson and a few other Ph.D. students to the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm to start the new Division of Engineering Geology. During my Ph.D. studies, worked with coupled processes modeling of fractured rock masses funded by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, and had the opportunity to spend some of this time at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California. After receiving my Ph.D. at the Royal Institute of Technology in 1995, I returned to the LBNL’s Earth Sciences Division for a Post-doc to work with Chin-Fu Tsang and Jahan Noorishad on coupled processes modeling. I am still at the LBNL, became a Geological Scientist in 1998, was promoted to a Staff Scientist in 2004, and a Senior Scientist in 2016 . I am also the current Head of the Hydrogeology Department in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area.

My research is currently focused on modeling of coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes in geological media. I enjoy to develop and apply coupled modeling to a wide range of geoscientific and geoengineering applications, including geological sequestration of CO₂, enhanced geothermal systems, gas hydrate bearing sediments, geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel, underground compressed air energy storage, and shale gas extraction. I really enjoy using coupled modeling for interpretation of field data to try to build a conceptual understanding and to explain the underlying coupled processes in complex geological systems.