Pania Newell is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah. She has been working in the field of computational mechanics with emphasize on understanding coupled multi-physics, multi-scale problems in porous media as well as fracture initiation and propagation in these complex systems. Prior to joining the University of Utah, she was at Sandia National Laboratories, where she worked on computational modelling of subsurface carbon storage and computational homogenization techniques to link material behaviours at multiple length scales. At Sandia, she developed a computational framework for investigating caprock integrity within subsurface systems. In addition, she worked on constitutive modelling of various materials including geomaterials.
Anastasia G. Ilgen is a staff scientist in the Geochemistry Department at Sandia National Laboratories. She is an experimental geochemist, specializing in molecular-level processes at mineral-water interfaces, with emphasis on ion adsorption-desorption rate and mechanisms, chemical controls on mineral growth and dissolution, and surface-mediated redox reactions. At Sandia National Laboratories she has built research programs relevant to the geological carbon storage, chemical-mechanical effects in geosystems, and fundamental research on clay mineral-water interfacial chemistry.