Program

Dr. Aravena is a research professor who focuses on the application of isotope techniques in hydrology. 

He has been involved in numerous groundwater studies in Latin America, Canada and the U.S. related to evaluation of groundwater resources and groundwater protection.

Ramon Aravena’s current research focuses on groundwater contamination caused by agricultural and urban activities. He uses environmental isotopes as tracers to provide information about sources and processes that affect contaminants.

During his 20+ years experience, he has been involved in numerous groundwater studies in Latin America, Canada and the U.S.

Mirco Barbero is policy officer in soil protection and sustainable land use; he leads the Soil Team since June 2019 within the Unit Land use and management, Directorate-General Environment, European Commission.

Mirco has a degree in physics and has worked for a dozen years in the private sector as responsible for the quality assurance of products and services. He joined the Commission in 2005 where he worked mainly as team leader in internal audit, advising the management on how to improve performance, governance and risk management in several policy areas.

He and his team have prepared the EU Soil Strategy and the proposal for the EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive, negotiating it with the European Parliament and Council.

Donato Giovannelli is full professor of microbiology at the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy. His current work lays at the interface between microbial ecology and microbial evolution.

He is fundamentally interested in the co-evolution of the biosphere and the geosphere and how life influences planetary-scale processes. His current research focuses on two major themes, integrally linked to each other: 1) the microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning of extreme environments and their role in global biogeochemistry; and 2) reconstructing the emergence and evolution of metabolism. These diverse interests stem from three basic assumptions underlying his research: i) prokaryotes dominated the evolutionary history of our planet; ii) they are responsible for the bio in biogeochemistry both at the ecosystem level and through time; and iii) extremophilic prokaryotes living in extreme environments resembling early Earth analogs, despite being extant organisms, retain a higher number of ancestral metabolic traits. In his research, he integrates classic microbiology techniques with cutting-edge molecular and computational tools to investigate the role of microbes in shaping the environment, their interactions with abiotic factors and the drivers of evolution and adaptation. Therefore, the study of the prokaryotic diversity in geothermal environments potentially holds the key to a better understanding of the functioning of our planet, both in an ecological and evolutionary context. More specifically : i) the microbiology of across volcanic arc hot springs in Costa Rica and Panama subduction zones, looking at the effect of microbiology on arc volcano volatile cycling; ii) the reconstruction of the emergence and evolution of early carbon fixation in deep-branching thermophiles; and iii) the taxonomic and functional diversity of the microorganisms in shallow-water hydrothermal vents.

Jon Lloyd is Professor of Geomicrobiology at the University of Manchester.

A particular focus of his group is the microbiology of the subsurface, and in this context, Lloyd has contributed more than 300 papers addressing the mechanisms and impact of microbial transformations of metals, radionuclides and organics in a range of natural and engineered environments.  He has a particular interest in the use of geomicrobiological systems for bioremediation applications and for the processing of critical metals to support new clean technologies.

Awards for this work include the Geological Society of London Bigsby Medal, the Schlumberger Medal of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland while the UK Science Council has cited him as one of the Top 100 Practicing UK
Scientists. Between 2010-14 he was a Royal Society Industrial Fellow, and from 2015-20 he was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Merit award for his work on
subsurface microbiology.   He is the founding chair of
 the UK Geomicrobiology Network, and was President of the Mineralogical Society in 2021-22, and is a regular organiser of
(and speaker at) national and international meetings on many aspects of environmental science/biotechnology.  He is also a co-founding principal editor of the Geo-Bio Interfaces journal launched in 2023 by the Mineralogical Society and Cambridge University Press.

Daniele L. Pinti is a noble gas isotope geochemist, director of Geotop – one of the largest geoscience-oriented research centers in Canada – and full professor at the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department of the Université du Québec à Montréal.

In 1989, he obtained his MSc degree in Geology at the University of Rome, Italy, working on soil gases at Latera geothermal field, Central Italy. After a brief interval in the industry, he moved in 1991 at Université de Paris VI for a PhD in noble gas geochemistry applied to oil resources. In 1996, he joined the Earth and Planetary Science group at Osaka University, Japan, for a post-doctorate in Archean Geology, developing nitrogen isotopes as isotopic biomarkers with studies in Australia, Greenland, and South Africa. From 1999 to 2004, he was an assistant professor at the Université de Paris SUD, working on K-Ar dating. In 2004, he joined the UQAM, where he built a noble gas laboratory, with activities spanning from groundwater dating to geothermal resources. Since 2014, he is actively working on geothermal resources with projects in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Iceland, La Reunion, Hawaii and Japan. He has authored more than 110 scientific papers.

Andri Stefánsson is a professor of geochemistry at the University of Iceland specializing in aqueous geochemistry, geothermal systems, and volcanic activity.

His research integrates experimental work to simulate hydrothermal fluid compostion, fluid-rock and fluid-fluid interactions and mineral formation processes. Stefánsson extensively uses isotopic analysis to trace geochemical processes, such as metal and volatile element behavoir in hydrothermal fluids, element origins, temperature conditions, and subsurface processes. His reserach contributions have helped understanding geothermal systems‘ sustainability and optimizing energy extraction and carbon sequestrion in geothermal systems – advancing both theoretical and applied aspects of geothermal science.

Dr. Sandra Ó. Snæbjörnsdóttir serves as Chief Scientist at Carbfix in Iceland, specializing in the injection of CO2 for mineral storage.

Sandra is a geologist with expertise in aqueous geochemistry and petrology. Her PhD studies focused on the world’s first injection of CO2 into basalts, carried out by Carbfix in 2012. She has since then worked on further developing this carbon storage method. Sandra has extensive experience overseeing feasibility studies, field site characterization, drilling, and monitoring campaigns related to planned and ongoing CO2 injections. One of her passions is building bridges between industry and academia—moving out of the protected environments of labs and into the field to accelerate the development of CO2 storage sites as a response to the current climate emergency. Carbfix collaborates with numerous prestigious research institutes on both project-specific research and various aspects of the Carbfix technology.

Dr. Ryan Venturelli is an Assistant Professor at Colorado School of Mines in the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering.

Dr. Venturelli’s research program uses radiocarbon-based tools and light stable isotopes to understand cryospheric change and biogeochemical cycling in polar regions.