EVEN Prof.聽Harihar Rajaram Named for the College Research Award
EVEN Prof. Harijar Rajaram received CU Boulder College of Engineering 2016 Research Award.
Hari Rajaram鈥檚 research focuses on coupled multi-physics problems and reactive transport in the subsurface. The importance of this research area cannot be overstated. The subsurface is the source of over 80% of the world鈥檚 energy supply, a large fraction of its water supply, the historic and projected repository for a significant fraction of hazardous wastes, including radionuclides and emerging wastes such as CO2, and an active component in shaping the land surface. Over his career, Hari has made significant contributions to understanding complex subsurface processes in both engineered and natural systems, to enable estimation of risks associated with engineering activities such as hydraulic fracturing for enhanced oil and gas recovery, nuclear waste emplacement; and natural phenomena such as karst and cave formation that serve as natural analogs for perturbed engineering systems. He is the author of 80 publications in highly regarded scientific and engineering journals. In recent years, he has also extended his research focus to glaciers and ice sheet response to climate warming. Two of his papers on thermodynamic mechanisms in ice sheets have been cited in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2013 Fifth Assessment Report.
Hari鈥檚 research has attracted great interest from external sponsors; in addition to numerous individual research grants from agencies such as NSF and DOE, Hari has been an active participant in major interdisciplinary grants: Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory ($4.9 M), Sustainability for Natural Gas Development ($12 M), and Risk Landscape of Earthquakes Induced by Deep Wastewater Injection ($2.63 M). Hari鈥檚 research is characterized by a focus on fundamental fluid physics coupled to other subsurface processes, and mathematical/computational methods needed to integrate coupled processes into models. Hari鈥檚 research has contributed to improved understanding of diverse phenomena such as dissolution of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in fractures, karst and cave formation over geological time scales, glacier and ice sheet response to a warming climate, acid mine drainage generation, and permeability evolution in geothermal energy systems.