Rate My Professor Stephanie Vialle

Dr. Stephanie Vialle is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, based in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and affiliated with the Centre for Exploration Geophysics. She earned her MSc in Fundamental and Applied Geochemistry from the University of Paris VII in 2002 and her PhD in Experimental Rock Physics from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in 2008. During her doctoral research at IPG Paris, she conducted core flooding experiments on CO2-rich fluid injections into limestones, combining geochemical analyses, imaging techniques such as VP-SEM and X-ray tomography, and measurements of rock properties including permeability, electrical formation factor, and P- and S-wave velocities. Following her PhD, she served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, furthering her expertise in fluid-rock interactions under transport-limited regimes.

Since joining Curtin University in 2014, Vialle has progressed to Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow roles, focusing on experimental and theoretical rock physics, reactive transport, fluid-rock interactions, multi-phase flow modelling, microstructure characterisation, and rock properties upscaling. Her applied research targets CO2 sequestration, CO2 leakage and remediation, underground hydrogen storage, water management, weathering processes, and enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. With over 2,288 citations and 75 publications documented on ResearchGate and Google Scholar, her influential works include 'Impact of reservoir wettability and heterogeneity on CO2-plume migration and trapping capacity' (International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2017, 287 citations), 'Laboratory measurements of elastic properties of carbonate rocks during injection of reactive CO2-saturated water' (Geophysical Research Letters, 2011, 193 citations), 'Effect of wettability heterogeneity and reservoir temperature on CO2 storage efficiency in deep saline aquifers' (International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2018, 178 citations), 'Role of geochemical reactions on caprock integrity during underground hydrogen storage' (Journal of Energy Storage, 2023, 134 citations), and 'Analysis of high-resolution X-ray computed tomography images of Bentheim sandstone under elevated confining pressures' (Geophysical Prospecting, 2016, 91 citations). Vialle's research elucidates how dissolution and precipitation alter rock porosity, elastic moduli, and seismic velocities, informing rock physics models for CO2 sequestration sites like Frio and Cranfield. She supervises PhD students, contributes to industry collaborations, and employs tools such as TOUGHREACT, PHREEQC, and AVIZO for simulations and analyses.