Joan Wernig and E. Paul Sorensen Professor of Engineering Linda Abriola has been selected as the recipient of the International Society for Porous Media (InterPore) Time Capsule Award 2026. The InterPore Time Capsule Award recognizes pioneers whose scientific achievements, leadership, and dedication have made a lasting impact on the porous media community.
More than a recognition of scientific excellence, the Time Capsule preserves the personal stories, experiences, and insights of distinguished researchers, creating a lasting record of the people who have shaped the field. Through her groundbreaking research, exceptional academic leadership, and longstanding commitment to advancing environmental engineering, Abriola was chosen for her significant contributions to both science and society.
She is an expert on the integration of mathematical modeling and laboratory experiments for studying and predicting the transport and fate of reactive contaminants in the subsurface. Her current research focuses on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), more commonly known as forever chemicals. She is particularly known for her work on the characterization and remediation of groundwater contaminated by chlorinated solvents and was one of the first to develop a mathematical model that describes how these organic chemical pollutants travel within groundwater and contaminate it.
Abriola joined Brown in January 2021, moving from her position as University Professor and Director of Tufts University Institute of the Environment. From 2003 to 2015, she served as the inaugural dean of the Tufts University School of Engineering. Prior to Tufts, she was the Horace Williams King Collegiate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan.
She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Abriola has won numerous awards including the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Project of the Year Award in Remediation and the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Groundwater Prize. She also had an appointment as a U.S. Science Envoy in 2016.
About Interpore
InterPore is an independent scientific organization established in 2008. It aims to advance and disseminate knowledge for the understanding, description, and modeling of natural and industrial porous media systems. Porous media are encountered in many natural and industrial systems, such as soils, aquifers, oil and gas reservoirs, biological tissues and plants, but also fuel cells, concrete, textiles, polymer composites, and in-tissue drug delivery, to name but a few.
Many of these porous systems are extremely complex. The traditional concepts, models, and algorithms developed for porous media in the geosciences are not directly applicable and there is a very strong need for tailored models, and measurement techniques. InterPore acts as a platform for researchers active in modeling flow and transport in such complex porous media. It provides an environment in which researchers in the various industrial and natural systems mentioned above can be made aware of each other’s activities and exchange ideas so that the wheel does not have to be reinvented repeatedly.