Sep 2022
Living organisms have played a crucial role in the evolution of our planet. Life emerged about 3.8 billion years ago. Fueled by solar energy, cyanobacteria converted the atmosphere from reducing to oxidizing, and changed the mineral composition of the earth; eventually, photosynthesis stored solar energy into the organic matter that became coal, petroleum and gas. With up to 1012 microorganisms per kilogram of soil, the earth’s subsurface is a rich ecosystem with great microbial diversity. Microorganisms control the rates of geochemical reactions, can generate gas or trigger mineral precipitation/dissolution, and biomass may selectively clog pore networks. Furthermore, natural selection through the long sequence of trial-&-error cycles has resulted in time-tested, economical and elegant solutions found all around us in our biological world, from ants, roots and bird nests to our lungs, kidneys, bones and hearts! We have engineered our habitat within an abiotic framework, almost oblivious to natural evolution. However, the increased realization of limiting factors within self-regulating earth conditions and the need for sustainable development prompt us to reconsider our ways and explore the great potential of bio-mediated and bio-inspired processes.
J. Carlos Santamarina (Professor - KAUST) graduated from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and completed graduate studies at the Universities of Maryland and Purdue. He taught at NYU-Polytechnic, the University of Waterloo and at Georgia Tech before joining KAUST in 2015. His research centers on the properties of geomaterials and subsurface coupled processes, with contributions from resource recovery to energy/waste geostorage. He delivered the 50th Terzaghi Lecture on Energy Geotechnology, was a British Geotechnical Association Touring Lecturer, is member of both Argentinean National Academies, and a recipient of the Korean Geotechnical Society Award and Saudi Arabia’s Tarek al-Qasabi Award. Former team members are professors at more than forty universities, researchers at national laboratories, and practicing engineers at leading organizations worldwide.