RESUME | sophie-roman

Work experiences

2025-2026

Princeton University (USA), Visiting researcher, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Howard A. Stone lab.

From Sept. 2017

Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans (ISTO, France), Associate Professor (HDR) at the University of Orleans, Porous Media Research Group.

Head of the NanoμLab in Orléans– a micronanofluidic facility to investigate coupled processes in porous media and address the societal and environmental challenges of the 21st century.

2013-2017

Stanford University (CA, USA), Energy Resources Engineering Department, post-doctoral fellow (2 years), research scientist (2 years) working with Prof. Anthony Kovscek and Prof. Hamdi Tchelepi.

« Dynamics of multiphase and reactive flows using microfluidic devices representative of subsurface geological environments»

2013

Montpellier 2 University (France), Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, post-doctoral fellow (7 months), working with Dr. Vincent Jourdain and Prof. François Henn.

« Biosensor: confinement of ionic bio-channels inside a carbon nanotube for selective ion transport »

2009-2012

Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse (IMFT, France), PhD student, thesis defended in December 2012 under the supervision of Dr. Sylvie Lorthois and Dr. Frédéric Risso

« Flow of concentrated suspensions of red blood cells in microchannels: experimental study».

2009

Sanofi, Toulouse (France), Scientific Computing & Data Management department, internship (6 months)

« Acquisition, processing and image analysis ».

Education

2025 Habilitation to Supervise Research (senior research qualification), University of Orléans (France).

2009-2012 Ph.D. of National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (France), specialized in Fluid Dynamics.

2006-2009 Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering, Institute of Biosciences of Paris (France).

Teaching & mentoring

Teaching

2017-current

University of Orléans, Universe Science Observatory (OSUC), 192 hours/year.

Undergraduate and graduate level (lectures and practical work): hydrogeology, reactive transport, geochemistry of natural waters, transport laws and fluid mechanics, modeling of groundwater flows, field course in hydrogeology.

2015

Stanford University, School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences.

Lecture in the Flow through Porous Media Laboratory class (ENERGY 120A): experimental fluid mechanics in porous media.

2009-2012

Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse, France), Department of Physical Measurements, 64 hours/year

Undergraduate level (practical works): Electricity, Optics, Solid mechanics.

Supervision of graduate students (MSc, 2 to 6 months internship)

2025: Lia Craske, M2, University of Orléans (FR)

2024: Charles Gagneux, M1, University of Orléans (FR) -

2023: P. Pichard, M1, University of Orléans (FR) -

2023: K. Dézert, M1, University of Orléans (FR) -

2022: W. Okaybi, M2, University of Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (FR) -

2022: U. Moreau, M1, University of Orléans (FR) -

2021: V. Gredicak, M2, Montanuniversität Leoben (AUT) -

2021: N. Bernard, M2, Saint-Étienne School of Mines (FR) -

2020: V. Pluvy, M2, University of Orléans (FR) -

2020: J. Alves, M1, University of Orléans (FR) -

2018: A. Ferrah, M2, University of Lorraine (FR) -

2018: A. Vella, M1, University of Orléans (FR) -

2015: P. Louazel, M1, ENSTA ParisTech (FR) -

Supervision of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows

2024-2025 Florian Cajot, Postdoctoral fellow, supervisor

2024-2027 Pauline Etienne, PhD student, director

2023-2026 Mohamadou Sarr, PhD student, director

2023-2026 Walid Okaybi, PhD student, co-director

2022-2025 Nathan Bernard, Ph.D. student, director

2021-2024 Viktor Gredicak, Ph.D. student, director

2021-2022 Flore Rembert, Postdoctoral fellow, co-supervisor, now Ass. Prof. at University of Orléans.

2020-2022 Khaled Brimo, Postdoctoral fellow, co-supervisor, now engineer at RIFCON GmbH.

2019-2022 Mahdi Mansouri-Boroujeni, Ph.D. student, director, now Posdoctoral fellow at Université Aix Marseille

Awards

2021 ERC starting grant: 1.5 M€ for the project TRACE-it.

2013 Léopold Escande Prize 2013: best thesis in Engineering, National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse.

2012 Best Poster Prize, 37th Annual Meeting of the Biomechanics Society.

2009 Ph.D. excellence scholarship from the French Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche.

Institutional responsibilities & reviewing activities

Responsible of 4 teaching courses (University of Orléans): Hydrogeology (MSc), Modeling of transfers in the unsatured zone (MSc), Quantitative hydrogeology (MSc), Hydrogeology field camp (MSc).

Since 2023: Editorial Board of Interpore Journal.

Since 2025: Editorial Board member, Communications Physics.

Reviewer for proposals: National Science Foundation (NSF), American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR).

Reviewer for peer-reviewed journals: Chemical Engineering Science, Scientific Report, Transport in Porous Media, Fuel, Advances in Water Resources, Sensors, Water Resources Research, Chemical Geology, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Oil & Gas Science and Technology, Lab on a Chip...

Co-convener of a minisymposium at Interpore 2022 and 2023 “Microfluidics and nanofluidics in porous systems”.

Member of the Individual Monitoring Committees for PhD students of the doctoral school EMSTU since 2022 (monitoring of about 20 student per year).

Organization of scientific events

2025: Organizer of the 17th “Journées d’Etudes des Milieux Poreux” (JEMP) in Orléans. Led the organization of a national meeting with 180 attendees and a budget of 80 k€.

2024: Co-organizer of 1st winter school APPRISE on “Fundamentals of transport phenomena in porous media across scale”.

2023-now: Co-organizer of a Blended Intensive Program ERASMUS+ « BIP Digital Environmental Geosciences (WEMP – Water Resources, Energy resources, Mining resources, and Pollution mitigation)».

2022-23-26: Co-convener of a minisymposium at InterPore on “Microfluidics and nanofluidics in porous systems” and “Porous Media for a Green World: Energy & Climate”.

Memberships of scientific societies

2021-now France Interpore Chapter: elected member of the steering committee. Re-elected in 2025, vice-chair.

2025-now Member of the American Physical Society.

2013-now Member of Interpore, International Society for Porous Media.

2014-now Member of AGU, American Geophysical Union.

Research grants

2022-27: ERC Starting grant (PI), “TRACE-it”, 1,5 M€

2022-26: ANR JCJC (PI), “GéoMIME”, 220 k€

2021-24: CNRS Miti 80|PRIME (PI), “INTER-AQ“, 150 k€

2021-23: CNRS Miti Captage, stockage et valorisation du CO2 (PI), “EsCapaDeS”, 36 k€

2020-22: CNRS Miti Changement climatique (co-PI), “CaraMBar”, 25 k€

2020-25: ANR Labex Voltaire (PI), field course for master students, 30 k€

2020-21: ANR Labex Voltaire (co-PI), “Plasma-hydrophile-Géologie”, 25 k€

2020-21: ANR Labex Voltaire (PI), “POP”, 25 k€

2019-22: BRGM (Service Géologique National) PhD grant, 120 k€

2019-2021: PHC Procope (Campus France) joint program France-Germany, 7.4 k€

2019-2020: PHC Alliance (Campus France), joint program France-UK, 3 k€

2018-2023: ANR (Resp. task), “CATCH”, 600 k€

Invited conferences and seminars (selection)

Summer school: "Microfluidics for geosciences to study the interplay between flow, geochemistry, and colloidal transport in porous media", 6th CARGESE school "Flow and transport in porous and fractured media", Cargese (FR), invited speaker.

Workshop: “Diffusiophoresis in geological porous media: dominant or negligible effect?”, Interdisciplinary challenges in non-equilibrium physics, Dresden (DE), invited speaker, 2024.

Conference: “Detecting and targeting mineral dissolution in porous media: a microfluidic study”, AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, invited speaker, 2023.

Conference: “Microfluidics for geosciences to unravel reactive transport processes in porous media”, Journées d'Etude des Milieux Poreux, Rueil-Malmaison (France), keynote speaker, 2023.

Conference: “Pore-scale investigation of wettability alteration: consequences on flow, reaction, and transport in porous media”, AGU Fall Meeting, Chicago, invited speaker, 2022.

GeoScience & GeoEnergy webinar: "Microfluidics for Geosciences: Multiphase and Reactive Transport in Porous Media", August 2021, invited by Prof. Sebastian Geiger and Prof. Hadi Hajibeygi, Online talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlxo2ELAWVc

Webinar: “Multiphase flow and reactive transport in porous media: an experimental microfluidic approach”, PoreLab, Norway, invited, online talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzXMGTEpCOs, 2020.

Conference: “Microfluidics to improve mechanistic understanding of multiphase and reactive flow processes in Earth systems”, AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, invited speaker, 2019.

Conference: “Combination of microfluidic experiments and numerical simulations to study pore-scale multiphase reactive flow”, Microfluidics 2019: from laboratory tools to process development (France), invited speaker, 2019.

Seminar: “Flow of complex fluids in porous media: an experimental microfluidic approach”, Princeton University (USA), Soft Materials Coffee Hour, on invitation of Ass. Prof. S. Datta, 2019.

Seminar: “Experimental study of the flow of red blood cell suspensions in microchannels”, ARTORG Center, University of Bern (Switzerland), on invitation of Prof. D. Obrist, 2014.

Seminar: “Improved visualization of flow mechanisms in micromodels”, Fluid Mechanics Institute of Toulouse (France), talk on invitation of Prof. M. Quintard, 2014.

PhD thesis committees

2024 , Arash Nemati, University Grenoble Alpes, examiner.

2023, Elisa Guiringhelli, Université de Toulouse, examiner.

2022, Ahmad Amin, Université de Tours, examiner.

Member of selection panels

2024, recruitment competition for an associate professor, INP N7 Toulouse

2023, recruitment competition for an associate professor, INP Bordeaux