GFZ Friends honours Theresa Hennig and Lei Wang with the Friedrich-Robert-Helmert Prize 2022
The Friedrich Robert Helmert Prize 2022 goes to Theresa Hennig and Lei Wang.
The Association of Friends and Supporters of the GFZ, in short: GFZ Friends, awarded the Friedrich-Robert-Helmert Prize for outstanding dissertations to two prize winners. This is the first time that two persons receive the award in one year: The theses and achievements of Theresa Hennig and Lei Wang convinced the jury equally.
Theresa Hennig received the prize for her doctoral thesis on “Uranium migration in the Opalinus Clay quantified on the host rock scale with reactive transport simulations”. In her work, she investigated the migration of the radionuclide uranium in the Opalinus Clay, a potential host rock for the storage of radioactive waste. The findings provide an orientation for systems with similar geochemistry and could thus support the search for sites for the final disposal of nuclear materials in Germany.
Lei Wang is honored for his doctoral thesis on “Pressure-dependent mechanical and acoustic properties of porous sandstones and laboratory injection-induced fault slip within porous sandstones”. The jury highlighted his rock-mechanics laboratory investigations of induced seismicity, one of the critical show-stoppers to harnessing geothermal energy. Lei Wang’s research offers solutions to better understand and ultimately mitigate man-made (‘induced’) seismicity that can occur during hydraulic stimulation of geological reservoirs.
You can read more information on the GFZ website.
