Prof. Derek Elsworth

Professor of Energy and Geo-Environmental Engineering, 
Department of Mineral Engineering, 
Pennsylvania State University

 

Derek Elsworth is a professor in the Departments of Energy and Mineral Engineering and of Geosciences and the Centre for Geomechanics, Geofluids, and Geohazards. His interests are in the areas of computational mechanics, rock mechanics, and in the mechanical and transport characteristics of fractured rocks, with application to geothermal energy, the deep geological sequestration of radioactive wastes and of CO2, unconventional hydrocarbons including coal-gas, tight-gas-shales and hydrates, and instability and eruption dynamics of volcanoes. He has served DOE as an expert elicitor for near-field and altered zone processes at Yucca Mountain (1997-1998), and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board on the consequences of igneous intrusion at Yucca Mountain (2001-2003). He is the 1987 recipient of the Manuel Rocha Medal of the International Society for Rock Mechanics.