About Pūhiko Nukutū

Pūhiko Nukutū is a research programme funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Endeavour Fund. It brings together more than 30 local and international experts from the University of Canterbury, University of Auckland, GNS Science, Mahi Maioro Professionals, Curtain University, GTK Finland, University of Leoben, University of Otago, CSIRO and the National Oceanographic Centre.

Our Team

Our transdisciplinary team has expertise in geological, geophysical and biogeochemical characterisation, subsurface monitoring, mātauranga Māori, hazard mitigation, reservoirs and systems engineering.

Please hover over each team member below to find out more about them.

Photo of Pūhiko Nukutū members at the 2nd annual all project meeting at the University of Auckland

Programme Co-leaders

Andy Nicol

Prof Andy Nicol is a structural geologist with over 30 years experience at GNS Science and universities including his present position at the University of Canterbury. His research has included work on faults and their impact on fluid migration and induced seismicity. Andy has also contributed to numerous CO2 storage site assessment and risk analysis projects, primarily in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia.

Ludmila Adam

Dr Ludmila (Mila) Adam is an Associate Professor at the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. She leads the geophysical, geomechanical and rock properties characterisation on the hydrogen geostorage project, from the laboratory (e.g. whole rock-fluid reaction tests) to field geophysics.

Kēpa Morgan

Dr Kēpa Morgan DFEngNZ is Pou Hautū (Managing Director) for Mahi Maioro Professionals Ltd and leads the mauri-based assessment and modelling activities for the Pūhiko Nukutū project. Kēpa’s team combine mātauranga Māori (Traditional Ecological Knowledge), science and engineering technologies to evaluate ecosystem impacts using the mauri0meter. Their focus is the creation of monitoring systems for communicating changes in the mauri (life supporting capacity) of freshwater bodies, and the holistic assessment of impacts on mauri and mauriora (well-being) resulting from municipal infrastructure

David Dempsey

Dr David Dempsey is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He leads the reservoir engineering activities on the hydrogen geostorage project, including predicting the performance of different storage sites and investigating leakage risks.

Geology

Dominic Strogen

Dr Dominic Strogen is a senior scientist in the Geological Mapping and Stratigraphy team at GNS Science, with research interests in sedimentology, paleogeography, basin analysis, seismic interpretation, New Zealand stratigraphy, groundwater and geological mapping. He is involved in the site selection and geological characterisation tasks within the hydrogen geostorage programme.

Edward Yates

Edward Yates is a PhD candidate in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Canterbury. His research is focussed on the seal integrity of potential reservoirs, particularly imaging faults, fractures and other permeable networks and investigating possible leakage pathways.

Matt Parker

Matt Parker is a Research Associate in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Canterbury. He develops 3D geological models of prospective hydrogen geostorage sites by integrating petroleum well datasets and seismic reflection interpretation.

Karen Higgs

Dr Karen Higgs is a sedimentologist / reservoir geologist with over 30 years of research and industry experience in the energy sector. She specialises in reservoir diagenesis and integrated reservoir characterisation of clastic depositional systems. Karen has also been involved with numerous CO2 storage research projects in New Zealand and Australia.

Dale Cusack

Dr. Dale Cusack is a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Canterbury. His research is focused on rheology and fluid flow with a special interest in the sealing properties of cataclasites on fault surfaces.

Caverns

Alan Bischoff

Dr Alan Bischoff is a Senior Energy Geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Finland. His research is centered on definition of H2 geostorage plays in sedimentary sequences and constructed caves.

Arsham Moayedi Far

Arsham is a PhD student at Montanuniversitat Leoben in the chair of subsurface engineering. His research interests are Hydrogen storage, Rock Mechanics\Engineering and the application of AI and ML in geomechanics.

Marlene Villeneuve

Dr. Marlene Villeneuve is an Associate Professor at the Montanuniversität Leoben, in Austria. She leads the cavern storage activities, linking research into excavation, support and performance of underground excavations when used to store gas.

Mātauranga

Olly McMillan

Dr Olly McMillan (Ngati Porou) is a Kairangahau at Mahi Maioro Professionals. His background is in environmental engineering, contaminated land, and mauri-based impact assessments. His research involves assessment of changes to mauri under different future pathways for Green Hydrogen in Aotearoa.

Robyn Manuel

Dr Robyn Manuel is Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kahu with a background in Chemistry, Epidemiology and Hauora Māori. She is the Pou Rangahau Pūtaiao at Mahi Maioro Professionals and contributes to mauri based assessments relating to the belonging and acceptance of hydrogen storage within Papatuānuku.

Te-Rina King-Hudson

Te-Rina King-Hudson is Ngāti Pikiao and Te Whakatōhea with a background in Biochemistry, Biomedical Science, and Hauora Māori. They are a Kaupapa Mauri Hunga Rangahau at Mahi Maioro Professionals and contribute to mauri based assessments relating to the belonging and acceptance of hydrogen storage within Papatuānuku.

Geophysics and rock physics

Joel Sarout

Dr Joel Sarout is a principal research scientist at CSIRO, an adjunct A/prof at Curtin University, and the science advisor for CSIRO’s Geomechanics & Geophysics Laboratory. He is associate editor for the AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, and ASTM’s Geotechnical Testing Journal. His expertise lies in rock physics, geomechanics and geophysics, applied to the hydrogen geostorage project.

Lionel Esteban

Dr Lionel Esteban is principal petrophysicist at CSIRO (Perth, Western Australia) and lead the rock properties team and the petrophysics laboratories. His current research focuses on rock physical properties, fluids dynamics and fluid-rock interactions in a wide range of rock types for CCUS and Energy storage including hydrogen; and natural Hydrogen exploration and generation.

Patrick Hollands

Patrick Hollands is a PhD candidate in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. His research is focussed on the use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) in the field of seismology, and within the Pūhiko Nukutū project, on the monitoring of potential hydrogen geostorage reservoirs with DAS.

Kasper van Wijk

Kasper van Wijk is an Associate Professor in the Physics Department and Director of the Physical Acoustics Laboratory at the University of Auckland. His research interests center around elastic-wave propagation in disordered media, with applications ranging from rock physics, medical imaging to global seismology. A recent interest is the use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) for seismic monitoring of subsurface H2, CO2 and volcanoes.

Runhua Feng

Runhua Feng is a research fellow at University of Auckland, a visiting scientist at CSIRO Energy. His research interests are geomechanics and geophysics, specifically on characterization of the geomechanical, geophysical and geochemical properties of sedimentary rock subjected to the coupled fluid (hydrogen, CO2 , brine) and stress interaction.

Ismael Falcon-Suarez

Ismael is an experimental geoscientist with wide-ranging experience in hydromechanical and

geophysical techniques, which he uses to study lab-scale rock-liquid-gas interactions. He leads the rock physics H2 and CO2 storage research in the NOC, Southampton.

Modelling

Jinjiang Liu

Jinjiang Liu is a PhD candidate at the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He uses numerical models to understand the risks of aquifer incursion, gas mixing, and storage performance.

Mohab Abdekkatif

Mohab Abdellatif is a PhD candidate and Research Associate at Montanuniversität Leoben. He is specialized in reactive transport modeling and simulation of underground hydrogen storage systems. With a focus on examining factors that influence the performance of geostorage facilities.

Qiuhao Chang

I am currently serving as a postdoc at the University of Canterbury. My research interests include micro-scale fluid-behaviour simulations such as fluid-fluid interfacial tension, confined fluid diffusion in nanopore space, and macro-scale numerical reservoir simulations for UHS.

Riaz Hossain Khan

Riaz Hossain Khan is a PhD candidate at the University of Canterbury.

Geochemistry and geomicrobiological reactions

Kelsey McKenzie

Kelsey McKenzie is a PhD candidate in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury. Her research is focused on understanding the microbial communities found in reservoirs and how these communities may interact with stored hydrogen.

Matthew Stott

Prof. Matthew Stott is a lecturer in microbiology at the University of Canterbury. He specialised in geomicrobiological interactions, microbial ecology and the description and isolation of extremophilic microorganisms.

Carlo Carere

Carlo is a senior lecturer within the department of chemical and process engineering. His research is focused on applying an understanding of microbiology to a range of biotechnologies that address goals relating to global issues, such as public health, food production, water security, energy independence and environmental sustainability. Carlo is particularly interested in the ecological function of hydrogen consuming bacteria and their role in underground hydrogen storage.

Mike Rowe

Vladimir Golovko

Domenik Wolff-Boenisch

Domenik Wolff-Boenisch is an aqueous geochemist with 30+ years of postgrad experience in industry and academia. He is A/Prof in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Curtin. There, he has been teaching hydrogeology/ hydrogeochemistry and environmental geosciences for over a decade. His research lies in understanding the redox and acid-base geochemistry of water-rock interactions, with a focus on underground carbon and hydrogen storage.

Ziru Zhao

Ziru Zhao is a PhD candidate at the University of Canterbury.

Arash Vosoughi Moradi

I’m a geochemist with a PhD in conventional energy resources. I am currently working as a postdoc researcher towards a second PhD at Curtin University, Australia, where I’m focusing on unconventional energy resources like hydrogen. My background is in petroleum and sedimentary geochemistry, and I’ve been fortunate to contribute to our understanding of the processes in sedimentary rocks through my research and publications. At the moment, I’m studying the geochemical aspects of underground hydrogen storage and its potential role in our energy future.

Economics

Rebecca Peer

Dr Rebecca Peer is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the University of Canterbury. She leads the energy system modelling on the geostorage project, including the techno-economic assessment of storage options and the system integration of these options in New Zealand’s future energy system.

Vincente Sepúlveda

Our Partners