LEMR celebrates its first year
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One year ago, Prof. Marie Violay arrived to EPFL to launch the Laboratory of Experimental Rock Mechanics (LEMR). Since then, the lab has growth, increasing the number of members, organizing talks, congress sessions, earning funds from both the private and public sector, and publishing in some of the most important journals in the Geoscience field.
During the first year, Chiara Cornelio (Italy), Mateo Acosta (Ecuador), and Felipe Orellana (Chile) joined the lab as the first PhD students. All of them are currently working on topics related to fault friction and geothermal energy.
The LEMR has attended several meetings and workshops such as EGU 2016, the Theo Murphy meeting in London (2016), and the last Swiss Geoscience Meeting in Basel. During those sessions the ongoing research of the lab has been presented and the doctoral students have had the opportunity to discuss their results with other researchers from the community.
Prof. Marie Violay and Dr. Sandrone have taught the course Rock Mechanics and Tunnel Engineering to Bachelor Civil engineers students at EPFL. At the master level, the course Underground Technology has just finished and during the next year, a new course “Geophysics for Engineers” will be offer to the Master students of EPFL.
The lab is actively part of the geoscience network. During the first year, the lab hosted outstanding researchers including Prof. Schubnel (ENS Paris), Dr. Mitchell (UCL), Dr. Passelegue (Manchester) and Dr. Vinciguerra (Leicester). Prof. Violay participated of doctoral commissions at ETH, Université d'Orleans, and EPFL.
Important collaboration is also taken part in the framework of the doctoral thesis including teamwork with Prof. Schubnel (ENS Paris), Prof. Colletini (La Sapienza), Prof. Di Toro (Manchester), Prof. Molinari (EPFL), Dr. Nussbaum (SWISSTOPO), Dr. Scuderi (INGV), and Dr. Espagnolo (INGV).
Laurent Gastaldo, Benjamin Frey, Laurent Morier and Dr. Federica Sandrone enriched the technical team of the lab. They are a key part of the success of the relationship of the LEMR with the local and international industry, providing services in the field of rock mechanics to important projects such as the Gottardo Tunnel, recently opened. Rosana Turielle and Michela Lotrecchiano have played a fundamental role on the administration of the lab, helping to the members to overcome the aspects of the always difficult management process.
Now, the lab is focusing in two main projects: HIGHSTEPS and TARGET, both novel apparatus designed for a better understanding of the insitu conditions of geothermal reservoirs and earthquakes mechanics. We also expect more members to join us in the next future.
We welcome this second year with enthusiasm and joy. The lab and its team is ready for new challenges, for bringing new knowledge to the community, and for providing to the new generation of civil engineers of Switzerland, quality knowledge in Rock Mechanics.