Quick Facts
Biography
Lyesse Laloui is a Chair professor of Soil Mechanics, Geo-engineering and CO2 storage at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne(EPFL). He is the director of the Civil Engineering Section. Laloui is also adjunct full professor at the Pratt School of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA). He was vice-director of the European network ALERT Geomaterials (a network of 27 European universities active in geomechanics) from 2005 to 2011. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment. He is also Associate Editor of Frontiers in Carbon Capture, Storage, and Utilization, which is a section of Frontiers in Energy Research.
Biography
Lyesse Laloui is an Algerian born Swiss scientist. He obtained the Master’s degree in Civil Engineering in 1987 at the ENTP Algiers. He then continued his studies at École centrale Paris with an advanced Master in Soil and Structural Mechanics in 1989, and a PhD degree (Summa cum laude) in 1993. After a post-doc at École centrale Paris, he joined EPFL in 1994 where he is a full professor in civil engineering.
Dr. Lyesse Laloui is chaired professor and Director of the Geomechanics Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL, Lausanne, where he developed a large expertise in the areas of Geomechanics, Geoengineering and CO2 sequestration. He is also Director of the EPFL Civil Engineering Section. He is also adjunct professor at Duke University (USA).
Dr. Lyesse Laloui is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment.
His main research interests are in Geomechanics (Constitutive and numerical modelling of multiphysical coupling processes, laboratory advanced testing), and Environmental and Energy Sustainability (Geomechanics for unconventional energy, CO2 Geological Sequestration). He is currently running projects in the field of unconventional energy for Chevron Energy Technology Co. (USA) as well as Sinopec (China).
Research Areas
Professor Laloui has developed research approaches in several areas in the field of geo-engineering. He has focused on the fundamental study of soils and man-made geo-systems with an emphasis on the mechanics of various interacting multi-scale and multi-physics phenomena. He combines theoretical approaches and experiments, while on the other hand applying the concepts of porous material mechanics to geotechnical engineering. His research activities have produced results in computational geomechanics, environmental geomechanics, and the mechanics of multiphase porous materials.
Awards and honors
Laloui delivered the "12th G.A. Leonards Lecture", Purdue University, 2014.
Laloui received the "2012 Vardoulakis Lecture" from the Department of Civil engineering of the University of Minnesota for significant contributions to the field of geomechanics.
Laloui received the "Excellent Contributions Award 2008" of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) for "excellent contributions in the areas of computational geomechanics, environmental geomechanics and mechanics of multiphase porous materials and their applications for innovative engineering solutions".
Laloui is the organiser of the Geotechnique Symposium in Print 2013 on Bio- and Chemo-Mechanical processes in geotechnical engineering, May 2013.
Laloui is a frequent keynote speaker in international conferences, i.e.: - Theme lecture, Environmental Geotechnics Congress, Melbourne (Australia), November, 2014. - Plenary lecture, GeoShanghai 2014 International Conference, Shanghai (China), May 2014. - Plenary lecture, 6th International Conference on Porous Media, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA), May 2014. - Plenary lecture, 14th International Conference of Int. Association for computer methods and advances in geomechanics (IACMAG), Kyoto (Japan), September 2014. - Keynote lecture, Annual meeting of the Mont Terri Consortium, Saint-Ursanne (Switzerland), February 2014. - "Multiphysical couplings in (geo)materials". keynote lecture, 1st International Workshop on the Finite Element Code LAGAMINE, Liège (Belgium), September 2013. - "Hydromechanical analysis of a volcanic ash slope subjected to wetting and drying cycles". Feature lecture, 3rd International Symposium on Computational Geomechanics, Kraków (Poland), August 2013. - "Hydro-mechanically Coupled Processes in Rainfall-induced Landslide Modelling". Keynote lecture, XVI French-Polish Colloquium of Soil and Rock Mechanics, Montpellier (France), July 2013. - "Geotechnical Analysis of Energy Geo-Structures". Keynote lecture, European Geothermal Congress 2013, Pisa (Italy), June 2013. - "Geotechnical Analysis of Energy Geo-Structures". General report, International Symposium CPEG 2013 Coupled Phenomena in Environmental Geotechnics, Torino (Italy), July 2013. - "Coupled analytical and numerical solutions of CO2 injection induced surface uplift and caprock deflection". Keynote lecture, 3rd Sino-German Conference on Underground storage of CO2 and Energy, Goslar (Germany), May 2013. - "Advances in the analysis of thermo-active foundations and underground structures". Keynote lecture, International Workshop on Thermo-active Geotechnical Systems for Near-Surface Geothermal Energy, Lausanne (Switzerland), March 2013. – "Multiphysical Coupled Processes in Underground Nuclear Waste Disposal Problems". Plenary lecture, Computational Methods for Coupled Problems in Science and Engineering IV, Kos (Greece), June 2011. – "Geotechnical design of energy piles". Feature lecture, 2nd International Symposium on Computational Geomechanics, Cavtat-Dubrovnik (Croatia), April 2011. – "Mechanics of unsaturated soils: concepts and applications" Plenary lecture, 3rd International Euro-Mediterranean Symposium on Advances in Geomaterials and Structures, AGS’10, Djerba (Tunisia), May 2010. – "Enhanced viscoplastic modeling of soft soils" Keynote lecture at the 2nd International Workshop on Geotechnics of Soft Soils – Focus On Ground Improvement, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (UK), September 2008.
Publications
Professor Laloui has over 250 publications including 136 papers listed in ISI Science Citation Index with an h-index factor of 19. He is a book series editor for Wiley-Iste and member of the editorial board of six international journals.
Books
- Mécanique des sols et des roches. Vulliet L., Laloui L., J. Zhao, Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes. In press.
- Mechanics of Unsaturated Geomaterials. Editor L. Laloui. Wiley-ISTE, 380 pages, 2010., The book constituted by 15 chapters. L. Laloui co-authored 4 chapters.
Edited Books
- Energy Geostructures: Innovation in Underground Engineering. L. Laloui, A. Di Donna (Editors). Wiley-ISTE, 250 pages, ISTE Ltd. and John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, ISBN 9781848215726.
- Mechanics of Unsaturated Geomaterials. L. Laloui (Editor). Wiley-ISTE, 380 pages, 2010. ISTE Ltd. and John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, ISBN 9781848212664.
- Multiphysical Testing of Soils and Shales. L. Laloui and A. Ferrari (Editors). Springer, ISBN 978-3-642-32491-8, Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering, 2012.
- Computer applications in geotechnical engineering. Editors: Siegel TC, R. Luna, T. Hueckel, L. Laloui. ASCE Geotechnical special publication N°157, 2007.
- Environmental Geomechanics. Editors: L. Vulliet, L. Laloui & B. Schrefler, EPFL Press. 423 pages ; ISBN 2-88074-515-2. 2002.
- Tests de réponse géothermique/Geothermische response tests. Editors : W.J. Eugster & L. Laloui. Proceddings of the European Workshop on Geothermal Test Responses. Lausanne – 25 & 26 octobre 2001, 130 pages. Publisher GTV; ISBN 3-932570-43-X. 2002.