Alex Sun

Alex  Sun
Senior Research Scientist, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences

Email: alex.sun@beg.utexas.edu
Work: +1 512 475 6190
Office: BEG
Mailcode: E0610

My main research areas are in (a) modeling surface and subsurface fluid flow and mass transport processes, (b) water resources management, and (c) web-based decision support systems. In particular, I am interested in addressing the following research questions: how to maximize the use of information for developing better parametric and nonparametric models, how to leverage scientific research for sustainable water resources management, how to support environmental decision making under knowledge gap and linguistic uncertainty.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to work on a number of projects related to high-level radioactive waste repository, geologic carbon sequestration, and nonpoint source pollution, all of which require significant uncertainty analyses. I am proficient in geostatistical modeling, inverse modeling and optimization algorithms, theoretical and numerical modeling techniques, database-driven application development, and scientific visualization.

Areas of Expertise

Subjects: Carbon sequestration, hydrological modeling, computational geoscience, fracture/fault modeling Skill sets: Geostatistical modeling, inversion and optimization algorithms, numerical modeling, web-based decision support systems Programming: Matlab, Python, Fortran, C, ArcGIS


Research Locations



Current Research Programs & Projects

EPA STAR CO2 Monitoring


Select Past Research

NASA: A collaborative geospatial decision support system for managing coastal river basins

Associate Editor, Water Resources Research, (2016 - Present)

Editorial Board, Advances in Water Resources, (2015 - Present)

Postdocs

Akland Islam, 2013 - 2016, Jackson School of Geosciences


Inversion of pressure anomaly data for CO2 leakage detection at geologic carbon sequestration sites, AGU, San Francisco, CA (2012)

Development of a Collaborative Decision Support System for Manaing TMDLs, LBJ School of Public Affairs, Austin, TX (2011)

Estimating regional groundwater model parameters using GRACE and in situ observations, AGU, San Francisco, CA (2010)

A collaborative geospatial decision support system for managing coastal river basin water quality, Hydrologic Science Conference, San Diego, CA (2010)

Uncertainty quantification and parameter estimation in hydrogeology, UTSA Department of Geosciences, Spring Environmental Seminar Series, San Antonio, TX (2010)

Development of an ensemble Kalman filter and its application in geoscience applications:, Texas A&M Kingsville Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Fall Seminar Series, Kingsville, TX (2009)

Texas Groundwater Quality Report Card
This app shows water quality information for all TX wells. Information is extracted from Texas Water Development Board groundwater database.