By Rahul Thorat as a part of a course on “Communication skills” December 9, 2011

1. What is your profession?

I am currently working as Professor of Geo-Environmental Engineering, faculty of Civil engineering and Geosciences. I am also working as a visiting professor 1.5 month/year, December in Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. I did my gymnasium in Eindhoven and masters in Physical Chemistry, University of Amsterdam, 1971, cum laude. I did my PhD in Physical Chemistry, University of Amsterdam, 1975, Dissertation under Prof. Dr. J. van der Elsken “Elastic Relaxation of a Non-Spherical Impurity; The KI(NO₃⁻) System Under Stress”

2. Are there any teachers who stand out in your mind as encouraging to explore a career in science?

I remember during the school times, we had good teachers. One particular was Bronckenhorst, a mathematics teacher who influenced me further in my studies.. I was also better in physics, chemistry and mathematics during pre-university studies. When I was student assistant in Amsterdam, I was motivated by my supervisor to undertake research. It was natural choice to go further with research studies as I really liked working on my master thesis.

3. How long you have been working in the research ?

I have been working since 1968 as a professional. Since I like physics chemistry and mathematics, it came natural to me to continue in academia. I do things because I like to do it.

4. What are the areas you are currently working on ?

Currently I am working on enhanced recovery methods. It contains several subsections like study of oil recovery, CO₂ sequestration, natural convection and foam propagation through porous media.

5. What is the best part of the work you do-the part that gives you the most satisfaction? Conversely what is the downside of your work?

I like the interaction with students, colleagues. It is pleasure to work on new things. On the downside, I do not like to office work and bureaucracy. I try to avoid as much as possible.

6. Do u have any special moments of achievement that you would like to share ?

Yes, there are few such cases which I would say special moments of achievement. Fundamentals of thermal recovery, cavity modeling of underground coal gasification. I was also a founder of Dietz lab which focuses on research on flows through porous media and measurements in porous media.

7. What kind of research do u prefer? Theoretical or experimental ? why ?

I do not differentiate between theoretical and experimental research. For me, both are complimentary to each other. In some cases it is not possible to carry out experimental observation. In those cases, theoretical approach is the best one. In other cases, your theoretical calculations has to be supplemented by experiments to support the results.

8. What are your career highlights that you would like to mention here ?

Being a Dietz lab founder is a career highlight for me. I also hold honesty and integrity rather than working on some kind of goal in mind. It is romantic felling to work on some scientific thing.

9. Any low points that you would like to share?

Sometimes you do not achieve what you want to achieve. For example, earlier I applied for professorship and did not get selected.

10. What contemporary scientific issues you are most concerned about?

I am currently working on enhanced mass transfer mechanism. Some of the subtopics are natural convection effect, various application of mass transfer such as transfer of CO₂ gas to aquifer, arsenic poisoning of soils, fracturing of oil well, gravity enhanced or solvent enhanced mass transfer. I am following a way in which combined laboratory and modeling results are used.

11. What changes do you see when you started with the research and now ?

I do not see much of a change. Today more people are goal oriented to get the desirable results, which is not always good. Pressure on scientists have increased tremendously. I also do not think that computers have made a large difference in the scientific research. Large scale simulations done by computers are not that useful for my type of research. People put lot of significance on computers but in my opinion, they are just aid and not the means.

12. You have worked abroad. How is that experience different than working in Holland?

My scientific area is very international so I have been working in Holland and abroad with various international people. Off course, working at different places and with people from different backgrounds helps to look at my own research from a universal point of view.

13. You have been working with students and professionals from different nationalities. Tell us about your experiences.

Most of the time I have not come across the difference between nationalities. If you look at a typical scientific career, you would see that a person changes positions and places quiet a lot. So in essence he/she becomes international by character. It happened with me and as well as others with whom I worked.

14. What do you think of the differences in your experience with Dutch students than internationals students ?

I consider the Dutch students are more direct. In sense, they tell you what is in there in their mind. In comparison, internationals students are reluctant to disagree with the prevalent opinion. I also believe that it is more likely that studies like PhD changes attitude towards life.

15. Teaching and research are two parts of your job. Could you tell us which one do you prefer more(if you do) and why ?

I consider teaching and research complimentary to each other. A successful teacher has to keep his knowledge abreast with contemporary happenings in his field. Students need to get introduced to the state of the art technology of the field in order to come up as a suitable candidate to work in industry and academia. There have been lots of advances in my field. For example, heterogeneity modeling. These days I spent my working time divided as 5% to bachelor students, 10% master students and most of the remaining to PhD’s. Besides guidance to PhD’s, I am also doing some of my own research with fellow colleague from Brazil. Students are implicitly or explicitly involved in the research.

16. Did you have any Eureka moments during research? tell us about it.

Yes. In my long scientific career, I had couple of those eureka moments. With one of my collague, I explained mechanism of underground co-gasification(UCG), that was one good breakthrough point ! Considering steam as water with different viscosity, finding one missing steam equation, finding different analytical solution with Dan Marchsein. Also realizing that with current energy techniques, there would be always carbon footprints was one way a Eureka moment.

17. Such a prolific researcher like you, I assume you will continue with your research. Tell us more about continuing your projects.

Mostly I will be continuing on what I have been doing so far. Enhanced transfer, combustion, solvent enhanced oil recovery etc.

18. What do u do in you spare time? You have sure some hobbies..

Reading newspapers, news items on TV, learning Portuguese, going to films, occasionally to plays. Not so much social activities though.

19. Being a prolific researcher should take a toll on your personal life. How do you cope with that?

Well, I have very much scheduled activities so the work does not affect personal life much. In the weekend I spent couple of hours with my PhD students but I do not feel that I have to be all the time close with my family in order to maintain relationships. I strongly believe that you need to give some space to grow as well.

20. If you have been given another shot at the life, what would like to be ? As a researcher, what are the areas do you think you left unstudied.. if time given you would like to study them.

I would like to be still want to be in academia. If not as a university professor, then school teacher of some sort. I would have really liked to work on the some very different energy production.

21. As a well-known scientist in your field , what would be your suggestion to younger generation? What would you say to a student who wanted to shape her or his future with a career in science?

I am very much in favor of an individualistic approach. I feel that students should follow their own way. My task as a supervisor has been mostly to creating opportunities for students to rouse their creativity. I find important for the students to have good background in mathematics, thermodynamics. An Important thing to note that throughout the history, developments have been made by the people from unexpected background. So to have a fresh perspective towards a certain topic is very much important.