People
Faculty
Bo Guo, Ph.D.
Bo is a University Distinguished Scholar and associate professor in Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, with an affiliation in Applied Math. Before joining the U of A, he was a postdoc in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University working with Prof. Hamdi Tchelepi. Bo received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Princeton University in 2016 working with Prof. Michael Celia, and BS (with highest honor) in Hydraulic Engineering from Tsinghua University in China in 2011. See Curriculum Vitae.
Research scientist
Jicai Zeng, Ph.D.
Jicai is a research scientist in our group, after being a postdoctoral research associate for a few years. He received his BS and PhD degrees both from Wuhan Univeristy. Jicai specializes in numerical modeling of flow and transport in porous media with applications to hydrology and enviromental problems in the subsurface. His current research focuses on field-scale numerical modeling of PFAS fate and transport in soil and groundwater.
Graduate Students
Wenqian Zhang
Wenqian joined our group as a PhD student in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences in August 2021. He received his BS and MS degrees both in Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics from Chongqing University. His research interest lies in microscale multicomponent transport and interfacial phenomena in porous media.
Jianwen Du
Jianwen joined our group as a PhD student in August 2022. She received her BS in Groundwater Science and Engineering from Chang'an University and MS in Hydrology and Water Resources from Nanjing University. Jianwen is interested in critical zone science, hydro-bio-geochemistry, reactive transport modeling, and deep learning methods. Her current research focuses on modeling the hydro-bio-geochemical processes during chemical weathering.
Min Ma
Min joined our group as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences in August 2023. She received her BS in Hydrology and Water Resources from University of Jinan, followed by a MS in the same field from Shandong University. Min is interested in the mathematical modeling of transport and partitioning of contaminants (especially for PFAS) in porous media.
Shujie Guo
Shujie joined our group as a PhD student in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences in August 2024. She received her BS and MS degrees from the School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering at Wuhan University. Her research focuses on pore-scale modeling and microfluidic experiments to investigate multiphase flow and contaminant transport in porous media, with particular interests in interfacial processes and PFAS transport.
Jack Flanigan
Jack completed his MS degree and began his PhD in 2026. His research includes contaminant transport and environmental exposure assessments, with his current work focusing on modeling PFAS transfer from agricultural soils into crops and then to human dietary exposure.
Andrew Arnold
Andrew is a PhD student in the Applied Mathematics Program. He is primarily interested in how the principles of mathematical physics can be used to enhance modern data-driven modeling. He is also keenly interested in uncertainty quantification and validation of models. His work concerns the development of surrogate models for hydrogeochemical processess in landscape-scale systems evolution.
Chloe Codner
Chloe joined the group in August 2026. She received a B.S. in Geology from the University of Oklahoma and worked at the U.S. Geological Survey as a Hydrologist for 2.5 years before joining the M.S. Hydrogeology program at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include leveraging an understanding of groundwater flow and transport to investigate the extent of PFAS contamination and related public health effects.
Undergraduate Students
Lex Rowell
Lex joined our group as a junior undergraduate in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences in 2026. He has an interest in water resource sustainability and groundwater management in Arizona.
Alumni
Hassan Saleem
Hassan was a PhD student in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences (2019-2024), co-advised by Prof. Hoshin Gupta. His research focused on computational modeling of contaminant transport in soil and groundwater. Hassan is now a faculty member at King Abdulaziz University.
Xenia Gracia
Xenia De Gracia was a member of our group from 2022 to 2024. She is currently a PhD student in Environmental Science at the University of Arizona. She holds an MSc in Hydrology from the University of Arizona and degrees in Environmental Engineering and Geological Engineering from the Technological University of Panama. Her research interests include the reactive transport of metal(loid)s through mine tailings and their movement into soil and groundwater.
Xin Wang
Xin was a visiting PhD student in our group (2023-2024) from Chongqing University, where she was co-advised by Prof. Chao-Zhong Qin. Her research focused on the physics of two-phase flow in porous media from pore scale to Darcy scale. She returned to Chongqing University in 2024.
Jake Smith
Jake was a Master of Science student in our group (2022-2024). He received his BS in Hydrology at the University of Arizona in May 2022. His research focused on analytical and numerical modeling of PFAS leaching in the subsurface. Jake now works at Haley & Aldrich.
Ryan Russell
Ryan was a Master of Science student in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences (2022-2024). He received a BS in Environmental Geology with a subtrack in Hydrogeology from the University of Kansas and worked as a hydrogeologist before joining the group. His research focused on numerical modeling of the fate and transport of contaminants, especially PFAS. Ryan now works at Geosyntec Consultants.
Sidian Chen
Sidian was a PhD student in our group (2018-2023). The title of his PhD dissertation was "Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Multiphase Flow, Transport, and Phase Change in Porous Media: Pore-Level Physics, Network Modeling and Upscaling." Sidian is now a postdoc at Stanford University working with Prof. Hamdi Tchelepi.
Matt Bigler
Matt was a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Science (2018-2023), co-advised by Prof. Mark Brusseau. He PhD work focused on using column and core experiments to investigate air-water interfacial area and PFAS transport in soils. Matt is now with Geosyntec Consultants.
Mica Jarocki
Mica was a Master of Science student in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences (2021-2023), co-advised by Prof. Ty Ferre. Her research focused on using machine learning methods to present water fluxes in the vadose zone based on other readily available measurements including soil moisture and water pressure. Mica now works at Jacobs Engineering.
Alyssa Burritt
Alyssa was a master's student of the Applied Mathematics Program (2020-2021). She received a Master of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and is now a staff research scientist at PING.
Li Zhang
Li was a visiting PhD student in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences (2018-2020). She completed her PhD in the State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry in Guangzhou, China. Her PhD research focused on understanding and quantifying the pore structures and flow and transport processes in unconventional shale formations using both high-resolution imaging and pore-scale modeling approaches.
