Main Research Team
The Energi Simulation Research Chair at UFPE is led by a multidisciplinary team of professors and researchers with expertise in geomechanics, reservoir engineering, geology, and numerical modeling. Together, they are dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge and developing innovative solutions for underground storage and reservoir management, supporting Brazil’s energy transition and global decarbonization efforts.
Equipe
Chairholder
Prof. Dr. Leonardo Guimarães
Chairholder – Energi Simulation Research Chair at UFPE
Full Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at UFPE, Dr. Guimarães is a leading expert in Computational Geomechanics and Reservoir Simulation. He coordinates the Laboratory of Computational Methods in Geomechanics and leads strategic research projects in partnership with Petrobras, Braskem, and Embrapii. He is a Level 1C researcher at CNPq and also heads the Embrapii Unit at LITPEG, focusing on reservoir modeling, optimization, and energy transition technologies.
Collaborators
Prof. Dr. Bernardo Horowitz
Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at UFPE. He holds a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), with extensive experience in numerical methods and optimization applied to engineering. He works in structural and reservoir simulation and collaborates on research involving hydro-mechanical coupling models.
Prof. Dr. Carla Joana Barreto
Assistant Professor at the Department of Geology at UFPE. She holds a Ph.D. in Geosciences from UFRGS and specializes in volcanology, geochemistry, and stratigraphy. Her research focuses on igneous rocks, particularly their role in geological carbon storage, with an emphasis on basalt reactivity and COâ‚‚ mineralization processes.
Prof. Dr. José Antonio Barbosa
Associate Professor at the Department of Geology at UFPE. He holds a Ph.D. in Geosciences from UFPE and works on the characterization of sedimentary basins, petroleum systems, and porous media analysis. He contributes to geological modeling and reservoir evaluation studies, particularly for COâ‚‚ storage initiatives.
Prof. Dr. Leonardo Oliveira
Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at UFPE. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from UFPE and specializes in numerical simulation and reservoir optimization. His research focuses on coupled modeling and the integration of geomechanical constraints into reservoir management, especially in pre-salt fields.
Prof. Dr. Paulo Lyra
Full Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UFPE. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil and Computational Engineering from the University of Wales, with postdoctoral fellowships at MIT and NASA Langley. A leading researcher in Computational Fluid Dynamics, he contributes to high-performance modeling and multiphysics simulation of reservoirs and subsurface systems.