PhD and Postdoc opportunities

• PhD on uranium in situ recovery in fractured sandstones

• Chemo-mechanical coupling in the context of radioactive waste disposal. A European Union funded PhD in a project involving CEA, ASNR and myself.

Research Interests

My research revolves around reactive transport modelling of fluid rock interfaces. It aims at offering a better representation and understanding of coupled physicochemical processes which are relevant in several areas of geosciences:

• degradation of cementitious materials in the context of radioactive waste disposal ;

• prediction of  environmental impact of In Situ Recovery of Uranium ;

• porous medium properties evolution when subject to geochemical perturbations ;

• prediction of acid rock drainage from mine waste rock.

• modelling of coupled processes: check our attempt for THMC modelling in Nature Portfolio Journal

Hence, my work partly consists in the developement of a reactive transport simulator, Hytec, developed in the Reactive Hydrodynamics team of the Centre de Géosciences.

About me -- a quick bio

I am a proud Belgian, born and raised in beautiful Brussels. I studied engineering at Ecole Polytechnique de Bruxelles, from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. I hold a physical engineering Master (2012)  (1989) with a specialty in radioprotection and medical imaging. I did a PhD (2012-2016) in the department of Métrologie Nucléaire, under the supervision of Pr. Alain Dubus (ULB), Pr. Pierre-Etienne Labeau (ULB), Dr. Valéry Detilleux (Bel V) and Dr. Alexandre Dauzères (IRSN, Fr). From January 2017 to August 2018, I did a postdoc in the Reactive Hydrodynamics team of the Centre de Géosciences (Fontainebleau, MINES ParisTech) under the supervision of Pr. Vincent Lagneau. From September 2018 to January 2020, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) in the Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) under the supervision of Pr. Uli Mayer and Pr. Roger Beckie. Since January 2020, I became an assistant professor (Enseignant-Chercheur) back in the Centre de Géosciences (Fontainebleau, France). I defended my HDR on July 4th 2025.

On a more personal level, I hold a deep passion for cheese and Belgian beers, music, friendship, hiking and travelling. My main inspirations are David Gilmour, Stephen Hawking, Roger Federer, Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, Gaston Lagaffe and Guinesse, my beautiful kitty-cat. In 2024, I became the father of Martin, a beautiful baby boy who has a wonderful mother, Julie.

Acknowledgements 

I feel extremely fortunate to have had the chance of working with these truly amazing and motivating people. I cannot overstate how much I owe these people pretty much everything of what has happend through my early career. Hence, a huge thank you again to Alain (rest in peace), Pierre-Etienne, Valéry, Alexandre, Vincent, Uli and Roger. Also, I've had the chance to work in collaboration with other amazing colleagues, and I hope these collaborations will persist in the future. Cheers to Bas Vriens, Aaron Cahill, Jean-Louis Grimaud, Damien Huygue, Laurent De Windt, Irina Sin, Antoine Collet, Michael Descostes, Olivier Regnault, Catherine Noiriel, Jenna Poonoosamy, Jérôme Corvisier, Carl Steefel, Angélique Husson, Manon, Laure Pizzella, Jean Langany, Léo Szewczyk, Loic Marlot, Martin Lemay, Arezki Chabani, Aurélien Soubeyran, Katherine Raymond, Xueying Yi.

Why this website?

This homepage serves the purpose of providing a more personal image than a traditional CV would. You will find a description of my research activities, my complete list of publications and teaching activities (that I will try to keep up-to-date) and other personal stuff. Recent updates (personal, PhD or postdoc positions or upcoming conferences) can be found here.

Contact: nicolas.seigneur@minesparis.psl.eu