Adriana Paluszny is a Reader in Computational Geomechanics and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Imperial College. She conducts fundamental and applied research in the development of numerical methods for the multi-physical simulation of subsurface systems. Her research focuses on the robust three-dimensional numerical modelling of nucleation, growth, slip and interaction of multiple discontinuities, with applications to the geomechanical modelling of fluid injection, the permeability of fractured rock masses, and emerging methods in computational mechanics.

Adriana is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, and a Member of the Poromechanics Committee of the Engineering Mechanics Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She was awarded the 2019 Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for JGR: Solid Earth.

Adriana applies first principles coupled numerical methods to model growing fractured media and permeability changes in the context of geological storage of hydrogen, geothermal energy, as well as carbon storage (CCS), and compressed air energy storage. She is the PI of the SeisGreen project: a large multi-institutional project that seeks to de-risk induced seismicity in the context of large-scale green energy technologies (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/earth-science/research/research-projects/seisgreen/). She leads WP7 (Field-scale modelling) of the GeoSafe project (NERC Large Grant) aimed at safe geological disposal of radioactive waste in lower-strength sedimentary rocks. She is also the EDI Chair of the GeoSafe Project. Adriana is committed to dedicating her work to drive transformation leading to scalable, sustainable, and affordable renewable energy solutions.

In 2018, she received the prestigious International “Chin-Fu Tsang Coupled Processes Award” for young scientists. She is a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF). Adriana is the lead developer and architect of the Imperial College Geomechanics Toolkit, a robust numerical modelling tool for fracture growth and subsurface processes.

Adriana leads the Watson Forum outreach project. A grain of sand to raise awareness of STEM careers, aimed at motivating women to embark in scientific modelling careers. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/earth-science/news-events/outreach/watson-forum/

Adriana wrote the children's book "Curio" published with the support of the Royal Society, and distributed for free in many London schools. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/earth-science/news-events/outreach/curio/ 

Adriana is currently the Director of Research (DoR) of the Dept of Earth Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, at Imperial College London.

Adriana is the co-author of "Fluid Flow in Fractured Rocks" with Prof R.W. Zimmerman FREng. Wiley. 2024. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119248040