Lirong Zhong is a Senior Research Environmental Engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA, USA. He received a BSc in Geology from Hunan University of Science & Technology, an MSc in Geology from Nanjing University, an MSc in Geological Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Since joining the PNNL in 2003, his work has focused primarily on groundwater and vadose zone contamination remediation technology development, geological carbon sequestration and hydrogen storage, and subsurface characterization. His research interests cover a broad range of areas that pertain to subsurface science and characterization, contaminant fate and transport, and aquifer and vadose zone remediation engineering.

Dr. Seunghwan Baek is a research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. With over a decade of experience, he has developed an extensive project portfolio in the energy and environmental fields. Dr. Baek has supported the U.S. Department of Energy and the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry through his innovative research and development efforts. His expertise lies in multiscale reservoir flow simulation technologies, artificial intelligence, operation optimization, and data analytics. He has made significant contributions to advancing the understanding and modeling of complex subsurface systems. His current research interests include coupling laboratory work, conventional analytical approaches, numerical calculations, and artificial intelligence technologies to address subsurface problems. Dr. Baek is actively working in the areas of geological carbon storage and underground hydrogen storage.

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Christopher Bagwell is a molecular microbial ecologist and physiologist. His research interests span understanding fundamental organization and coordination of complex microbial processes at scale and the application of this knowledge for predictive control of microbiological processes at the energy-environment nexus.

Nicolas Huerta is a research scientist and the Group Leader of the Earth Systems Predictability & Resilience Group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA, USA. Prior to his employment at the PNNL, he was a research scientist at the National Energy Technology Laboratory for 10 years. He holds a BSc and MSc in Geology from the University of California, Davis, and an MSE in Petroleum Engineering and a PhD in Geological Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests involve understanding well integrity, assessing geologic carbon storage risks, developing web-based visualization tools for complex spatial/analytic data to provide decision support at environmental remediation sites, and subsurface hydrogen storage.