Dr Melis Sutman

The research of Melis mainly focuses on how geostructures can contribute to the sustainability of human activities and resilience to future climate change and energy-related challenges. Her research activities span across a range of topics including in-situ and laboratory testing of soils and soil-structure interfaces in isothermal and non-isothermal conditions, as well as development of numerical tools for the analysis and design of geostructures. During her PhD at Virginia Tech (USA) and her postdoc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland), she worked on Energy Geostructures Technology, which is an innovative way of using renewable energy resources by combining geothermal heat exchange and structural foundation support. Her currently research also looks at how abandoned mines can be used for exploiting shallow geothermal energy through direct heating and cooling, as well as thermal energy storage. Her PhD research received several awards by USUCGER, Geo-Institute and ADSC. For her postdoctoral contributions to EPFL, she was awarded “Recognition for Exceptional Services”. She recently received the Bright Sparkle Award 2023 from the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). She is currently the coordinator of the Doctoral Network on Energy Geostructures Integration: Buildings, Infrastructure and Underground Storage (GENIUS-DN), which is funded by the European Union as a part of the Horizon Europe Programme, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks 2024 (Agreement number 101226708) https://genius-dn.eu/ 

• Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne - Postdoctoral Researcher - 2016-2019, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering, August 2016, Virginia, USA
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – M.Sc. in Geotechnical Engineering, January 2012, Virginia, USA
• Bogazici University – B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, May 2010, Istanbul, Turkey

• Founding Member and Executive Board Member of the International Society for Energy Geostructures (ISEG)
• Task Force Leader for Awards of the Technical Committee on Energy Geotechnics (TC308) of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) 
• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College
• Member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Talent Peer Review College
• Member of the International Energy Agency Working Group 14 (Geothermal Heating and Cooling Energy)
• Member of the Cost Action CA21156 - european network for FOstering Large-scale ImplementAtion of energy GEostructure (FOLIAGE)
• Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment

• Geotechnical Engineering 2
• Soil Mechanics 2

• Resilience to Future Climate Change and Energy Related Challenges
• Energy Geostructures 
• Mine Water Geothermal Energy