Andrés Valdez

Andres Valdez is a computational scientist and engineer whose research focuses on the development and application of numerical methods, mathematical modeling, and high-performance computing to complex engineering and physical systems. His work spans energy, fluid mechanics, multiscale modeling, uncertainty quantification, vehicle dynamics, and computational biology.

His doctoral research focused on uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis of models for foam-assisted enhanced oil recovery (EOR), including modeling multiphase flow in porous media and applications in collaboration with Shell and Petrobras. His graduate research also involved multiscale methods, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and fluid-structure interaction (FSI), with an emphasis on connecting processes occurring at different spatial and physical scales. More recently, he has applied these computational approaches to vehicle dynamics and vibration problems, including semi-active suspension systems and magnetorheological dampers.

His interdisciplinary work also extends into microbiology “through the lens of computation,” using physics-based and agent-based models to investigate bacterial growth, biofilm organization, bacteriophage dynamics, and bacteria-phage competition. Across these diverse applications, a common theme of his research is the use of computational models to connect fundamental physical mechanisms with experimentally observable and engineering-relevant behavior.