About
Welcome to my webpage!
I am a Staff Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the National Security Earth Science Group (EES-17). I was previously a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the same group.
My primary research area is geomechanics combined with multi-phase fluid flow and transport in porous and fractured media, and I am also very excited about topics related to planetary exploration (e.g., Mars methane, lunar surface environments, Ocean Worlds, Titan, hypervelocity impacts), nuclear monitoring, hydrogeology, and petroleum geofluids. I enjoy developing and applying multi-phase flow and transport models in creative ways to answer emerging questions at the intersection of subsurface flow, fracture-matrix interactions, and reactive transport. You can find more information about my research at my LANL Expertise Profile.
I have many research interests and am open to collaboration, so please reach out to me at my email in the sidebar if you are interested in working with me!
Research Interests
For more info about my research areas, see Research.
Education
- Johns Hopkins University, 2024
Ph.D. Environmental Engineering
- New Mexico Tech, 2017
M.Sc. Hydrogeology
- Dartmouth College, 2014
B.A. (Honors) Earth Science
Updates
Presented Research to Nobel Laureates in Germany
July 01, 2026Awarded Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting Fellowship
April 24, 2026Student won Best Poster Award at CSES Symposium!
August 14, 2025My summer PhD GRA student (Aditya Pujari, Yale University) won the “Best Student Presentation Award” at the LANL Center for Space and Earth Science (CSES) Symposium. Aditya did a wonderful job working on my CSES Rapid Response R&D project this summer. Congratulations Aditya!
When: August 14th 2025 | 14:45 - 15:00
Where: J. Robert Oppenheimer Center, Jemez/Cochiti Room (TA-03 Bldg 0207-218)
Title: The role of cometary impact-generated fractures on organics transport in Titan’s crust
New article published in Icarus
June 27, 2025🚨 New short article! 🚨 We determined that underground methane, if present at Jezero crater, could be collected by Perseverance drilled cores at certain times/seasons. However, sample tubes would need to be capped faster than is correctly done to preserve pore gases. #Mars bit.ly/4nnLZv3
— Dr. John P. Ortiz (@johnportiz14.bsky.social) June 30, 2025 at 8:49 AM
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New article published in J. of Environmental Radioactivity
January 01, 2025🚨 New Year, New Article! 🚨 Gas diffusion-adsorption in zeolitic rocks behaves counter-intuitively when partially saturated. This has implications for radionuclide transport monitoring, and possibly even methane transport on Mars. doi.org/10.1016/j.je...
— Dr. John P. Ortiz (@johnportiz14.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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