Edward Andò

I have been in the field of geomechanics since defending my PhD in Grenoble in 2013. Thereafter I was lucky enough to be a CNRS (French National Research Centre) as an Ingénieur de Recherche ("Research Engineer") doing technical work and research in Laboratoire 3SR until 2021. Starting 2022 I am the Principal Scientist and Head of the EPFL Hub for Image Analysis in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Research topics

I am an experimentalist, developing and using advanced measurement techniques — particularly full-field techniques — to probe matter deeply. To this end I have been developing tools and experiments to get into granular matter, and hope to continue pushing in this direction in the years to come. I am interested in philosophy of science as well as free and open-source software.

Why Open Geomechanics

I feel that the current system of scientific publication in our field is very far from optimal. I do not think it wrong that academic staff spend time in the process of communicating though peer-reviewed journal articles. However, the majority of journals are hosted by private publishers which add little value, and charge all of our universities significant sums of money to access the papers that as a community we have written, edited and reviewed. Open Geomechanics aims to be an effort to provide a free and safe place to publish away from these corporate interests.

Statement of interests

Starting from my PhD, the majority of financing that I have recieved is public in nature (French state, French universities or European Research Council grants). I am involved in the construction of a neutron and x-ray tomograph at the Institut Laue Langevin, which has recieved some funding from Total. I have done work for the French National Agency for the Disposal of Nuclear Waste (a public-private body). I have co-supervised students who are working with EDF, Lafarge and Saint-Gobain.