• Research Fellow, Geology, University of Adelaide

Dr Rachelle Kernen is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Early Career Industry Fellow and a recipient of the prestigious Global Talent Visa, which grants permanent residency upon arrival in Australia.

Dr Kernen was competitively chosen for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Resources (ISER) Leadership Committee and recently won the Centre for Energy Technology (CET) Award for Best Contribution to Research Quality (ECR) at the University of Adelaide. She is also a Superstar of STEM through Science and Technology Australia (2023-2024).

Dr Kernen has worked within prestigious industry-led consortiums in the USA (Institute of Tectonics Studies, Salt-Sediment Interaction Research Consortium, Applied Geodynamics Laboratory) with globally recognized industry sponsors like Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon, Chevron, BP, Woodside, etc. where she delivered high-quality industry research for over 15 years. Dr. Kernen has ten papers and 17 industry conference abstracts in highly regarded journals like the American Association for Petroleum Geology Bulletin. Dr Kernen has contributed to four salt tectonic textbooks and journal volumes and served as lead editor for two. She has given many technical oral presentations (>50) and chaired technical sessions (>10) at national and international conferences. She has provided interviews/content for webinars, panels, blogs, podcasts, and documentaries about clean energy (20).

Dr Kernen leads a research team based on the following topics to make several breakthrough discoveries:

.Salt-sediment interaction in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, is coeval with the onset of dramatic changes in Earth's climate that form the depositional environments where the origin of complex life evolves.

.Sedimentologic and stratigraphic studies in salt basins as outcrop analogs to develop hydrogen storage pilots in salt caverns and porous media.

Dr Rachelle Kernen is recruiting Honours, Masters, and PhD students to work on various projects spanning sedimentology, stratigraphy, salt-sediment interaction, and energy.

• 2022–present Research Fellow, The University of Adelaide
• 2020–2022 Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Adelaide
• 2015–2019 PhD Research Associate, The University of Texas El Paso
• 2011–2015 Exploration Geoscientist, Royal Dutch Shell
• 2008–2011 MSc Research Associate, New Mexico State University
• 2004–2008 Lab Assistant/Demonstrator, The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

• 2021 Penn State Unversity, Graduate Certificate Sustainability Management Policy
• 2019 The University of Texas El Paso, PhD Geological Sciences
• 2011 New Mexico State University, MSc Geology
• 2008 The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, BSc Geology

• 2025 ARC Early Career Industry Fellowship Role: Research Fellow Funding Source: Australian Research Council

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