Felipe Pereira made his mark in the world of applied mathematics by modelling the flow of oil in underground reservoirs — information needed for the efficient extraction of this precious resource. Although he will continue working on such models, his latest research challenge is a sign of changing times. As one of the distinguished faculty members at the new School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Pereira will apply those same skills to determine how best to inject and sequester carbon dioxide beneath Earth's surface and so help reduce its contribution to climate change. See CV

Pereira studied physics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in his native Brazil. As a graduate student under Michael O'Carroll, a US mathematician working at the interface of quantum field theory and statistical mechanics, Pereira became increasingly interested in applied mathematics. Impressed when Pereira quickly solved a problem that had stumped him, O'Carroll directed his student to James Glimm and the maths PhD programme at New York University.

There in 1985, with funding from the Brazilian government, Pereira began working on simulations relating to gas dynamics and oil reservoirs. Until this time Pereira had never used a computer, so when he followed Glimm to the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he set about honing his computing skills.

Moving to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1994, Pereira worked with Jim Douglas, the top oil-reservoir modelling and simulation mathematician of the time. Douglas says that Pereira provided key information about underground flows of oil despite a lack of detailed data from studies probing beneath Earth's surface, which often were not feasible. After three years, Pereira returned to Brazil, first at the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing in Petrópolis and then as a faculty member at State University of Rio de Janeiro.

As he takes on his new position in Wyoming, Pereira says that applied mathematics has a critical role to play in the energy field because oil will still be needed to supply our immediate energy needs, and sequestering carbon is one way to mitigate the effects of greenhouse-gas emissions. Douglas agrees, noting that applied mathematics remains a very active field as it offers a way to solve such real-world problems.