Aimen Laalam

Aimen Laalam is a PhD candidate in petroleum engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and serves as a graduate teaching assistant, where his work focuses on natural hydrogen systems and innovative subsurface hydrogen storage solutions. Building on his master’s research at the University of North Dakota (UND), an in-depth geomechanical study of underground hydrogen storage in saline aquifers like the Inyan Kara formation in the Williston Basin—he continues to advance in the field of geological hydrogen at Mines. Laalam has published extensively on topics ranging from CFD-led drilling optimization and fishbone well design to reservoir analytics and repurposing old wells for clean-energy applications. He’s also an active peer reviewer for prestigious journals such as the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Petroleum Science and Engineering, and SPE Journal. From 2024 to 2025, he served as president of the SPE Colorado School of Mines Student Chapter, leading initiatives to foster student engagement, industry networking, and research competitions. Passionate about bridging subsurface petroleum engineering with the hydrogen energy transition, his work leverages advanced modeling, machine learning, and deep geological insight to drive sustainable innovation in the energy landscape.

He holds a BS and MS in petroleum production engineering, and an MEng in petroleum engineering from UND.