I work on mechanics-based structural restoration. Restoration consists in recovering paleo-geometries of geological structures through time. Restoration has many applications: knowledge of the paleo-structures, strain/stress quantification, determination of fracture areas, validation of structural interpretations, etc. Several methods have been being developed since the beginning of the previous century, first based on geometrical and kinematic assumptions, and more recently on geomechanical rules.

My work consists in developing a restoration software based on geomechanics and in applying it on geological case studies. The tool I am developing is RINGMecha (http://www.ring-team.org/software/ring-libraries/44-ringmecha). The final aims are to determine the validity of this restoration method for geomechanical analysis, and to compare it to other restoration methods.

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Thomas Draper completed both his BSc and MSc in Chemistry at the University of Bristol, UK, focusing on catalysis and air-sensitive inorganic synthesis, with Professor Robin Bedford. He earned his PhD jointly under Dr John Turner and Dr Qiao Chen, at the University of Sussex, UK in 2016. His PhD, situated at the inorganic/physical border, involved air-sensitive organometallic synthesis, small molecule activation, heterogeneous photocatalysis, and nanotechnology. Afterwards he worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate under Professor Andrew Adamatzky at UWE Bristol, UK for 2.5 years, studying the creation, optimisation, and use in unconventional computing, of liquid marbles. He joined Dr Juan Pérez-Mercader’s group as a Post-doctoral Fellow in November 2019 on the “Top-down Synthesis of an Ex-novo Chemical Artificial Living System” project. Read more