Website: National Geoelectromagnetic Facility

Note to students seeking a Masters or Ph.D. advisor

If studentships are available, you will find them available here. However, since I am approaching retirement, I am not currently accepting new Ph.D. students. Please do not contact me by email if you are interested in being my student - I will not respond. Please check back here periodically to see if any studentships become available.

Specialty

Use of geophysical imaging methods (primarily magnetotelluric and electromagnetic, also including seismic, potential fields) to study the structure, fluid distribution, composition, temperature and state of the Earth's interior from the near-surface scale to the deep mantle. High performance computation including massively parallel architectures including GPU and hybrid computing. Instrumentation and sensor research and development. Renewable energy including geothermal power. Studies of fluid flow in cracked, porous, reactive media including seafloor hydrothermal systems.

Important Links

• National Geoelectromagnetic Facility
• Current Research

Magnetotelluric Array Principal Investigator, since 2006 directing systematic 3D mapping of the electrical resistivity structure of the conterminous USA under NSF EarthScope (2006-2018), NASA (2019-2020) and USGS (2021-2024) support.

Development of a SMART Service System for the electric power grid, assimilating space weather data, magnetotelluric data, sensor streams from the power grid, and machine learning to mitigate damage to the power grid from geomagnetically induced currents resulting from geomagnetic disturbances caused by space weather and by electromagnetic pulse weapons.

Novel use of combined geophysical and geochemical methods to study Enhanced Geothermal Systems (e.g. Newberry Volcano) in 4D to understand hydrologic impact of hydrofracturing, and to optimize geothermal production and reservoir longevity by combining 4D magnetotelluric/controlled source audiofrequency magnetotelluric observations with high density gravity, interferometric radar, and aqueous geochemical analysis.

Studies of the fluid distribution and high resolution structure of the Cascadia convergent margin through a large scale 3D onshore-offshore magnetotelluric array.

Investigation of the roots of the Cascade volcanic aarc in southern Washington State, at Mt St Helens, Mt Adams and Mt Rainier through a combined long-period and wideband magnetotelluric and active/passive seismic array.

Detailed multidisciplinary investigation of the northern Mid-Continent Rift region in the North American mid-continent region, combining magnetotelluric, seismic and complementary investigations.

Development of a new generation of ultrawideband electromagnetic receivers and operation of the US National Geoelectromagnetic Facility (NGF.oregonstate.edu; OpenEM.org), a series of national instrument pools operated by Oregon State University on behalf of the US academic community.

Development of a "Multiphysics Bottom Lander" instrument combining wideband seismometer, electric field and magnetic field receivers and sensors with a high fidelity (32-bit digitizer) data acquisition system, acoustic telemetry, and a 4000m depth rated trawl resistant instrument housing with carbon fiber pressure housings to provide no electromagnetic field signature that would distort measurements of EM fields.

Measurement of marine EM fields at marine wave energy converter facilities offshore Oregon.

Development of algorithms to solve the forward problem of electromagnetic induction in the Earth that run efficiently on massively parallel sets of general purpose graphical processing units (GPUs).

Development of non-Fourier based spectral analysis methods for timeseries influences by Earth and ocean tides.

Development of new array-based marine magnetotelluric/controlled source electromagnetic signal analysis algorithms.

Other interests include physical, chemical, and geomicrobiological influences on sea floor hydrothermal processes; geophysical inverse theory, long-term multidisciplinary ocean observations.

Education

BSc, Brown University (Geology, Physics, Mathematics), 1979
MA, Cambridge University (St. Edmund's College), 1995
PhD, University of Washington (Geophysics), 1986

Experience

• Title: Professor, Geology & Geophysics Disciplinary Group
  Employer: College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Tel. +1-541-737-9832
  Service dates: August 2003-Present
  Duties: Tenured Professor responsible for securing research funding, initiating and conducting independent research program, supervising technical and academic staff, teaching, service on college, university, national and international committees, advising students and postdoctoral researchers, publishing peer reviewed scientific journal articles and other scholarly outputs
• Also (currently) Principal Scientist, Joint Appointee with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; also ORISE Scholar with Oak Ridge Science and Education Institute, assigned to the National Energy Technology Laboratory
• Title: Program Director
  Employer National Science Foundation, Geoscience Directorate, Division of Ocean Sciences, Arlington, Virginia, USA. Tel. +1-703-292-8580
  Service Dates: July 2006-July 2008
  Duties: Responsibility for Marine Geology & Geophysics core program, organizing and analyzing proposal reviews, organizing and running panels, making proposal funding award/decline decisions, running the Ridge2000 Program and the US national Ocean Bottom Seismic Program as well as special projects as assigned, collaborating closely with colleagues in Ocean Section, with particularly close association with Biological and Chemical Oceanography as part of Ridge2000 duties
• Title: Head of School and Professor
  Employer: School of Earth, Ocean & Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University, United Kingdom. Tel. +44-29-2087-4830
  Service Dates: March 2000- August 2003 (Head of School 2001-2003); Adjunct Professor 2003-2007
  Duties: Tenured Professor and Head of School responsible for financial, business, academic, human resource, strategic planning and health and safety functions of large geoscience research and teaching unit; responsible for securing research funding, initiating and conducting research program, supervising technical and academic staff, service on college, university, national and international committees, advising students, postdoctoral researchers, publishing peer reviewed scientific journal articles and other scholarly outputs
• Title: University Lecturer, Institute of Theoretical Geophysics
  Employer: University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Also Fellow, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Tel. +44-1223-33-3400
  Service Dates: January 1992 – March 2000
  Duties: Tenured University Lecturer, responsible for securing research funding, initiating and conducting independent research program, supervising technical and academic staff, teaching, service on college, university, national and international committees, briefing government departments on national science policy issues, advising students, postdoctoral researchers, publishing peer reviewed scientific journal articles and other scholarly outputs
• Title: Affiliate Professor
  Employer: Dept. of Earth & Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  Service Dates: 1994-2004
  Duties: Collaborate with other faculty and with students in graduate program in geophysics, participate in research programs, present seminars
• Title: Adjunct Scientist
  Employer: Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
  Service Dates: 1999-2001
  Duties: Collaborate with other researchers and with students in geophysics, participate in research programs, present seminars
• Title: Research Assistant Professor, Marine Geology and Geophysics
  Employer: School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  Service Dates: 1986-1991. Tel. +1-206-543-5060
  Duties: Responsible for securing research funding, initiating and conducting independent research program, supervising technical and academic staff, teaching, service on college, university, national and international committees, advising students, postdoctoral researchers, publishing peer reviewed scientific journal articles and other scholarly outputs
• Title: Cecil and Ida Green Scholar
  Employer: Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Univ. California San Diego
  Service Dates: 1985-1986
  Duties: Independent postdoctoral research position in geoelectromagnetic geophysics
• Title: Research Assistant & Pre-Doctoral Research Associate
  Employer: Graduate Program in Geophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  Service Dates: 1979-1985
  Duties: Carried out directed research program under supervision of Dr. Jimmy Larsen (NOAA), Dr. John Booker (University of Washington)
• Title: Research Associate
  Employer: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
  Service Dates: 1979
  Duties: Data analysis technician employed by Dr. Charles S. Cox to develop analysis package for first seafloor controlled source electromagnetic experiment on East Pacific Rise
• Title: Geophysics technician; scientific applications programmer, mainframe IBM 360/67 computer systems operator
  Employer: Brown University
  Service Dates: 1975-1979
  Duties: Employed at various times as geophysical technician working under Professor John Hermance responsible for instrument fabrication and field work in New Mexico; finite element deformation modeler working under Professor Marc Parmentier; computer operator responsible for all aspects of IBM 360/67 operations, proficient in routine hardware maintenance and IBM job control language as well as variety of other higher level computer languages

Professional Experience

President, Enthalpion Energy, LLC 2016-Present. Consultant, Electromagnetic Geoservice ASA (emgs.com) 2011-2018. Consultant, SAIC 2009-2011. Consultant, Endor International Exploration Ltd. (oil industry) 2008. Expert Witness, international patent litigation (oil industry) in marine CSEM 2007-2011. Director, Earth-Ocean Systems Ltd., a UK-registered company developing sensors and marine instrumentation for extreme environments 1999-2006. Seismic consultant, Flow Research Corporation1989-1991. Partner in scientific software development company 1983-1985. Geophysical consultant for Harco Corporation, Houston and TOTAL Oil Marine, North Sea 1981-1983. Physical Scientist WAE, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA, Seattle 1981-1982. Geophysicist WAE, US Geological Survey, Menlo Park and Seattle 1981-1982. Assistant Geophysicist, Union Oil Company of California, Brea California 1981.

Professional Societies

• Life Member, American Geophysical Union
• Member, Geothermal Rising
• (formerly) Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society
• (formerly) Member, Society of Exploration Geophysicists
• (formerly)Member of the Seismological Society of America

Courses

OSU Teaching

• Graduate School lectures on Responsible Conduct of Research 2013-2015
• Advanced Geophysical Time Series Analysis GPH689, OSU COAS, 2004/5
• Magnetotelluric Data Processing and Analysis GPH689, OSU CEOAS, Winter 2016 (with Gary
  Egbert)
• Geodynamics, GPH 651, OSU Spring 2006, Winter 2009/10 and 2011/12 (with Anne Trehu)
• Proposal Writing (required core class for MG&G graduate students, optional for others), OC
  691, OSU Winter 2008/9, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2016,
  Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Winter 2023.
• Electromagnetic Geophysics, GPH 641, OSU Spring 2021. Also taught a module from this in
  GPH 689, Winter 2023. Will teach it again Winter 2024.
• GEO407/507/607 Seminar Series in Geology and Geophysics (Spring 2017, Winter 2023).
• High Performance Computation: Large-scale modeling in the Earth System Sciences, GPH689,
  OSU COAS, Winter 2010/11
• I also teach a (non-credit) “MT School” at OSU each year for those interested in the US in
  learning the theory and practice of the magnetotelluric method in geophysics.

NON OSU Teaching

• Cardiff Earth Sciences lectures for “Coastal Geology, Hydrography” 2002. Undergraduate supervision.
• Cambridge Earth Science IIA, G2 “Ridges and the Seafloor”, Lent 1997/98, 1999/00.
• Cambridge Earth Science IIA, M1 “Mineralogy of the Deep Earth and Planetary Interiors”, Lent 1997/98.
• Cambridge Earth Science IB "Mineralogy", Michaelmas 1999.
• Cambridge NST IA Maths, “Fourier Series, Matrices and Functional Analysis”, Easter 1992-1995.
• Cambridge Post-grad course, “Fundamentals of Inverse Theory”, Lent 1994.
• Cambridge DAMTP III, “Geophysical Inverse Theory”, Lent 1995, Michaelmas 1995-96.
• Cambridge Earth Science II “Geochemistry”, Easter 1996, 1997.
• Cambridge Earth Science Long Break short course, “Spectral Analysis”, 1993.
• Univ. Washington Oceanography 600, 800 1986 - 1991. (Research courses)
• Univ. Washington Oceanography 556: “Signals, Noise, Errors and Estimators for Physical Data”, 1989, 1991.
• Internal Examiner (Cambridge), Natural Science Mathematics, 1995, 1996. Examiner Part III Mathematics, 1995.

Graduate Students

• Zhihai Qiu — M.Sc. UW 1989, “A boundary element method for seafloor self potential”
• Tianshan Zhang — Ph.D. UW 1992, “Three-dimensional electromagnetic induction in a spherical Earth”
• Penelope Dickson — Ph.D. Cambridge 1998, “Modelling fluid flow in seafloor hydrothermal systems”
• Amy Davis — 1999-2000, Cambridge, “thermoelastic defor­mation of ocean lithosphere”- transferred to Dr. M. Bickle when I relocated to Cardiff
• Tim Jupp — Ph.D. Cambridge 2000, “Tidal response and thermodynamics of hydrothermal systems”
• Geoff Pritchard — Ph.D Cambridge 2000: “Electromagnetic induction in a heterogeneous sphere: a 3D inversion for conductivity in Earth’s upper mantle”.
• Aoife Mulhall — Ph.D. Cambridge 2003. “A full waveform approach to electromagnetic sounding of the Earth”
• Anna Kelbert — Ph.D. Cardiff University, 2006, “Geophysical inverse theory applied to reconstruction of large-scale heterogeneities in electrical conductivity of Earth’s mantle”
• Philip Taylor — Ph.D. Cardiff University, 2008, Cardiff University, Grid-based instrumentation design
• Daniel Wisdom — 2004-2005, Oregon State University, M.Sc. student
• L Roy Bonner — M.S. OSU 2017, “Geomagnetically induced currents in the power grid”
• Esteban Bowles-Martinez — 2013-2019, Ph.D. "Magnetotelluric Investigations of the North American Lithosphere"
• Musaed Alharbi - 2023-current, Ph.D. student in geothermal studies of the Arabian Peninsula

My Curriculum Vitae