I am Associate Professor of Geophysics at the Department of Geological Sciences. This year I also have a position as a Visiting Associate at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory. My main research interests are in the field of observational seismology: learning about the Earth’s structure and earthquake source processes from records of ground motion.

   First things first: we just returned from a seismic field experiment on the Big Island of Hawaii, and there are many pictures to show you! I am hoping to continue this project in the near future, so stay tuned for research and field work opportunities.

   I have developed several new classes in my first four years at Cal Poly Pomona, some of which are not in the Cal Poly Pomona catalog yet: “Introduction to Global Geophysics”, “Shallow Subsurface Geophysics”, “Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes and Earth Structure” and “Living in Earthquake Country”. Most of these classes are intended for undergraduates in Geology, Physics and Engineering, as well as graduate students in Civil Engineering, but if you have a different major you are more than welcome to register! Other classes I teach include: Introduction to Astronomy, Natural Disasters, Advanced Engineering Geology and Quantitative Applications for Earth Scientists. I also hope to soon teach Advanced Seismology and Exploration Geophysics, as well as Planetary Geology as part of our new MSc program.

   Because Geophysics is a new program at Cal Poly (since the Fall of 2011 it is an official track within the Geology major!), I have put together some information on what Geophysics is all about (with a pretty obvious bias towards my own field of seismology). I have also created a set of Geophysics student info pages with job and internship opportunities, workshops and conferences and classes I would recommend to get a strong background in Geophysics (especially if you are considering grad school). If you are interested in a project in seismology or geophysics as your senior thesis research, you can check out my research page and find suggestions for specific senior thesis topics on the student info pages.

   My own education in geophysics started in the Netherlands, where I received my Master's degree in Geophysics from the University of Utrecht.  I then moved to the much more seismically active (and sunnier) Los Angeles area and obtained my PhD in Geophysics from Caltech. I continued to work at the Seismological Laboratory as a researcher for several years, with the Southern California Seismic Network. Then I became a Research Scientist at the Institute of Crustal Studies at UCSB in 2004, while teaching part-time at Cal Poly. Now I look forward to pursuing my teaching and research interests here in the Geological Sciences Department for many years to come!