I am Assistant Professor of Geophysics at the Department of Geological Sciences. I only started in the Fall of 2007, so that is my excuse for still having to finish some of these web-pages.... 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.

    I will be developing and teaching several new classes in the next few years, some of which are not in the Cal Poly Pomona catalog yet: Introduction to Global Geophysics, Exploration Geophysics and Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes and Earth Structure. These classes are intended for advanced undergraduates in Geology, Physics, Math and Engineering, as well as graduate students in Civil Engineering, but if you have a different major and have taken a math class or two, you are more than welcome to register! Other classes I teach include: Introduction to Astronomy, Natural Disasters and Advanced Engineering Geology; and possibly in the near future: Mathematical Applications for Earth Scientists.

    Because Geophysics is a new program at Cal Poly, 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 seismology 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!