Keynote Speakers - Opening Session
Gerard Schuster
Gerard Schuster is Professor in Earth Science and Engineering in the Physical Science and Engineering Division of KAUST, specializing in Subsurface imaging and Fluid Modelling. Professor Schuster's research interests are in seismic imaging, interferometry, waveform inversion, EM methods, seismic field techniques, and the use of novel methods for super resolution imaging. His geophysical lab is equipped with state-of-the-art seismographs for 624 channel recording and a 72-channel resistivity array for both exploration, engineering, and earthquake applications. Schuster has a strong interest in geophysical characterization of archaeological sites.
Nicole Metje
Nicole Metje is Professor of Infrastructure Monitoring, Head of the Power and Infrastructure Research Group within the School of Engineering and Deputy Director for Sensors of the UKCRIC National Buried Infrastructure Facility in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK. Professor Metje is an international leader in the development and application of sensors for buried infrastructure assessment and monitoring. She delivers demonstrable impact through industry and policy engagement –bringing international recognition. She leads a work package for the Birmingham led Quantum Technologies (QT) Hub for Sensors and Metrology, which focuses on the application of QT gravity sensors for civil engineering problems such as buried pipes, capped mine shafts and sinkholes. In parallel, she works with industry on five Innovate UK funded projects to accelerate the development of QT gravity gradiometers, and develop market pull for different civil engineering applications such as railway assets, mine workings and leakage through earthworks.
Katrin Kieling
Katrin studied geophysics at Potsdam university, from where she graduated in 2008. She continued working at GFZ Potsdam in seismology on modelling ground motions from extended sources and receive her PhD in 2015. Since 2016 she is the project manager for the GEMex project, an EU-Horizon2020 project with international cooperation with Mexico on developing super hot and enhanced geothermal systems in Mexico.
Estella Atekwana
Dean Atekwana joined the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment in the fall of 2017 after more than 10 years at Oklahoma State University, where she finished as department head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology. Prior to Oklahoma State, Dean Atekwana was a faculty member at Missouri University of Science & Technology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Western Michigan University. Her main research interests are 1) Biogeophysics - concerned with the geophysical signatures of microbial cells in the Earth, the interaction between microorganisms and subsurface geologic media, and the alteration of the physical properties of geologic media as a result of microbial activity; 2) Tectonics – geophysical investigations of incipient continental rift forming processes to understand how and where do continental rifts initiate with particular attention to the east African rift Zone.