News
07/28/2023 - Jiajia is attending a workshop 'Open-Source Tools to Enable Geophysical Data Processing and Inversion' in the gorgeous Banff National Park in Canada. This workshiop brings together users and developers of SimPEG ((http://www.simpeg.xyz) and Fatiando a Terra (http://www.fatiando.org) together to share the latest advances in their research and software packages, and also discuss the future developments of these two open source projects and communities. More can be found here https://www.birs.ca/events/2023/2-day-workshops/23w2014.
07/12/2023 - Jiajia attended the 28th IUGG General Assembly held in Berlin, 11 - 20 July 2023, giving an invited oral presentation titled 'Building probabilistic quasi-geology models and mapping mineral resources using joint inversion and geology differentiation', co-authored by Xiaolong Wei. Jiajia also gave another oral presentation titled 'Uncertainty quantification of anomalous body shapes using potential field data in a trans-dimensional Bayesian framework' co-authored by Xiaolong Wei and Mrinal Sen.
06/01/2023 - Jiajia was promoted to the rank of associate professor and granted tenure, effective September 1st, 2023.
03/24/2023 - Keenan Barker passed his thesis defense with flying colors! Congratulations, Keenan! In his thesis, Keenan developed new deep learning based methods for improving the interpretation of magnetic tensor data. The results are very promising, and can potentially lead to a step change in how tensor data is typically interpreted by human experts.
12/05/2022 - Xiaolong won the Fall 2022 Dan E. Wells Outstanding Dissertation Award! Congratulations, Xiaolong! Check out the news report https://www.uh.edu/nsm/earth-atmospheric/news-events/stories/2022/1219-dissertation-award.php.
12/02/2022 - Our drone finally got off the ground! We tested our drone and magnetometer at UH Coastal Center with great success. Our next step is to collect drone magnetic and EM data over UH Coastal Center. Stay tuned!
11/07/2022 - Julio Garcia successfully passed his thesis proposal defense! Congratulations to Julio! The committee is excited about your work. We are looking forward to seeing you at your final thesis defense!
10/31/2022 - Xiaolong successfully defended his PhD thesis research with flying colors! Xiaolong has published 7 papers with a couple more to be submitted soon. A remarkable achievement! We are looking forward to seeing your future accomplishments, Xiaolong!
10/26/2022 - Our manuscript 'Quantifying uncertainty of salt body shapes recovered from gravity data using trans-dimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling' is accepted for publication on GJI. Check it out at https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac430.
09/30/2022 - Our manuscript 'Mapping critical mineral resources using airborne geophysics, 3D joint inversion and geology differentiation: A case study of a buried niobium deposit in the Elk Creek carbonatite, Nebraska, USA' was accepted for publication in the special issue Mineral Exploration and Mining Geophysics in Geophysical Prospecting.
09/16/2022 - Xiaolong was offered a post-doc position in Prof. Jef Caers' group at Stanford University! He will move to California after he defends his dissertation in October. Congratulations, Xiaolong! Very well deserved!
08/29/2022 - Xiaolong presented his work on quantifying the uncertaintiy of salt body shapes using trans-dimensional MCMC at IMAGE '22. Xiaolong also co-chaired the session GM 1: Inversion Insights with Andrea Darrh. Jiajia co-chaired MG 1: New Methods and Case Histories with Sarah Devriese, and gave an invited presentation on the application of machine learning to mineral exploration at the workshop W8: Machine Learning in Accelerating Energy Transition and Enabling Low-carbon Economy.
06/10/2022 - Congratulations to Xiaolong for being awarded the SEG / Lucien LaCoste Scholarship with over $5,300 cash prize!
05/31/2022 - Qiong Wu will join our group in August as a PhD student. Welcome, Qiong! Looking forward to working with you to push the frontier of machine learning and geophysics!
05/04/2022 - Xinyan received and accepted a post-doctoral offer from the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at the University of California, Davis. Xinyan will join the department in December after her doctoral dissertation defense.
04/29/2022 - Xiaolong receives the EAS Outstanding Graduate Work in Geophysics Award with $1,250. Congratulations!
04/20/2022 - My interview with SEG China was broadcast live on WeChat! Flora Wu was my host. Prof. Qingsheng Liu from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) also participated as a guest. I shared my thoughts on the role of geophysics in the context of energy transition. I also talked about the career opportunities for geophysics students. The live interview attracted over 200 audience, most of whom were students in China. Thanks to SEG China, especially Flora Wu, XuLing Lv and PengLi Fan, for a wonderful interview!
04/07/2022 - Xiaolong's paper "3D probabilistic geology differentiation based on airborne geophysics, mixed Lp norm joint inversion and physical property measurements" was accepted for publication in GEOPHYSICS!
03/30/2022 - Xinyan won the 2nd place award for her poster presentation at the 28th Dobrin Lecture. Congratulations, Xinyan!
03/22/2022- Xinyan's paper 'Toward a better understanding of the recoverability of physical property relationships from geophysical inversions of multiple potential-field datasets' was accepted for publication in GJI!
03/13/2022 - Congratulations to Kenneth and Xiaolong for receiveing the Best Paper Award from the SEG Mining Committee for their work presented at 2021 SEG Annual Meeting. Their work on mapping critical mineral resources at Elk Creek can be found at https://doi.org/10.1190/segam2021-3585069.1.
03/13/2022 - Congratulations to Xiaolong for receiveing the Best Student Paper Award from the SEG Mining Committee for his work presented at 2021 SEG Annual Meeting. His paper can be found at https://doi.org/10.1190/segam2021-3586619.1.
01/18/2022 - Julio Garcia joined the group as a Master student. Julio obtained his Bachelor's degree in geophysics from Texas A&M University, followed by graduate studies at University of Munich. Welcome back to Texas, Julio!
12/13/2021 - Xiaolong, Xinyan, Rohan and Jiajia attended the AGU Fall Meeting in New Orleans. Kenneth attended the meeting virtually. Xiaolong gave two poster presentations. Xinyan, Kenneth and Rohan each gave an oral presentation.
10/14/2021 - Xinyan presented her work on the recoverability of physical property relationships in the SimPEG Monthly Seminar Series. The announcement can be found here. The recorded presentation can be accessed by clicking here.
10/05/2021 - Xiaolong was one of the three recipients of the inaugural EAS Student Research Grant. More can be found at https://uh.edu/nsm/earth-atmospheric/news-events/stories/2021/1011-student-research.php.
09/27/2021 - Xiaolong, Xinyan, Kenneth and Jiajia attended IMAGE '21, the joint SEG/AAPE Annual Meeting, in Denver. Keenan Barker and Divine Victor attended the meeting virtually. Xiaolong gave one oral and one poster presentations. Xinyan and Kenneth each gave an oral talk. Jiajia received his J. Clarence Karcher Award at the Honors & Awards Ceremony on Tuesday evening.
09/09/2021 - Xiaolong presented his work on uncertainty analysis of geophysical inversions in the SimPEG Monthly Seminar Series. The announcement can be found here. Click here for the recorded presentation.
08/23/2021 - Divine Victor Kalu joined the group as a PhD student. Welcome, Kalu! Looking forward to working with you in the next few years!
08/06/2021 - Xiaolong was awarded the SEG Technical Program Registration Grant by the SEG Travel Grant Committee. Congratulations.
05/29/2021 - Xiaolong Wei was awarded SEG John R. Butler Jr. Scholarship! Congratulations, Xiaolong! Well deserved!
05/12/2021 - Jiajia was selected to receive SEG J. Clarence Karcher Award! The J. Clarence Karcher Award is given in recognition of significant contributions to the science and technology of exploration geophysics by a young geophysicist of outstanding abilities who, in the unanimous opinion of the Honors and Awards Committee and the Board of Directors, merits such recognition.
03/08/2021 - Congratulations to Keenan Barker for winning the 3rd place poster award at the Dobrin Lecture.
03/08/2021 - Jiajia chaired the 27th (virtual) Milton Dobrin Lecture co-organized by Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Society of Houston. The event featured three invited speakers: Maurice Nessim, Paul Bauman and Andy Sabin, followed by a live panel discussion on the future of geophysics. Courtney Anzalone moderated the panel discussion.
02/02/2021- Big congratulations to Xiaolong and Felicia on receiving, respectively, the Best Poster and Best Student Presentation in the Mining Sessions at the 2020 SEG Annual Meeting!
12/20/2020 - Our recent work on sparse inversion of potential-field data was published online https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2478.13063. As before, our data and codes are publicly available on Zenodo http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4057134.
09/30/2020 - Jiajia is leading efforts for organizing the first SEG machine learning workshop on mineral exploration https://uh.edu/nsm/earth-atmospheric/news-events/stories/2020/0930-mineral-exploration.php
09/08/2020 - Felicia's manuscript titled "Predicting Magnetization Directions Using Convolutional Neural Networks" was accepted for publication on JGR: Solid Earth and will be included into the Special Collection of "Machine learning for Solid Earth observation, modeling and understanding". This is a joint publication effort joined by JGR: Solid Earth, G-Cubed, Tectonics and Earth and Space Science (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/jgr/journal/21699356/features/call-for-papers). Well done, Felicia!
08/03/2020 - Felicia started her full-time job as Machine Learning Engineer at TCarta in Denver! Wish you the best of luck, Felicia!
06/22/2020 - We submitted five expanded abstracts to this year's SEG annual meeting. And they all got accepted! All the hard work paid off.
04/27/2020 - Felicia successfully defended her Master's thesis 'Predicting Magnetization Directions Using Convolutional Neural Networks'. Congratulations to Felicia!
04/27/2020 - Xiaolong successfuly defended his doctoral thesis proposal 'Uncertainty analysis of 3D geophysical inversions in both deterministic and Bayesian inversion frameworks'. Well done, Xiaolong! The committee is looking forward to seeing your 3D Bayesian inversion results!
04/24/2020 - Jae successfully defended his Master's thesis 'Regional Scale Mineral Exploration Through Joint Inversion And Geology Differentiation Based On Multi-physics Geoscientific Data'! Jae will continue his PhD study at MIT-WHOI. Best of luck, Jae!
03/29/2020 - Jae got accepted into the PhD programs at UCSD, Stanford, MIT-WHOI, Columbia and UW-Madison! Well done, Jae! Go cougs!
02/12/2020 - Congratulations to Felicia for winning the 1st place poster award at the Dobrin Lecture.
11/15/2019 - Congratulations to Melanie Adelman for successfully defending her thesis titled 'Building Static Geological Models in the Presence of Missing Values and Sparse Data'!
09/04/2019 - Congratulations to Melanie Adelman for receiving the Warren L. and Florence W. Calvert Memorial Scholarships from the Houston Geological Society (HGS). See here for a news report on this.
08/20/2019 - Dr. Jiajia Sun's recent paper, titled Magnetization clustering inversion Part II: Assessing the uncertainty of recovered magnetization directions and published in GEOPHYSICS, was highlighted in Geophysics Bright Spots in the latest issue of TLE. Click here for the paper, and click here for the TLE highlight.
07/15/2019 - Congratulations to Felicia Nurindrawati for being awarded SEG Technical Program travel grant to attend SEG International Exposition and 89th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, USA 15-18 September 2019.
07/08/2019 - Dr. Max Moorkamp, who is currently Heisenburg Junior Research Group Leader at University of Munich, is visiting us from Monday to Wednesday at UH. His main interest is in developing joint inversion of various geophysical data for better imaging of the Earth. Max has extensive experiences of working with MT data, seismic receiver functions, surface waves and seismic body wave tomography. We held a mini-workshop on Tuesday on UH campus with a focus on the exchange of ideas and presentations of latest work from Dr. Sun's group and Dr. Moorkamp's group.
06/17/2019 - Congratulations to both Felicia Nurindrawati and Jae Deok Kim for being awarded SEG Robert E. & Margaret S. Sheriff Scholarship that comes with $10,000 cash!
05/29/2019 - Congratulations to Jae Deok Kim for being awarded SEG/ExxonMobil Student Education Program (SEP) travel grant to participate in the SEP course and attend the 2019 SEG International Exposition & 89th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas 13-18 September 2019.
05/23/2019 - Congratulations to Felicia Nurindrawati for having her SEG abstract accepted as an oral presentation at 2019 SEG Annual Meeting! Well done, Felicia! In this abstract, Felicia shows, for the first time, that it is possible to use convolutional neural networks (CNN) to predict magnetization directions based on a magnetic map. Click here for a link to her SEG abstract.
05/22/2019 - GEM 2019 Xi'an, an International Workshop on Gravity, Electrical & Magnetic Methods and Their Applications, co-organized by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and the Chinese Geophysical Society (CGS), was successfully held in Xi'an, China. This workshop attracted about 300 participants from around the world, and marked another success for the GEM workshop series (after GEM Beijing in 2011 and GEM Chengdu in 2015). Dr. Jiajia Sun served as Technical Committee Chair for this workshop. The official program can be found here.
04/23/2019 - Dr. Jiajia Sun, invited by the SEG Latin America Regional Advisory Committee, is proud to present a webinar, "Cross-fertilization of geophysical inversion and unsupervised machine learning," In this presentation, he discussed the recent developments of a set of new inversion algorithms that combine the classical Tikhonov inversion scheme and a widely used unsupervised machine learning algorithm, fuzzy c-means clustering, as well as their applications to various geophysical problems. This presentation is now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ZEkJJ-2jA&t=254s.
04/01/2019 - Congratulations to Xinyan Li on successfully defending her doctoral dissertation proposal! Xinyan is taking on a challenging task of developing a set of new joint inversion algorithms for better imaging of the salt.
03/29/2019 - Congratulations to Kenneth Li, Jae Deok Kim and Felicia Nurindrawati for successfully defending their Master's thesis proposals! We are looking forward to your final thesis defenses in the spring of 2020.