Dr David E Lumley

Professional Preparation

PhD - Geophysics
Stanford University - 1995

MSc - Geophysics
University of British Columbia - 1989

BSc Hons. - Geophysics and Astronomy
University of British Columbia - 1986

Research Areas

Dr. David E. Lumley is a Professor of Earth Sciences, and Physics, at the University of Texas at Dallas since 2017; he is the Cecil and Ida Green (Texas Instruments) Endowed Chair in Geophysics, Dept Head of Sustainable Earth Systems Sciences, and Director of the Seismic Imaging and Inversion Lab. Previously he was Professor, Woodside-Chevron Chair in Geophysics, and founding Director of the Center for Energy Geoscience, jointly appointed to the School of Physics, and School of Earth & Environment, at the University of Western Australia (2009-2017). Dr. Lumley has also held academic positions at Stanford and USC, and has served as an Advisor to the US National Academy of Sciences.
Prof Lumley has been a Principal Investigator on over $135+ Million in external competitive research grants, and has co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed journal papers and conference abstracts, in journals such as Nature, Reviews of Geophysics, Geophysical Research Letters, Earth & Planetary Science Letters, Journal of Geophysical Research, Classical & Quantum Gravity, Physics Review D, Geophysical Journal International, Geophysics, and others resulting in 4,150+ citations, an h-index of 30, and eight (8) Best Paper awards, to date. He has been the recipient of several awards and honors, including SEG's inaugural J. Clarence Karcher Award for his pioneering contributions to the development of 4D Time-Lapse Seismology, and has been honored as a Distinguished Lecturer, and Distinguished Instructor, for four (4) scientific societies.
Dr. Lumley has a PhD in Geophysics from Stanford University, and BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees in Geophysics & Astronomy from the University of British Columbia. David’s management experience includes various academic positions as Department Head, Chair, and Research Center Director; and various industry positions as founder and leader of the 4D Seismic research group at Chevron Research, and founder and CEO of 4th Wave Imaging Corp (a technology company purchased by www.Fugro.com in 2007).
Prof Lumley’s scientific expertise includes wave-theoretic imaging and inversion, especially 3D seismic imaging, 4D time-lapse monitoring, and inverse theory estimation of physical properties in the earth and oceans, combining innovative physics, advanced data science analysis, and high performance computing. His research interests include wavefield data recorded with 'Large N' sensor arrays, using manmade sources, or natural sources such as earthquakes and ambient noise. Applications include imaging and time-lapse monitoring of the earth’s subsurface, natural resources, energy, water, fluid flow, CO2 injection and storage, natural and induced earthquake seismicity, and astrophysical gravitational waves; covering a broad range of earth scales including the near-surface “critical zone”, oceans, deep sediments, reservoirs, tectonic crust, upper mantle, planetary bodies, and space.

Publications

Seismic Monitoring of Baseflow and Groundwater Changes in the Yellowstone National Park 2025 - Journal Article

Time-lapse full-waveform inversion with a new gradient-weighting strategy applied to marine seismic data 2025 - Journal Article

Crustal and uppermost mantle structures of the North American Midcontinent Rift revealed by joint full-waveform inversion of ambient-noise data and teleseismic P waves 2024 - Journal Article

Truncated pseudo-differential operator $\sqrt{-\nabla ^2}$ and its applications in viscoacoustic reverse-time migration 2024 - Journal Article

Asymmetric magma plumbing system beneath Axial Seamount based on full waveform inversion of seismic data 2024 - Journal Article

Truncated pseudo-differential operator √−▽2 and its applications in viscoacoustic reverse-time migration 2024 - Journal Article

Truncated pseudo-differential operator v-?2 and its applications in viscoacoustic reverse-time migration 2024 - Other

Monitoring Subsurface Fracture Flow Using Unsupervised Deep Learning of Borehole Microseismic Waveform Data 2024 - Journal Article

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Awards

Cecil and Ida Green (Texas Instruments) Endowed Chair in Geophysics - The University of Texas at Dallas [2017]

Best Paper Awards (8 awards to date) - SEG, ASEG, SPIE, SOVG... [2016]

Distinguished Instructor - ASEG [2015]

Pioneer on History of Geophysics Timeline - SEG [2005]

Distinguished Lecturer - SEG [2000]

Distinguished Lecturer - SPE [1998]

J. Clarence Karcher Award - SEG [1996]

Gillanders Memorial Award - UBC [1986]

Appointments

Cecil and Ida Green (Texas Instruments) Endowed Chair in Geophysics
The University of Texas at Dallas [2017–Present]

Professor, Earth Sciences, Physics
The University of Texas at Dallas [2017–Present]

Department Head, Earth Sciences
The University of Texas at Dallas [2021–Present]

Board of Directors, and VP
Society of Exploration Geophysics [2018–2021]

Professor, Physics & Astrophysics, Earth & Environment, Dept Head Geophysics
University of Western Australia [2009–2017]

Additional Information

Prof Lumley CV

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jl9z19t41one4pcbprxg3/Prof-David-Lumley-UTD-Academic-CV-2025.2.pdf?rlkey=us1dhwx8zn5bqqb2q4zs20ngi&st=hpx8fm3o&dl=0

Activities

AGU David E. Lumley Scholarship in Environment & Energy (American Geophysical Union)

Permanently Endowed.
Awarded annually to support AGU student members who combine Energy & Environment in their research and want to continue on to MS or PhD Geophysics degree programs.

SEG David E. Lumley Scholarship in Energy & Environment (Society of Exploration Geophysics)

Permanently Endowed.
Awarded annually to support SEG student members who combine Energy & Environment in their research and want to continue on to MS or PhD Geophysics degree programs.

Affiliations

AGU - American Geophysical Union (Life Member)

1984/01

SEG - Society of Exploration Geophysics (Life Member)