Professor, Students Win Honors from Society of Exploration Geophysicists

Dr. Hejun Zhu, assistant professor of geosciences, is one of two early career scientists who received the J. Clarence Karcher Award from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) at the organization’s annual meeting in September.

Dr. Robert Stewart (left), president of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, presents the J. Clarence Karcher Award to Dr. Hejun Zhu, assistant professor of geosciences at UT Dallas.The award recognizes significant contributions to the science and technology of exploration geophysics by individuals younger than 35.

In addition, two geosciences doctoral students, Jaewook Lee and Jidong Yang, were awarded the Anadarko/SEG Scholarship, with each receiving $10,000. In addition, doctoral student Mengli Zhang was one of 22 recipients of the Earl D. and Reba C. Griffin Memorial Scholarship.

Geoscientists Create Deeper Look at Processes Below Earth’s Surface with 3D Images

Geoscientists at The University of Texas at Dallas recently used massive amounts of earthquake data and supercomputers to generate high-resolution, 3D images of the dynamic geological processes taking place far below the Earth’s surface.

In a study published April 29 in Nature Communications, the UT Dallas research team described how it created images of mantle flows in a subduction region under Central America and the Caribbean Sea using a computationally intensive technique called a full waveform inversion (FWI).

“This is the first comprehensive seismic study to directly image 3D mantle flow fields in actual subduction environments using advanced FWI technology,” said Dr. Hejun Zhu, corresponding author of the study and assistant professor of geosciences in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Dr. Jidong Yang, who earned his PhD in geosciences from UT Dallas in May, and Dr. Robert Stern, professor of geosciences, are the study’s co-authors.