I am a phyicist who works on Geological and Geophysical problems using mathematical, statistical and computational approaches to understand underlying processes. My core reasearch interests cover earthquake seismology, natural hazards, complex systems, mountain building and landscape evolution. I have also worked on applied geoscience projects including carbon capture and storage.

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The solid earth defines many aspects the economic, industrial and social norms of our everyday lives. It provides both physical and energy resources, it provides places where we can live and it is a source of natural disasters which irreversibly change peoples lives.

Addressing all of these opportunities and risks requires a sound understanding of the physical processes behind them as well as an appreciation of inherent uncertainty that the Earth will always throws at us.

I have three main research focusses

1. Earthquake Physics

• Spatio-temporal evolution of seismicity
• Uncertainty quantification for hazard assessment

2. Collisional Mountain Building and Foreland Basin Evolution

• Modelling of foreland basin evolution
• Modelling of detrital fission-track data

3. Carbon Capture and Storage 

• Risk and uncertainty in geological storage of CO2

Modelling of Detrital Fission Track Age Data

• Quantification of bias and uncertainty using a bootstrap approach
• Application of OpenBUGS to infer closure age distributions

Modelling Spatio-Temporal Behaviour for Earthquake Hazard

• Models of cluster identification and classification
• Use of INLA to model earthquake distribtuions

Current Students

2014-                 Kirsty Bayliss: Seismic source zonation using modern statistical methods

2013-                 Yutong Shu: Natural analogues for geological carbon storage

2012-                 Rami Eid: Testing of geophysical monitoring techniques using numerical leakage situations

Completed Students

2009-2011         Sarah Touati: Complexity, aftershock sequences, and uncertainty in earthquake statistics

Postdoc Research Associates

Dr Sarah Touati: 2011-2014

• EFFORT
• PURE

Dr Neil Bursnide:

• Actuarial Risk for geological storage of CO2 (Scottish Power)
• QICS Project (NERC funded)
• 2014  QICS2 Scoping Project ; UKCCSRC/EPSRC Funded

Dr Jen Roberts:

• 2014 QICS2 Scoping Project ; UKCCSRC/EPSRC Funded