Geophysics

Geophysics

Roger Fu

Roger Fu

John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences
Head Tutor

Research interests include the formation and interior evolution of the Earth and other planetary bodies.  Roger's primary tool is paleomagnetism, which he complements with geodynamical modeling. 

Research Group Coordinator:

20 Oxford St.
Geo Museum 204B
p: 617-384-6991
Rebecca  Fischer

Rebecca Fischer

Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Accretion, core formation, and composition of the deep interiors of Earth and other terrestrial planets. She combines high-pressure, high-temperature mineral physics experiments with planetary-scale modeling.

Fischer received a B.A. in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Integrated Science from Northwestern University in 2009, and a Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2015.

Research Group Coordinator: Stephanie Clayman

Office location: Geological Museum 204C
Mailing address: 20 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138
p: 617-384-6992
Brendan  Meade

Brendan Meade

Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Brendan Meade first joined Harvard as a Daly Postdoctoral fellow and continued as an Assistant then Associate Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences. 

His research is focused on the geodetic imaging of earthquake cycle processes with an emphasis on the detection of interseismic elastic strain accumulation.  Meade's lab is responsible for deconvolving tectonic and earthquake cycle signals across the Japanese Islands to identify the coupled subduction zone interface that ruptured during the great Tohoku-oki earthquake of 2011.  He holds Ph.D. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and B.A. in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from Johns Hopkins University.

Research Group Coordinator:

Office Location: Geological Museum 221
Mailing Address: EPS, 20 Oxford St.
Cambridge, MA 02138

p: 617-495-8921 f: 617-495-8839
Jerry Mitrovica

Jerry Mitrovica

Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science

Jerry X. Mitrovica joined Harvard in 2009 as a Professor of Geophysics.His work focuses on the Earth's response to external and internal forcings that have time scales ranging from seconds to billions of years. He has written extensively on topics ranging from the connection of mantle convective flow to the geological record, the rotational stability of the Earth and other terrestrial planets, ice age geodynamics, and the geodetic and geophysical signatures of ice sheet melting in our progressively warming world. Sea-level change has served as the major theme of these studies, with particular emphasis on critical events in ice age climate and on the sea-level fingerprints of modern polar ice sheet collapse.

Mitrovica is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University. He is a former Director of the Earth Systems Evolution Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and J. Tuzo Wilson Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, where he also received his Ph.D. degree. He is the recipient of the Arthur L. Day Medal from the Geological Society of America, the W.S Jardetsky Medal from Columbia University, the A.E.H. Love Medal from the European Geosciences Union and the Rutherford Memorial Medal from the Royal Society of Canada. He is also a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America, as well as a past Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Research Group Coordinator:

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Office location: Geological Museum 203B
Mailing address: EPS, 20 Oxford St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
p: 617-496-2732, f: 617-495-8839
James Rice

James Rice

Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics, Emeritus

Theoretical mechanics in glaciology, hydrology, seismology and tectonophysics; physics of earthquakes, ice sheet flow, fluid interactions with deformation and failure of earth materials

Assistant: Virginia Casas

Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford St.
Cambridge, MA 02138

Office location - Pierce Hall 224
p: (617) 495-3445
Miaki Ishii

Miaki Ishii

Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Internal structure of the earth, seismic source imaging, signal processing, theoretical seismology, and geodynamics.

Research Group Coordinator:

EPS
20 Oxford St.
Cambridge, MA 02138

Geological Museum 202B
p: 617-384-8066, f: 617-495-8839
Photo of Jeremy Bloxham

Jeremy Bloxham

Mallinckrodt Professor of Geophysics

Planetary magnetic fields, dynamo theory, structure and dynamics of the earth's core and lower mantle, inverse theory, mathematical geophysics.

Research Group Coordinator:

Geological Museum 201
p: 617-495-9517 f: 617-496-1240

Reginald A. Daly Postdoctoral Research Fellowship - Accepting Applications

October 10, 2023

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences 
Harvard University 
Reginald A. Daly Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 


The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University invites applicants for the Reginald A. Daly Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.  

The Department seeks candidates in the broad field of Earth and Planetary Sciences including but not limited to geology, geochemistry, geobiology, geodynamics, petrology,...

Read more about Reginald A. Daly Postdoctoral Research Fellowship - Accepting Applications
Thomas Lee

Thomas Lee receives 2023 AGU Scholarship

June 2, 2023

Thomas Lee recently won the 2023 Jermone M. Paros Scholarship in Geophysical Instrumentation. These scholarships were established through the generosity of Jerome M. Paros to support graduate students with a demonstrated interest in geophysical instrumentation and precise field measurements in seismology, atmospheric sciences, or ocean sciences. Three students are selected each year to help build a solid pool of talent working on and interested in...

Read more about Thomas Lee receives 2023 AGU Scholarship
JJ Dong

JJ Dong receives multiple 2023 AGU awards

September 15, 2023

Recent graduate Junjie Dong won multiple 2023 AGU awards, including the Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award and the Study of Earth's Deep Interior Graduate Research Award. The Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of mineral and rock physics achieved during the honoree's Ph.D. research. The Study of Earth's Deep Interior Graduate Research Award is p...

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headshot_-_lucas_vargas_zeppetello.jpg

Lucas Vargas Zeppetello receives 2023 AGU James R. Holton Award

September 14, 2023

Lucas Vargas Zeppetello was recently awarded the James R. Holton Award by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).  The James R. Holton Award is presented annually and recognizes outstanding scientific research and accomplishments from honorees within three years of receiving their Ph.D. This award serves to acknowledge exceptional contributions at an early stage of the awardee’s career. AGU, the world's largest Earth and space science association,...

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2023 Oct 10

EPS Colloquium - Eve-Lyn Hinckley, University of Colorado Boulder

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

Geo Mus 102 (Haller Hall) and Zoom

From Early Earth to Acid Rain and Agriculture: A Broad Look at the Changing Global Sulfur Cycle

Sulfur (S) is a key component of life and an element that has been dramatically changed by human industrial activities, including mining and fossil fuel combustion. Today, the nature of how humans alter the global S cycle is changing. As atmospheric S deposition has declined in response to air quality regulations in the United States and Europe, there has been an increase in S fertilizer applications reported in many large-scale regional crop systems. In addition, intensification...

Read more about EPS Colloquium - Eve-Lyn Hinckley, University of Colorado Boulder
2023 Nov 06

EPS Colloquium - Ruby Fu, California Institute of Technology

12:00pm

The role of meltwater in reshaping the structures of icy porous media

Icy porous materials such as snow or firn are ubiquitous in both Earth and planetary settings. Their microstructures (e.g., porosity) play an important role in dictating the reflectivity, fluid storage capacity, thermal conductivity, and mechanical properties of the larger-scale systems. Thus, understanding the complex physics that control the microstructure evolution of icy porous media is an important component in creating robust predictions of Earth’s cryosphere in response to climate warming, and in...

Read more about EPS Colloquium - Ruby Fu, California Institute of Technology
2023 Oct 23

EPS Colloquium - Rafael L. Bras, Georgia Institute of Technology

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

Geo Mus 102 (Haller Hall) and Zoom

Forest Recovery from Hurricane Disturbances

Hurricanes are a major disturbance to tropical forests. We used census observations at Bisley Experimental Watersheds (BEW) in Puerto Rico to study the mortality after hurricane Hugo in 1989 and after hurricane Maria in 2017 and the subsequent recovery of the forest after hurricane Hugo between 1989 and 2014 (the last census before hurricane Maria). We found that hurricane-induced mortality varied with species/plant functional types (PFTs) and stem sizes. Specifically, palms had the lowest mortality, followed by mid and late...

Read more about EPS Colloquium - Rafael L. Bras, Georgia Institute of Technology

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