2017 Nominating Committee

Chair: Clint Conrad, U. of Oslo
Wolfgang Bangerth, CSU Fort Collins
Ved Lekic, U. of Maryland
Sabine Stanley, Johns Hopkins U.

2017 Slate of Candidates

Executive Committee

Susanne Buiter, Geological Survey of Norway [link]

I look forward to helping CIG by serving on it's Executive Committee. CIG has important roles in software development for a wide range of geodynamics use, in training, and in community building. If elected, I would work towards supporting open source and open data initiatives, accessible computation time, software citation possibilities, and links between CIG and the broad geodynamics community, also outside the USA. I have been part of CIG's Long Term Tectonics group since 2016 and am International Affiliate member for many years.

My background is in crust and lithosphere dynamics. Currently my work focuses on the evolution of rifted continental margins and subduction processes. I am co-developer of the finite-element code SULEC and organiser of benchmarks between numerical and laboratory (sandbox) models.

Carl Tape, University of Alaska [link]

I consider myself a seismological representative to CIG, where I have served on the Science Steering Committee from 2011-2017 and on the Seismology Working Group since 2010. CIG plays a major role within the global earth sciences community. If elected to the Executive Committee, I would seek to sustain CIG's core role in code development, while also contemplating how to open the widest doors possible to new users through broader training and easier access to HPC resources for simulations and data processing. I also see a vital need to improve workflows for tackling scientific problems, especially when handling large-scale simulations or data sets.

Science Steering Committee

Position 1

Chris Harig, University of Arizona [link]

My research covers computational geodesy and geodynamics. I study current ice mass changes in the cryosphere and how this estimation is impacted by the rheology of the upper mantle. I also teach Geodynamics at the senior/graduate level, and Programming in the Earth Sciences at the 200 level. Both classes are focused around integrating computational tools into Earth science curricula. Whether using established software (e.g. Citcom or ASPECT) or developing my own packages (github) I embrace an open data/open code philosophy which I think is critical to the expansion of our community. I look forward to supporting the CIG community, both for new users we bring in and for our long term developers.

Gabriele Morra, University of Louisiana at Lafayette [link]

The main focus of my career has been to develop geodynamics software based on a variety of techniques, Finite Elements, Finite Volume, Boundary Elements, Particles in Cell, Lattice Boltzmann Method, and to optimize them for High Performance Computing. Geodynamics is a growing field and the number of geoscientists using its tools is increasing. It is our responsibility to carefully design CIG community software and trainings for young students and professionals. This year I published a book, Pythonic Geodynamics, aimed at reaching this goal. If elected, I will work to ensure that CIG will focus on developing tools that are very accessible, to reach the broadest community.

Position 2

David Ham, Imperial College London [link]

My research centres on advancing the core simulation technology on which the computational science rests. I lead the Firedrake project which is a system for automating simulation by generating high performance forward and adjoint finite element models from high-level mathematical specifications. I have a particular focus on geoscientific applications, for which Firedrake has specialised features such as extruded meshes. I also serve as an executive editor of the EGU journal Geoscientific Model Development. In that capacity I work to ensure the recognition of the work that goes into creating the models that geoscience rests on. In my GMD role I also push for open, reproducible and traceable results in computational geoscience, an approach which I believe carries directly over to CIG.

CIG is a flagship project for excellent computational science. If elected to the SSC, I would see my role as advocating and upholding cutting edge best practice in this regard. Specifically, the composability of geoscience modelling technology is a critical challenge as problems, algorithms and hardware all become more complex. A related and equally crucial challenge I would champion is ensuring that geoscientific simulation continues to lead the way in creating robust, reproducible scientific results by ensuring that CIG projects meet very high standards of software engineering, verification and validation; and that this process is open and published.

Moritz Heimpel, University of Alberta [link]

My research involves computational modelling of planetary interiors. Having worked with developers of the dynamo code MagIC I have seen great advances in code development as well as in computer power. At the same time the scientific communities of Earth and planetary geodynamics, geophysical fluid dynamics, and solar and stellar astrophysics increasingly collaborate and use similar computational codes and tools. I see CIG as a leading organization that fosters this integration of our scientific communities. Serving on the SSC would allow me the opportunity to participate in the continuing progress of earth-planetary-stellar science.

Position 3

Jessica Irving, Princeton University [link]

I am a seismologist interested in understanding the interior of of the Earth and the internal structures of other planets and I would be happy to serve on the CIG Science Steering Committee (SSC). As an end user of code which is hosted by CIG and supported by community contributors (Burnman, AxiSEM), or kept for posterity in archive status (Mineos), I value the openness and opportunity for research reproducibility that CIG engenders. I have been a lecturer at the CIDER summer program (2014, 2016), served as one of the SEDI (Study of Earth's Deep Interior) representatives to the AGU Fall Meeting Program Committee (2015-2017) and I am on the IRIS Global Seismic Network Standing Committee. As a “Deep Earth” seismologist I think it is important to forge and maintain links between the varied branches of science which help us to understand the dynamical nature of our planet. Accessible computational codes and community education are ways to enhance these links and facilitate collaborative work; if elected to the SSC I would endeavor to support its work and strengthen the framework which allows exciting research to be carried out.

Ying Zhou, Virginia Tech [link]

I am a theoretical and computational seismologist. My research interests focus on wave propagation physics and seismic imaging of the Earth's crust and mantle. I participated in the development of SPECFEM3D -- a CIG software for wave propagation simulations and adjoint tomography. If elected to serve on the SSC, I will work hard to promote the connection between theoretical/computational advances and community software for scientific discovery.