Richard Craig Aster 

Professor of Geophysics and Research Geophysicist

Associate Department Chair

 

Department of Earth and Environmental

Science and Geophysical Research Center

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology,

Socorro, NM, 87801

Phone: (575) 835-5924; Fax: (575) 835-6436;

aster@ees.nmt.edu; www.ees.nmt.edu/aster

 

Last updated: May, 2008

 

Professional Preparation

 

Ph.D., Earth Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California,

San Diego, 1991.

M.S., Geophysics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986.

B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering with additional major completed in Physics;

graduation with High Honors and Distinction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1983.

 

Appointments

 

Chair, New Mexico Tech Department of Earth and Environmental Science, 2008-2011

Professor of Geophysics, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM, May, 2000 - present

Associate Professor of Geophysics, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM., May, 1996-May, 2000

Assistant Professor of Geophysics, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM., August, 1991-May, 1996

Postgraduate Research Geophysicist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA., May, 1991 - August, 1991

Research Assistant, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA. September, 1987-May, 1991

Research Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI., October, 1985-September, 1987

Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI., January, 1984-October, 1985

Awards and Honors

IRIS/SSA Distinguished Lecturer, 2009
Elected to Seismological Society of America Board of Directors 2008-2011

New Mexico Tech Faculty Award, 2005

NSF Antarctic Service Medal, 1999

 

Recent Synergistic Activities

 

Principal Investigator, New Mexico Tech IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center and EarthScope USArray Array

Operations Facility. Institutional coordination, general oversight, and planning, and public .

outreach for the IRIS Consortium national NSF facility for supporting seismic data collection

with portable seismic instrumentation for the PASSCAL and EarthScope programs (1998 - ).

 

IRIS PASSCAL Standing Committee (non voting member).

 

Co-author, Parameter Estimation and Inverse Problems , Inverse Theory

textbook for graduate students in geophysics and related disciplines (with B. Borchers and C. Thurber).

Elsevier, 2004.

 

Chair, IRIS Education and Outreach (E&O) Standing Committee (2002 - 2006) . The committee oversees

and plans IRIS E&O activities with a national scope, in association with other national

educational organizations (e.g., National Science Teacher's Association). Ongoing IRIS E&O

projects include museum displays, seismometers in schools, a national mini-grant program

for development of teaching modules, a national lecture tour (with the Seismological Society

of America), and widely-distributed web-based and conventional educational resources.

 

IRIS International Working Group (2006 - )

 

Polar Networks Science Committee, NSF Office of Polar Programs (2006 - )

 

Co-Coordinator and Co-P.I., NSF EarthScope Imaging Workshops (w/ A. Levander, G. Pavlis, and S. Rondennay).

 

Organizing Committee, National EarthScope Workshop, Santa Ana Pueblo, NM, March

29-April 1, 2005.

 

Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE) Advisory Committee (2006 - )

 

Los Alamos National Laboratory Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics Advisory Committee (2007 - )

 

Co-Principal Investigator. Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO), NSF Office of Polar Programs. Science, Education, and Outreach activities associated with

a persistently active volcano in Antarctica.

 

Co-Principal Investigator. Colorado Rocky Mountain Experiment and Seismic Transects (CREST), NSF Continental Dynamics Program. Investigating the mantle structure and

tectonic history of the high Colorado Rockies.

 

Co-Principal Investigator. POLENET, NSF OPP International Polar Year. Exploring the tectonics and ice cap dynamics of west Antarctica.

 

Co-Principal Investigator, Rio Grande Seismic Transect 1.5, (RISTRA 1.5) Los Alamos National Laboratory Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

 

Recent Collaborators

 

Butler, R., IRIS Consortium; Lay, T., University of California, Santa Cruz; Snieder, R., Colorado School of Mines;

Johnson, J., New Mexico Tech; ; Snelson, C., New Mexico Tech; Kyle, P, New Mexico Tech; Karlstrom, K., University of New Mexico;

McIntosh, W., New Mexico Tech; Fehler, M., Los Alamos National Laboratory; Thurber, C., University of

Wisconsin-Madison;; Koper, K., Saint Louis University; Ni, J. New Mexico State University; Grand, S.,

University of Texas, Austin; Baldridge, S., Los Alamos National Laboratory; MacAyeal, D., University of Chicago; Bean, Christopher, University
College, Dublin; O'Brien, G., Universtity College Dublin; Okal, E., Northwestern University; McNamara,

D., USGS, Golden, CO; Bromirski, P., Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Dueker, K., University of Wyoming; Nyblade, A., Penn. State University;
Wiens, D., Washington University; Wilson, T., Ohio State University; Wilson, D., USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory,

 

Ph.D. Thesis Advisor

 

Peter M. Shearer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, La Jolla, CA.

 

Thesis Advisees

 

Yvan Charnavel (M.S., 1993); Mike Skov (M.S., 1994); Rod Flores (M.S., 1995); Joe

Henton (M.S., 1995); George Slad (M.S., 1995); Rebecca Knight (M.S., 1996); Mitch Withers

(Ph.D., 1997); Xiaobing Zhang (M.S., 1999); Charlotte Rowe (Ph.D, 2000); Joe Leon (M.S.

2001); Sang Yun Mah (M.S., 2004); Mario Ruiz (M.S., 2004); Dave Wilson (Ph.D., 2004);

Rafael Alvarado (M.S., 2004); Sara McNamara (M.S., 2004); Wenzheng Yang (M.S., 2004);

Kent Anderson (Ph.D., 2003-); Brent Henderson (M.S., 2006); Jonathan MacCarthy (Ph.D., 2006 -);

Hunter Yarbrough (Ph.D., 2006 -); Julien Chaput (Ph.D., 2007 -)