Research Assistant Professor

I am interested in using multi-geophysical data and modeling to understand earthquakes’ mechanisms and their related hazards. My team studies earthquakes from shallow, intermediate-, to deep depths, from continental fault systems to subduction zones, from tectonic to induced seismic events. Through careful analyses on a number of global large events, I discovered that many earthquakes happen as a series of ruptures spanning multiple faults in distinct episodes, rather than (as was previously assumed) a smooth unzipping of a planar fault.

My current research keeps untangling these enigmatic earthquake behaviors, and understanding their relationship with potentially controlling factors, including fault geometry, stress interactions, structural heterogeneities, regional tectonics, and fluids. I use an integrated research framework that covers 1) inversions of earthquake source processes using seismic and geodetic data, 2) numerical/dynamic models that interpret earthquake behaviors, and 3) quantitative assessment of seismic hazards using state-of-the-art earthquake source and Earth’s structural models. I also adopt new technologies including machine learning and distributed acoustic sensing.

I am actively looking for motivated students, postdocs, and visiting scholars, and there are co-advising opportunities! Please feel free to contact me to discuss research and applications.

See more on my personal website.

Interests

Earthquake source complexities and their controlling factors, seismic and tsunami hazards, subduction process, injection-induced seismicity, dense seismic/geodetic arrays.

Academics

Ph.D., Geophysics, California Institute of Technology, 2022
M.Sc., Geophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2016
B.Sc., Geophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2013

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