Mrinal Sen, a professor at The University of Texas at Austin and a pioneer in machine learning for seismic imaging, has been selected by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) as the speaker for their 2024-2025 Distinguished Instructor Short Course, referred to as DISC.

Sen will set off on a global tour to present to the SEG’s worldwide members as well as non-members. Sen was announced as the 2024 instructor at SEG’s International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy (IMAGE) conference in Houston in August, where he presented the first course.

In preparation for the tour, Sen has written a short book that participants will receive as part of the course.

“I was both happy and honored that they asked me to present the course,” Sen said. “It’s obviously a lot of work, but it’s very close with my current research so I think I can offer something that companies, researchers and students will find valuable.”

Sen is a professor with joint appointments at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UT Jackson School of Geosciences, where he holds the Shell Companies Foundation Centennial Chair in Geophysics.

In the 1990s Sen was among the first to train machine learning algorithms to use physics to analyze the subsurface. Since then, his research group has developed numerous methods combining mathematics with the latest computational technology. These accomplishments have led to academic and industry accolades for Sen, his research colleagues and students. This includes Sen earning the SEG’s prestigious Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal in 2018.

In addition to global audiences, Sen has played a key role in advancing machine learning for earth and planetary sciences at the Jackson School. This year, the school launched a new certificate program in machine learning and data analytics for geosciences, directed by Sen.

Sen’s short course, ‘Physics and Data Driven Seismic Data Analysis: A Narrative of Two Approaches’, is open to members and non-members of SEG. Learn more or register at https://seg.org/education/courses/mrinal-sen-disc/

For more information, contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, 512-574-7376
Anton Caputo, Jackson School of Geosciences, 210-602-2085
Monica Kortsha, Jackson School of Geosciences, 512-471-2241.