Assistant Professor

Department of Geological Sciences

San Diego State University               

San Diego, CA 92182-1020

Email: sma@geology.sdsu.edu

Phone: (619) 594-3091

Office: GMCS 233A

My research is mainly focused on understanding of deformation in the lithosphere and physical processes associated with the earthquake faulting. My research group constructs mechanical models to account for various faulting-related field observations in structural geology, seismology, and geodesy. Recently we have been working on the mechanics of subduction zone earthquakes and mechanisms for large tsunami generation. Another strong interest of our group is seismic interferometry and imaging of subsurface structure using passive and active seismic data sets.

I am looking for students and postdocs who have strong background in math, mechanics, numerical methods, data analysis, and love geology and geophysics! If your interests are in the above areas please feel free to contact me.

Education

2006            Ph.D. in Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara

2001            M.S. in Engineering System, Colorado School of Mines

1999            M.S. in Earthquake Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

1996            B.S. in Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Professional Experience

2006 – 2008                      Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University

2008 – Present                  Assistant Professor, San Diego State University

Professional Affiliations

American Geophysical Union

Seismological Society of America

Southern California Earthquake Center

PhD Students

Evan Hirakawa

Qian Yao

Master Students

Nicole Velasco

Funded Research (pdf)