Center for Wave Phenomena

M.Sc, Math 1992
Ph.D., Math 1997
Country of origin: China
Current location: Landmark Graphics Corporation
email: HLDeng@lgc.com

CWP offered the best graduate education I had hoped for. It is an interdisciplinary program with multiple top-notch professors. Whether you are more interested in geophysics, mathematics, or computer science, you could find the best professor that you can work with. I have had my degrees in math and computer science, yet both of my advisors are from the geophysics department. Students at CWP have traditionally been very talented. Coming from almost every corner of the world, students at CWP are offered a unique opportunity to be exposed to a very diverse and colorful cultural environment. In addition, the school is located at a very quiet and beautiful area in Colorado.

Studying at CWP had given me tremendous exposure to the industry. I went out to work with oil companies as intern four out of my six summers at CWP, one with Unocal and three with Mobil. After receiving my M.S. and Ph.D. at CWP, I worked as a Senior Geophysicist at Mobil Technology Company in Dallas, Texas between 1997 and 1999. Then, I joined Landmark Graphics at Denver, Colorado as a Senior Software Developer.

M.Sc, Geophysics 1985
Ph.D., Geophysics 1987
Country of origin: England
Current location: Fairfield Industries
email: pdocherty@fairfield.com

It was twenty years ago that I began studying asymptotics and
inversion at the Center for Wave Phenomena. Rarely has a year gone by when I have not used the methods I learned back then. The signature of CWP can be found throughout the exploration industry and on a wide range of problems. You might be interested to know that at the core of Fairfield's imaging algorithms is a formula derived by a CWP student! It has been used on thousands of blocks of data in the Gulf of Mexico, producing images that have been sold to more than a hundred oil companies. In a current project, we are using tomography to build a single velocity model that encompasses all of the region beneath the shallow waters offshore Texas and Louisiana. As I write, five hundred computer nodes are working flat out solving the ray equations - the same ones written down in a class at CWP all those years ago.

M.Sc., Geophysics 1989
Ph.D., Geophysics 1994 (MIT)
Country of origin: People's Republic of China
Current location: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
email: wenjie.dong@exxonmobil.com

Wenjie Dong is currently Section Supervisor for Development and Production Geophysics at ExxonMobil in Houston. Prospective CWP students are welcome to contact Wenjie.

Ph.D., Geophysics 2004
Country of origin: Switzerland
Current location: De La Rue, Switzerland
email: alex@agret.net

My CWP years were a homerun. We were interested in lots of questions that are a little outside of classical exploration geophysics. We had so much fun and it was really interesting stuff. Nobody from CWP asked twice, they supported me and my research and most of the time they were really interested in what we did. At CWP, I was with a group that provided ready-to-use imaging code to the exploration industry and we could still publish papers about volcanoes, multiple scattering and Fabry-Perot. That's a cool place to be!

Following graduation, I spent one year in the machine and robot vision industry. I learned a lot, but for me it is too much engineering and too little research. I now work with De La Rue, the world 's largest commercial security printer and papermaker. There, I lead a R&D team that develops systems and algorithms to detect false and old banknotes, checks, security labels, passports, holograms, etc. You know how much fun image processing is, getting paid to do it might be just phenomenal!

Ph.D., Geophysics 2005
Country of origin: USA
Current location: Albuquerque, NM
email: mmhaney@sandia.gov

I owe all my success to the years I was part of CWP. I started at CWP right after completing my undergraduate degree in geophysics at CSM. During my first year, Prof. Roel Snieder came to CSM and joined CWP. I began a research project with him on multiple wave scattering and enjoyed it so much that I ended up doing my PhD under Roel's guidance on the topic of seismic imaging of fault zones. I am currently working on my modeling career (numerical modeling, that is!) as a post doc in the Geophysics Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. I am involved in projects covering the topics of CO2 sequestration, numerical rock physics, and reverse-time migration. In March 2006, I was selected for a USGS Mendenhall postdoctoral fellowship to be conducted at the Alaska volcano Observatory in Anchorage, AK. I will begin my position at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in the Spring of 2007. I routinely stay in contact with students and professors I knew in the group; CWP is a close family.

Degree Program: Ph.D. Geophysics 1998
Country of origin: Colombia
Current location: GeoCenter Inc., Houston
email: hjaramillo@geocenter.com

After graduating from CWP, I worked in the R&D department of WesternGeco for five years. Now I work in the R&D department of GeoCenter, Inc. During and after CWP, I published more than 20 papers (including SEG abstracts) on seismic imaging, co-authored with CWP professors and industry colleagues. I have also offered a course in seismic imaging at the Instituto Colombiano del Petroleo/Ecopetrol in Piedecuesta, Santander, Colombia.

Ph.D. Geophysics 2002
Country of origin: Czech Republic
Current location: Advanced Imaging Team, BP
email: petr.jilek@bp.com

In 1994, after finishing my MS study in Physics and Geophysics at the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, I worked as a research assistant in the ray-tracing group, SW3D, led by Prof. V. Cerveny. It was then that I started to fully appreciate the value of working with, and learning from, the world-class experts in the field. In 1996, for the very same reason, I joined the CWP group as a PhD student. I had a unique chance to study under the advice of world-class scientists once again. Although not always easy, it was an exciting time during which I further shaped my view of science and life.

After completing my PhD study in 2002, I accepted a job offer
from BP as a geophysicist in BP's seismic imaging group, the group credited for being among the best in the oil industry. After four years of working in this group, I know that the credit is well deserved.

While in BP, I have worked on various seismic imaging projects ranging from research and its practical applications, software development and improvement, to data analysis, data processing and project management. My current focus is on velocity tomography, inversion, and development of new migration techniques. Every project brings a new challenge, the fact I enjoy. As I learned, both SW3D and CWP prepared me well to face such challenges.

As my last remark, I have found that the most important thing for me to enjoy my work, either now at BP or back at school, is the people around me, my colleagues, advisors and teachers I work with. So far, I have been very lucky in this respect.

Ph.D., Geophysics 2001
Country of origin: France
Current location: Laboratoire d'Analyse Topologie et Probabilities
Centre de Mathematiques et Informatique
Université de Provence
email: jlerous@cmi.univ-mrs.fr

Upon graduation from Mines, I joined the Université de Provence where I am now Maitre de Conferences (tenured assistant professor). I feel that I was lucky to be at CWP at a very exciting time. I still work on imaging, but on the mathematical aspects of it mostly. Here are two preprints that i am quite proud of http://hal.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ccsd-00003815
and http://hal.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ccsd-00005759. I am also working on inverse problems for parabolic type equations and control theory now.

I sometimes go to the IFP (Institut Francais du Petrole) in Paris because I advise a student there, where CWP's Norm Bleistein's name and work are often referred to. Life's been good for me and I know that CWP was of a great help for that. I should also mention that I've not only installed SU (seismic unix software) at school but I've even used it with the students, making them write migration codes.

Ph.D., Geophysics 2001
Country of origin: U.S.A.
Current location: Former Professor turned Geophysical Specialist
Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
http://sepwww.stanford.edu/oldsep/cliner/index.html
email: chris.liner@gmail.com

I came to Mines in the fall of 1986. My background to that point was a BS in geology, MS in geophysics, and 6 years in the industry. I instantly enjoyed the warm, friendly, and supportive atmosphere of CWP. My work there involved formulation of dip moveout (a fashionable topic back then) based on the acoustic wave equation. I picked up where Tom Jorden left off and managed to push things on a bit further
.
After CWP, I took an industry job doing geophysics research, but quickly jumped to an academic postion at The University of Tulsa. I am sure my CWP training, and the great reputation of Mines, helped me get both jobs. I worked 15 years as a teacher (mostly), but also managed to serve SEG as the millenium editor of Geophysics (1999-2001) and publish a book that is now in second edition. Recently, the urge for change took me from Tulsa to Saudi Arabia where I now work as a research geophysicist. The guy who hired me is a CWP graduate (Mohammed Al Faraj) as is the nice guy in the office next to mine (Tong Fei). All things considered, I could not have chosen (or been chosen by) a better PhD school than mines, or a better research group than CWP.

Ph.D., Math 1995
Country of origin: China
Current location: ExxonMobil
email: jonathan.liu@exxonmobil.com

My name is Zhenyue "Jonathan" Liu. In 1990, I came from China and joined CWP as a PhD candidate. My thesis advisor was Dr. Norman Bleistein. I earned my PhD degree in May,1995 and was employed by ExxonMobil Corporation in August, 1995. This year is my tenth anniversary in ExxonMobil. My current research interest is the estimation of geophysical parameters. I have been enjoying my work so much. I am very grateful for the period that I was at the CWP. I believe that CWP is distinguished by its powerful teaching team, liberal academic atmosphere, and strong industrial coherence.

Ph.D., Geophysics 2003
Country of origin: Bulgaria
Current location: Shell, Houston
email: Albena.Mateeva@shell.com

I am very proud to have been a student at CWP. I learned a lot and had a great time. Not to mention, it was easy to find a good job. I am quite happy with my job at Shell. I smile a bit every morning when I enter the "CWP corner" - my office is next to others that I met at CWP. I am in good company. I am sending you a picture from a recent field trip to New Mexico in which I'm wearing my Mines Alumni t-shirt. You may be delighted to hear that the benefits of the CWP speaker-rehearsal "boot-camp" are lasting. Recently, Shell had an internal conference at which about 1 in 10 papers was chosen to be repeated in a highlight session. All ex-CWP-ers made it to the highlights!

Ph.D., Geophysics 1998
Country of origin: China
Current location: Nexus Geosciences, Inc.
email: zmeng@nexusgeo.com

I was teaching at Shandong University in 1992 when Norm Bleistein from CWP offered a short course to about 40 young scientists from all over China. With Norm's recommendation I received an RA and joined the CWP family in 1994. Since then, my professional career has been on a fast lane. CWP provided students with enormous exposure to the industry through internships, annual CWP cosortium meetings and SEG conferences. Students were densely cross-trained by CWP's several renowned professors with various backgrounds, which is very different from those single-professor consortia in the US; I gained my first industrial experience from working for ConocoPhillips as an intern for two summers and then as a formal employee in 1997. Finally, CWP/SU is the language of geoscientists and I am so proud as a user, and as a keen contributor.

M.Sc., Mathematics 1996
Country of origin: Venezuela
Current location: Sun Microsystems
email: Alejandro.Murillo@Sun.com

During the time I spent at CWP, I developed invaluable skills that made me a better professional. There are many places to do research, but only a few give you the opportunity to do leading edge research driven by industry needs, and within the freedom of an academic environment. At CWP, delivering your contributions in a professional way is as fundamental as the research itself. In the long term, that is what distinguishes a CWP alumnus and prepares you for any endeavor.

Currently I am a member of the Sun Java Partner Engineering Enterprise team. I have been at Sun for over seven years now. I initially performed R&D activities on high-performance and distributed computing; however, soon after I started there I moved into the world of Java for the enterprise.

Ph.D., Geophysics 2003
Country of origin: Mexico
Current location: CIIDIR-unidad Oaxaca
Instituto Politécnico Nacional
email: apech@ipn.mx

Topics on which I am working:

The seismic response of sedimentary basins. To model the response, I am using the Indirect Boundary Element Method (IBEM).
The Green's function for a heterogeneous elastic medium; in the medium, the P and S wave velocities change linearly with depth. For the acoustic case, there is a Green's function found by Pekeris. These Green's functions will allow us to apply the boundary element method to model the seismic response of inhomogeneous sedimentary basins.
Seismic anisotropy. I am modeling the signature of the reflection moveout.

M.Sc., Geophysics 1993
Ph.D., Geophysics 1997
Country of origin: Germany
Current location: Landmark Graphics Corporation
email: arueger@lgc.com

I am currently working as senior technical advisor and geophysical software developer at Landmark Graphics Corporation. Before coming to CWP, I studied at Karlsruhe, Germany. At Mines, I enjoyed the broad and high quality of the education, the close collaboration with world-class researchers and the interaction with industry. Most of all, I appreciated the multi-cultural experience of the CWP environment and the many lasting friendships that were formed during those days. It did help, of course, to have big mountains and skiing nearby.

Ph.D., Geophysics 2003
Country of origin: India
Current location: GX Technology
email: dsarkar@gxt.com

It was the breadth and depth of CWP's research program that initially attracted me as a student. Now having completed a doctorate there, I can testify to the comprehensive nature of a CWP education, which not only includes an exposure to all the technical details, but also to all other aspects that make up a complete professional. For those aspiring to be well rounded geophysicists, there is no better place to be. Upon graduation, I joined GX Technology/Input-Output, where, as a geophysicist, I am working on various issues related to seismic imaging.

M.Sc., Mathematics 1999
Country of origin: U.S.A.
Current location: Applied Research Laboratory
Penn State University
email: sds145@psu.edu

I am currently in the Research Engineer track at the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University, specializing in ocean acoustics. I am a member of the Systems Analysis and Simulation Department, which does simulation R&D for undersea sonar systems. My work has mainly been in the area of reverberation modeling. For example, our latest project
involves developing computationally efficient reverberation simulations that incorporate broadband signals and variable bottom bathymetry and sediment data. This work requires a significant theoretical and computational background in the modeling of wave phenomena, ray theoretical methods, and signal processing, all of which were a large part of my education and training at CWP. In addition, since sonar transmitters and receivers are generally in motion, as are many of the scatterers in the ocean, Doppler shifting and broadening are important effects, and they add interesting complications to the forward modeling problem that are not typically encountered in geophysical work. Because of the inclusion of Doppler, quite a bit of our work is formulated in the frequency domain. So, while we do not do much inversion, all of the training and practice I had at CWP solving inverse problems in the frequency-domain is still extremely relevant in these applications. I can say without reservation that the education and experience I received at CWP is a large part of why I have this position, and why I have been successful in it.

(303) 273-3552 cwpcsm@dix.mines.edu	CWP Alumni Career Reports


	Gabriel Alvarez
	MSc, Geophysics 1996 Country of origin: Colombia Current location: Stanford University email: gabriel@farne.Stanford.edu The two and a half years that I spent in Colorado School of Mines while getting my MSc degree with CWP are amongst the happiest, most memorable of my life. CWP is truly a place that fosters and encourages the free exchange of ideas. Not only are the professors and students top notch, but the work environment is friendly and unassuming. At CWP I learned a valuable combination of mathematics, physics, geophysics as well as computer and communication skills. I was able to build on my previous experience in the oil industry and learn new ideas and techniques that I was able to use when I returned to my home country and later when I joined SEP at Stanford University. I very much encourage young students to look at CWP as an ideal place for getting a PhD. It is a most reputed research group and one of a very few places in our industry where science and industry practice go hand in hand.

	John E. Anderson
	Ph.D., Geophysics 1996 Country of origin: U.S.A. Current location: ExxonMobil email: spanders@houston.rr.com Geophysics combines the excitement and interest of all the physical sciences and earth sciences with a set of practical exploration problems that can truly have an impact on people's lives. This is one of the more meaningful careers that a person could choose. CWP is a great place to get started.

	Phil D. Anno
	Ph.D., Geophysics 1992 Country of origin: U.S.A. Current location: ConocoPhillips, Subsurface Technology Center email: phil.d.anno@conocophillips.com I currently hold a Sr. Research Scientist position in the Subsurface Imaging and Prediction group at ConocoPhillips. I help set research directions and objectives for this group. I also lead a research team focused on seismic prestack inversion problems important to ConocoPhillips. Lately these problems include seismic inversion for density, elastic properties of heavy-oil reservoirs, and 4D inverse problems. I also research and publish on issues generally related to prestack signal analysis and interpretation. Amplitude-preserving noise attenuation methods, time-frequency decomposition, and anisotropy and anisotropic imaging are recent examples. I also travel and consult for ConocoPhillips businesses worldwide, bringing many of these problems back to the Technology Center for additional investigation. I have the pleasure of working with people from many different countries, races, and faiths. As a student I found the cultural “stew” at the Center for Wave Phenomena to be equally stimulating. In the years that have since passed I have also found unexpected opportunities for professional growth. For two weeks of each Spring semester I lecture on inverse problems as part of a graduate course at Rice University. I frequently mentor young employees training at the Technology Center as well as university interns, sometimes serving on their thesis committee. And I interact regularly with the leading industry and academic researchers, including those associated with the Center for Wave Phenomena. I attribute much of this opportunity to the people I met and the research environment that I experienced firsthand as a student at CWP.

	Reynaldo Cardona
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2002 Country of origin: Venezuela Current location: Chevron email: RCardona@chevron.com At Chevron I started by estimating reservoir properties from seismic data, which included seismic amplitude analyisis, rock physics and petrophysical integration. I had the opportunity to rotate to base business operations, and now I have become Operations Geologist for Boscan Field, Venezuela. Independent of whether I am working as a Geophycisist or Geologist my experience at Mines and RCP and CWP is one that impacts my day to day work.

	Lydia H. Deng
	M.Sc, Math 1992 Ph.D., Math 1997 Country of origin: China Current location: Landmark Graphics Corporation email: HLDeng@lgc.com CWP offered the best graduate education I had hoped for. It is an interdisciplinary program with multiple top-notch professors. Whether you are more interested in geophysics, mathematics, or computer science, you could find the best professor that you can work with. I have had my degrees in math and computer science, yet both of my advisors are from the geophysics department. Students at CWP have traditionally been very talented. Coming from almost every corner of the world, students at CWP are offered a unique opportunity to be exposed to a very diverse and colorful cultural environment. In addition, the school is located at a very quiet and beautiful area in Colorado. Studying at CWP had given me tremendous exposure to the industry. I went out to work with oil companies as intern four out of my six summers at CWP, one with Unocal and three with Mobil. After receiving my M.S. and Ph.D. at CWP, I worked as a Senior Geophysicist at Mobil Technology Company in Dallas, Texas between 1997 and 1999. Then, I joined Landmark Graphics at Denver, Colorado as a Senior Software Developer.

	Pawan Dewangan
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2004 Country of origin: India Current location: National Institute of Oceanography Dona Paula, Goa - India email: pdewangan@darya.nio.org pdewangan@yahoo.com CWP is one of the best graduate schools. Professors are very friendly and the interaction with students is excellent. The course work in CSM is target-oriented and deals with the state-of-the-art technology. It is amazing that the professors can teach such a complex topic in a simple language. I will always remember my friends at CWP, who helped me in every aspect of my life. As a matter of fact, most of the research ideas developed during our informal discussions at the coffee table, lunch time, etc. After graduating from CSM with specialization in multicomponent and anisotropy, I decided to join an oceanographic institute. I accepted the challenge to apply my skills to a much broader field. Currently, I am involved in exploration and exploitation of Gas Hydrates along the Indian provinces.
	Paul Docherty
	M.Sc, Geophysics 1985 Ph.D., Geophysics 1987 Country of origin: England Current location: Fairfield Industries email: pdocherty@fairfield.com It was twenty years ago that I began studying asymptotics and inversion at the Center for Wave Phenomena. Rarely has a year gone by when I have not used the methods I learned back then. The signature of CWP can be found throughout the exploration industry and on a wide range of problems. You might be interested to know that at the core of Fairfield's imaging algorithms is a formula derived by a CWP student! It has been used on thousands of blocks of data in the Gulf of Mexico, producing images that have been sold to more than a hundred oil companies. In a current project, we are using tomography to build a single velocity model that encompasses all of the region beneath the shallow waters offshore Texas and Louisiana. As I write, five hundred computer nodes are working flat out solving the ray equations - the same ones written down in a class at CWP all those years ago.

	Wenjie Dong
	M.Sc., Geophysics 1989 Ph.D., Geophysics 1994 (MIT) Country of origin: People's Republic of China Current location: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company email: wenjie.dong@exxonmobil.com Wenjie Dong is currently Section Supervisor for Development and Production Geophysics at ExxonMobil in Houston. Prospective CWP students are welcome to contact Wenjie.

	Alex Grêt
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2004 Country of origin: Switzerland Current location: De La Rue, Switzerland email: alex@agret.net My CWP years were a homerun. We were interested in lots of questions that are a little outside of classical exploration geophysics. We had so much fun and it was really interesting stuff. Nobody from CWP asked twice, they supported me and my research and most of the time they were really interested in what we did. At CWP, I was with a group that provided ready-to-use imaging code to the exploration industry and we could still publish papers about volcanoes, multiple scattering and Fabry-Perot. That's a cool place to be! Following graduation, I spent one year in the machine and robot vision industry. I learned a lot, but for me it is too much engineering and too little research. I now work with De La Rue, the world 's largest commercial security printer and papermaker. There, I lead a R&D team that develops systems and algorithms to detect false and old banknotes, checks, security labels, passports, holograms, etc. You know how much fun image processing is, getting paid to do it might be just phenomenal!

	Matt Haney
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2005 Country of origin: USA Current location: Albuquerque, NM email: mmhaney@sandia.gov I owe all my success to the years I was part of CWP. I started at CWP right after completing my undergraduate degree in geophysics at CSM. During my first year, Prof. Roel Snieder came to CSM and joined CWP. I began a research project with him on multiple wave scattering and enjoyed it so much that I ended up doing my PhD under Roel's guidance on the topic of seismic imaging of fault zones. I am currently working on my modeling career (numerical modeling, that is!) as a post doc in the Geophysics Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. I am involved in projects covering the topics of CO2 sequestration, numerical rock physics, and reverse-time migration. In March 2006, I was selected for a USGS Mendenhall postdoctoral fellowship to be conducted at the Alaska volcano Observatory in Anchorage, AK. I will begin my position at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in the Spring of 2007. I routinely stay in contact with students and professors I knew in the group; CWP is a close family.

	Herman Jaramillo
	Degree Program: Ph.D. Geophysics 1998 Country of origin: Colombia Current location: GeoCenter Inc., Houston email: hjaramillo@geocenter.com After graduating from CWP, I worked in the R&D department of WesternGeco for five years. Now I work in the R&D department of GeoCenter, Inc. During and after CWP, I published more than 20 papers (including SEG abstracts) on seismic imaging, co-authored with CWP professors and industry colleagues. I have also offered a course in seismic imaging at the Instituto Colombiano del Petroleo/Ecopetrol in Piedecuesta, Santander, Colombia.

	Petr Jílek
	Ph.D. Geophysics 2002 Country of origin: Czech Republic Current location: Advanced Imaging Team, BP email: petr.jilek@bp.com In 1994, after finishing my MS study in Physics and Geophysics at the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, I worked as a research assistant in the ray-tracing group, SW3D, led by Prof. V. Cerveny. It was then that I started to fully appreciate the value of working with, and learning from, the world-class experts in the field. In 1996, for the very same reason, I joined the CWP group as a PhD student. I had a unique chance to study under the advice of world-class scientists once again. Although not always easy, it was an exciting time during which I further shaped my view of science and life. After completing my PhD study in 2002, I accepted a job offer from BP as a geophysicist in BP's seismic imaging group, the group credited for being among the best in the oil industry. After four years of working in this group, I know that the credit is well deserved. While in BP, I have worked on various seismic imaging projects ranging from research and its practical applications, software development and improvement, to data analysis, data processing and project management. My current focus is on velocity tomography, inversion, and development of new migration techniques. Every project brings a new challenge, the fact I enjoy. As I learned, both SW3D and CWP prepared me well to face such challenges. As my last remark, I have found that the most important thing for me to enjoy my work, either now at BP or back at school, is the people around me, my colleagues, advisors and teachers I work with. So far, I have been very lucky in this respect.

	Jérome Le Rousseau
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2001 Country of origin: France Current location: Laboratoire d'Analyse Topologie et Probabilities Centre de Mathematiques et Informatique Université de Provence email: jlerous@cmi.univ-mrs.fr Upon graduation from Mines, I joined the Université de Provence where I am now Maitre de Conferences (tenured assistant professor). I feel that I was lucky to be at CWP at a very exciting time. I still work on imaging, but on the mathematical aspects of it mostly. Here are two preprints that i am quite proud of http://hal.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ccsd-00003815 and http://hal.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ccsd-00005759. I am also working on inverse problems for parabolic type equations and control theory now. I sometimes go to the IFP (Institut Francais du Petrole) in Paris because I advise a student there, where CWP's Norm Bleistein's name and work are often referred to. Life's been good for me and I know that CWP was of a great help for that. I should also mention that I've not only installed SU (seismic unix software) at school but I've even used it with the students, making them write migration codes.

	Christopher L. Liner
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2001 Country of origin: U.S.A. Current location: Former Professor turned Geophysical Specialist Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia http://sepwww.stanford.edu/oldsep/cliner/index.html email: chris.liner@gmail.com I came to Mines in the fall of 1986. My background to that point was a BS in geology, MS in geophysics, and 6 years in the industry. I instantly enjoyed the warm, friendly, and supportive atmosphere of CWP. My work there involved formulation of dip moveout (a fashionable topic back then) based on the acoustic wave equation. I picked up where Tom Jorden left off and managed to push things on a bit further . After CWP, I took an industry job doing geophysics research, but quickly jumped to an academic postion at The University of Tulsa. I am sure my CWP training, and the great reputation of Mines, helped me get both jobs. I worked 15 years as a teacher (mostly), but also managed to serve SEG as the millenium editor of Geophysics (1999-2001) and publish a book that is now in second edition. Recently, the urge for change took me from Tulsa to Saudi Arabia where I now work as a research geophysicist. The guy who hired me is a CWP graduate (Mohammed Al Faraj) as is the nice guy in the office next to mine (Tong Fei). All things considered, I could not have chosen (or been chosen by) a better PhD school than mines, or a better research group than CWP.

	Zhenyue (Jonathan) Liu
	Ph.D., Math 1995 Country of origin: China Current location: ExxonMobil email: jonathan.liu@exxonmobil.com My name is Zhenyue "Jonathan" Liu. In 1990, I came from China and joined CWP as a PhD candidate. My thesis advisor was Dr. Norman Bleistein. I earned my PhD degree in May,1995 and was employed by ExxonMobil Corporation in August, 1995. This year is my tenth anniversary in ExxonMobil. My current research interest is the estimation of geophysical parameters. I have been enjoying my work so much. I am very grateful for the period that I was at the CWP. I believe that CWP is distinguished by its powerful teaching team, liberal academic atmosphere, and strong industrial coherence.

	Alison Malcolm
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2005 Country of origin: Canada Current location: Institute for Mathematics and Its Application email: malcolm@ima.umn.edu Alison Malcolm is serving as a postdoc at IMA, University of Minnesota, from 2005-2007. As a CWP student, Alison wrote the following just before her graduation: I really enjoy being a CWP student. I have had the opportunity to work on several projects in different areas of geophysics with different faculty members. I have learned about mathematics, physics, geology and other subjects in addition to geophysics. The CWP students are great, as are the other students in the geophysics department (which houses CWP). I have made many very good friends during my time here. The professors in CWP and those in the geophysics and mathematics departments are friendly and helpful. It is common for students to discuss their research with professors other than their advisor or committee members. Through our weekly seminar, we keep up-to-date on what the other students are doing. I run research tests on our 32 processor cluster and am also easily able to find help from industry sponsors when I need more computing power. It is common to get code or data from the sponsor companies. Please feel free to ask me any questions you have about studying at CWP!

	Albena Mateeva
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2003 Country of origin: Bulgaria Current location: Shell, Houston email: Albena.Mateeva@shell.com I am very proud to have been a student at CWP. I learned a lot and had a great time. Not to mention, it was easy to find a good job. I am quite happy with my job at Shell. I smile a bit every morning when I enter the "CWP corner" - my office is next to others that I met at CWP. I am in good company. I am sending you a picture from a recent field trip to New Mexico in which I'm wearing my Mines Alumni t-shirt. You may be delighted to hear that the benefits of the CWP speaker-rehearsal "boot-camp" are lasting. Recently, Shell had an internal conference at which about 1 in 10 papers was chosen to be repeated in a highlight session. All ex-CWP-ers made it to the highlights!

	Zhaobo Meng
	Ph.D., Geophysics 1998 Country of origin: China Current location: Nexus Geosciences, Inc. email: zmeng@nexusgeo.com I was teaching at Shandong University in 1992 when Norm Bleistein from CWP offered a short course to about 40 young scientists from all over China. With Norm's recommendation I received an RA and joined the CWP family in 1994. Since then, my professional career has been on a fast lane. CWP provided students with enormous exposure to the industry through internships, annual CWP cosortium meetings and SEG conferences. Students were densely cross-trained by CWP's several renowned professors with various backgrounds, which is very different from those single-professor consortia in the US; I gained my first industrial experience from working for ConocoPhillips as an intern for two summers and then as a formal employee in 1997. Finally, CWP/SU is the language of geoscientists and I am so proud as a user, and as a keen contributor.

	Alejandro Murillo
	M.Sc., Mathematics 1996 Country of origin: Venezuela Current location: Sun Microsystems email: Alejandro.Murillo@Sun.com During the time I spent at CWP, I developed invaluable skills that made me a better professional. There are many places to do research, but only a few give you the opportunity to do leading edge research driven by industry needs, and within the freedom of an academic environment. At CWP, delivering your contributions in a professional way is as fundamental as the research itself. In the long term, that is what distinguishes a CWP alumnus and prepares you for any endeavor. Currently I am a member of the Sun Java Partner Engineering Enterprise team. I have been at Sun for over seven years now. I initially performed R&D activities on high-performance and distributed computing; however, soon after I started there I moved into the world of Java for the enterprise.

	Andrés Pech
	Ph.D., Geophysics 2003 Country of origin: Mexico Current location: CIIDIR-unidad Oaxaca Instituto Politécnico Nacional email: apech@ipn.mx Topics on which I am working: The seismic response of sedimentary basins. To model the response, I am using the Indirect Boundary Element Method (IBEM). The Green's function for a heterogeneous elastic medium; in the medium, the P and S wave velocities change linearly with depth. For the acoustic case, there is a Green's function found by Pekeris. These Green's functions will allow us to apply the boundary element method to model the seismic response of inhomogeneous sedimentary basins. Seismic anisotropy. I am modeling the signature of the reflection moveout.

	Andreas Rüger
	M.Sc., Geophysics 1993 Ph.D., Geophysics 1997 Country of origin: Germany Current location: Landmark Graphics Corporation email: arueger@lgc.com I am currently working as senior technical advisor and geophysical software developer at Landmark Graphics Corporation. Before coming to CWP, I studied at Karlsruhe, Germany. At Mines, I enjoyed the broad and high quality of the education, the close collaboration with world-class researchers and the interaction with industry. Most of all, I appreciated the multi-cultural experience of the CWP environment and the many lasting friendships that were formed during those days. It did help, of course, to have big mountains and skiing nearby.

Debashish Sarkar
Ph.D., Geophysics 2003 Country of origin: India Current location: GX Technology email: dsarkar@gxt.com It was the breadth and depth of CWP's research program that initially attracted me as a student. Now having completed a doctorate there, I can testify to the comprehensive nature of a CWP education, which not only includes an exposure to all the technical details, but also to all other aspects that make up a complete professional. For those aspiring to be well rounded geophysicists, there is no better place to be. Upon graduation, I joined GX Technology/Input-Output, where, as a geophysicist, I am working on various issues related to seismic imaging.

Steve Sheaffer
M.Sc., Mathematics 1999 Country of origin: U.S.A. Current location: Applied Research Laboratory Penn State University email: sds145@psu.edu I am currently in the Research Engineer track at the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University, specializing in ocean acoustics. I am a member of the Systems Analysis and Simulation Department, which does simulation R&D for undersea sonar systems. My work has mainly been in the area of reverberation modeling. For example, our latest project involves developing computationally efficient reverberation simulations that incorporate broadband signals and variable bottom bathymetry and sediment data. This work requires a significant theoretical and computational background in the modeling of wave phenomena, ray theoretical methods, and signal processing, all of which were a large part of my education and training at CWP. In addition, since sonar transmitters and receivers are generally in motion, as are many of the scatterers in the ocean, Doppler shifting and broadening are important effects, and they add interesting complications to the forward modeling problem that are not typically encountered in geophysical work. Because of the inclusion of Doppler, quite a bit of our work is formulated in the frequency domain. So, while we do not do much inversion, all of the training and practice I had at CWP solving inverse problems in the frequency-domain is still extremely relevant in these applications. I can say without reservation that the education and experience I received at CWP is a large part of why I have this position, and why I have been successful in it.

Brian Sumner
Ph.D., Mathematics 1988 Country of origin: U.S.A. Current location: Silicon Graphics Inc., Houston email: bls@sgi.com As Principal Engineer for Silicon Graphics Inc., my activities include working with software vendors such as Landmark and Paradigm to ensure their seismic processing systems run correctly and efficiently on SGI platforms. However as a principal engineer I have become a company resource and am called on to help whenever it is believed my particular skills in debugging, performance analysis, and optimization on large multiprocessor systems are needed. CWP was a fun, interesting, and exciting place to do my graduate work. I look back on those days fondly. It truly prepared me to interact with the seismic exploration and research community, and opened the door to an enjoyable research position at Texaco EPTD.