Dr. Robert Nowack

Professor Emeritus

nowack@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Associated website(s):

Google Scholar , Personal Website , Geodata Science Initiative , Geology and Geophysics

Education

Ph.D.- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Geophysics)
M.S - Stanford University (Geophysics)
B.A. - Beloit College (Physics, with Honors)

Research Interests
Seismology, seismic wave propagation, inverse theory, time series analysis, crustal and upper mantle studies.

Teaching Interests

At the graduate level, I teach Introduction to Seismology, Geophysical Inverse Theory, 3D Seismic Interpretation and Visualization, and classes in reflection and advanced seismology.
At the undergraduate level, I have taught classes in Fossil Fuels, Energy and Society, Earthquakes and Volcanoes, and The Planets.
EAPS 105 The Planets
EAPS 116 Earthquakes & Volcanoes
EAPS 375 Fossil Fuels, Energy and Society
EAPS 557 Introduction to Seismology
EAPS 559 3D Seismic Interpretation and Visualization
EAPS 591 Introduction to Reflection Seismology
EAPS 657 Geophysical Inverse Theory

Awards and Honors

2004 Fellow, Institute of Physics, London

Professional Experience

Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth, 2012-2016
Panel Member for DOE (Airforce Research Laboratory and National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA), 2012
Co-Chief Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth, 2009-2012
External Academic Review Committee, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, 2010
Editorial Board, Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 2004-2011
Associate Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research, 2005-2009
Associate Editor, Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica, 1999-2009
Associate Editor, Bull. Seismological Society of America, 1995-2009
Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP), 2004
1998-present, Professor of Geophysics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
1998, Technical Program Committee Member for Meeting on Signal Recovery and Synthesis, Optical Society of America, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
1990 - 1998 Associate Professor of Geophysics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
1985 - 1990 Assistant Professor of Geophysics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
1985 - Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, Earth Resources Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
1978 - 1980 Staff Seismologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA.
1977 - 78 Engineering Seismologist, Woodward Clyde Consultants, San Francisco, CA.

Selected Publications - Google Scholar Page for a complete list of publications

Zeng, Q. and R.L. Nowack (2021) Analysis of Local Seismic Events Near a Large-N Array for Moho Reflections, Seismological Research Letters, 92(1) 408-420, doi.org/10.1785/0220200087.
Ergun Erhan and R.L. Nowack (2020) Application of non-stationary iterative time-domain deconvolution, Studia Geophysica et Geod., 64, 76-99, doi: 10.1007/s11200-019-1165z, online first.
Huang, J. and R.L. Nowack (2020) Machine Learning using U-Net Convolutional Neural Networks for the Imaging of Sparse Seismic Data, Pure and Applied Geophysics, 177, (6) 2685-2700, doi.org/10.1007/s00024-019-02412-z.
Kiraz, M. S. R. and R.L. Nowack (2018) Marchenko redatuming and imaging with application to the Frio carbon sequestration experiment, Geophys. J. Int., 215, 1633-1643. doi: 10.1093/gji/ggy356.
Nowack, R. L. and M. S. R. Kiraz (2018) Virtual Green’s functions using seismic interferometry and Marchenko Redatuming, Seism. Res. Letters, 89, 613-619 doi: 10.1785/0220170211.
Oren, C. and R.L. Nowack (2018) An overview of reproducible 3D seismic data processing and inversion with Madagascar, Geophysics, 83, F9-F20, doi: 10.1190/GEO2016-0603.1.
Oren, C. and R.L. Nowack (2017) Seismic body-wave interferometry using noise autocorrelation for crustal structure, Geophys. J. Int., 208, 321-332, doi:10.1093/gji/ggw394.
Nowack, R.L. and C. Oren (2016) Effects of Processing and the Ambient Noise Distribution on Seismic Interferometry using Auto-Correlation Stacks, Annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, Dec. 12-16.
Lopez-Comino, J.A., D. Stich, A.M.G. Ferriera, J. Morales, and R.L. Nowack (2015) Extended Fault Inversion Through Popperian Falsificaiton: Rupture Directivity Resolution and Spatial Comparison Tests, Annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, Dec. 14-18.
Nowack, R.L. and M.L. Bostock (2014) Interferometric Redatuming with Application to Low Frequency Earthquakes in Northern Cascadia, Joint SEG/AGU Conference on “Advances in Active plus Passive Full-Wavefield Seismic Imaging: From Reservoirs to Plate Tectonics, July 22-24, Vancouver BC, Canada.
Nowack, R.L. and M.G. Bostock (2014) Scattered waves from low-frequency earthquakes and plate boundary structure in northern Cascadia, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, doi: 10.1002/grl.50826.
Bakir, A.C. and Nowack, R.L. (2012) Velocity and attenuation structure of the Tibetan lithosphere beneath the Hi-CLIMB array from the modeling of Pn attributes, Pure and Applied Geophys., doi:10.1007/s00024-012-0482-8.
Bakir, A.C. and Nowack, R.L. (2012) Modeling seismic attributes of Pn waves using the spectral element method, Pure and Applied Geophys., doi:10.1007/s00024-011-0414-z.
Nowack, R.L. (2012) A tale of two beams: an elementary overview of Gaussian beams and Bessel beams, Studia Geophys. et Geod., 56, doi: 10.1007/ s11200-011-9054-0.
Chen, W.P., S.H. Hung, T.L. Tseng, M. Brudzinski, Z. Yang, and R.L. Nowack (2012) Rheology of the continental lithosphere: progress and new perspectives with special reference to project Hi-CLIMB, Gondwana Research, 21, 4-18.
Haase, J.S., Y.Y. Choi, T. Bowling and R.L. Nowack (2011) Probabilistic seismic-hazard assessment including site effects for Evansville Indiana and the surrounding region, Bull. Seism., Soc. Am., 101, 1039-1054.
Griffin, J. D., R. L. Nowack, W.P. Chen and T.L. Tseng (2011) Velocity structure of the Tibetan lithosphere: Constraints from P-wave travel times of regional earthquakes, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 1201, 1938-1947, doi: 1785/0120100229.
Haase, J.S., Y.S. Choi and R.L. Nowack (2011) Liquefaction hazard near the Ohio Riverf from Midwestern scenario earthquakes, Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, 17, 165-181..
Nowack, R.L. (2011) Dynamically focused Gaussian beams for seismic imaging, Int. J. Geophys., Vol. 2011, Art. No. 316581, doi: 10.1155/2011/316581.
Haase, J.S. and R.L. Nowack, R.L. (2011) Earthquake scenario ground motions for the urban area of Evansville, Seismological Res. Lett., 82, 177-187.
Nowack, R.L. and S.M. Kainkaryam (2011) The Gouy phase anomaly for harmonic and time-domain paraxial Gaussian beams, Geophys. J. Int., 184, 965-973.
Nowack, R.L. (2010) Seismic interferometry using Gaussian beams, Earthquake Science, 23, 417-424.
Chen, W.P., M. Martin, T.L. Tseng, R.L. Nowack, S.H. Hung and B.H. Huang (2010) Shear-wave birefringence and current configuration of converging lithosphere under Tibet, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 295, 297-304.
Nowack, R.L., W.P. Chen and T.L. Tseng (2010) Application of Gaussian beam migration to multi-scale imaging of the lithosphere beneath the Hi-CLIMB array in Tibet, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 100, 1743-1754.
Tseng, T.L., W.P. Chen and R.L. Nowack (2009) Northward thinning of Tibetan crust revealed by virtual seismic profiles, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, 14, doi:10.1029/2009GL038252.
Dasgupta, S., R.L. Nowack, and S. Mitra (2009) Deconvolution of three-component teleseismic data from Southern Tibet using the SVA technique, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 99, 1973-1983.
Nowack, R.L. and C. Li (2009) Methods and Applications of Seismic Tomography, in Handbook of Signal Processing in Acoustics (eds. D. Havelock, M. Vorlander and S. Kuwano), Springer-Verlag, pp. 1635-1653.
Dasgupta, S. and R.L. Nowack (2008) Frequency extrapolation to enhance the deconvolution of transmitted seismic waves, J. Geophys. and Eng., 5, 118-127.
Nowack, R.L., W.P. Chen, U. Kruse,and S. Dasgupta (2007) Imaging offsets in the Moho: Synthetic tests using Gaussian Beams with teleseismic waves, Pure and Applied Geophysics, 164, 1921-1936.
Chen, R., V.P. Drnevich, X. Yu, and R. Nowack (2007) Water content measurements with Time Domain Reflectrometry in highly conductive soils using reflections from the soil surface, J. Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, 133, 1597-1608.
Dasgupta, S. and R.L. Nowack (2006) Deconvolution of 3-component teleseismic P-waves using the autocorrelation of the P to SV scattered waves, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 96, 1827-1835.
Nowack R.L., S. Dasgupta, G.T. Schuster, and J.M. Sheng (2006) Correlation migration using Gaussian beams of scattered teleseismic body waves, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 96, 1-10.
Nowack, R.L. and C. Li (2006) Application of autoregressive extrapolation to the cross-borehole tomography, Studia Geophysica et Geodetica, 50, 337-348.