Elections
Elections are held annually in the Fall to replace members of the Executive Committee and Science Steering Committee whose term has ended. Committee Members serve three year terms.
The SSC Early Career seat is a 1-year seat reserved for an early career member of the community. Early career is defined as within 4 years from terminal degree. Seat is renewable for 1 additional year. Electee may run for a regular seat without prejudice.
New Members terms begin at the beginning of the calendar year.
Only Institutional Member Representatives are allowed to cast a ballot. Please consult with your Member Representative.
Nominating Committee
The Nominating Committee is appointed by the Executive Committee. They are charged to present a slate of candidates for each committee such that each committee is representative of the constituency.
- Chair: Ebru Bozdag, Colorado School of Mines
- Mark Behn, Boston College
- Margarete Jadamec, University of Buffalo
- Louis Moresi, EC ad hoc, Australian National University
Nominations are now open for the Executive and Science Steering Committees. Two (2) seats are open on the EC and Four (4) seats on the SSC.
Please email the chair to suggest a name for this year's slate of candidates. Nominations close Friday September 27.
Elections open: November 1, 2024
Election close: November 30, 2024
Terms begin upon election.
CIG Bylaws [pdf]
Article VIII Elections
Section 2. Nominating Committee: No less than 90 days before the Annual Meeting or the E-mail Election, the Executive Committee shall appoint a Nominating Committee, which shall prepare a slate of one or more nominees for each position to be filled. The Nominating Committee shall solicit the Electors for the names of suggested nominees. Any candidate shall be placed on the slate by the Committee upon receipt of written nomination signed by three Electors at least 40 days before the Annual Meeting.
Section 3. Election: ... If the election is to be held by E-mail, then a copy of the ballot shall be mail to the Electorate not less than thirty nor more than sixty days before the date fixed for the E-mail Election.
Vote for 1 candidate for each seat.
Executive Committee
EC1 (3 years)
Mark Richards, University of California, Berkeley [website]
My work in geodynamics has included some of the early models for the Earth’s geoid based on seismic tomography, large-scale computational models for 3-D spherical convection, and more detailed studies of mantle plumes, including large igneous provinces (flood basalts) and more recently the Galápagos mantle plume-ridge system. In 2002 Peter Olson and I wrote the original white paper for NSF proposing the CIG structure, and I served on the initial Executive Committee for CIG. Since that time my graduate students have benefitted greatly from CIG-shepherded software, such as ASPECT. I served as Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Berkeley from 2002-2014, as Provost at the University of Washington from 2018-2023, and have recently returned to Berkeley as Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science. I have led several NSF-funded consortia to promote diversity in the mathematical and physical sciences at the PhD, postdoc, and faculty levels with considerable success, and won UC Berkeley’s two highest awards for faculty contributions to diversity. I am a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and received an NSF Presidential Young Investigator award early in my career. As for CIG, I remain convinced that it is an essential organization for maintaining progress in geophysical modeling, with the original mission to ensure that software is developed professionally, maintained reliably, and guided by the scientists who are using it.
Georg Stadler, New York University [website]
As an applied and computational mathematician, I focus on numerical methods (nonlinear solvers, Bayesian inference, optimization) and their efficient implementations (often in parallel), often motivated by challenges in geodynamics and climate science. In particular since I am not formally trained in (geo)physics, I have greatly benefited from CIG workshops, initiatives, and codes over the years. I see one of my key roles to support and accelerate the integration of modern computational methods into robust simulation tools. I also strongly believe in fostering collaboration between mathematics/computing and applied sciences, recognizing that it requires significant effort to develop the shared language and understanding necessary for mutually beneficial collaborations.
EC2 (3 years)
Brad Aagaard, US Geological Survey [website]
I am interested in continuing to help CIG build on its strengths and find new avenues for serving the community's needs. I strongly believe in CIG's mission and have benefited tremendously from interacting with computational scientists and other numerical modelers across the CIG community over the past 20 years. I have been involved in CIG since its early stages of formation, first as an early career scientist eager to participate in building community codes using modern software engineering techniques and now as an experienced scientist interested in helping new generations leverage and build state-of-the-art modeling tools. I lead the PyLith development team and the Crustal Deformation Modeling workshop series. My expertise spans earthquake rupture dynamics, ground motions and crustal deformation, data processing and management, and software engineering. As part of the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, I conduct primary research and contribute to the National Seismic Hazard Model. I would welcome the opportunity to serve another term on the EC to help the organization transition to new leadership and update its vision for the future.
Marc Spiegelman, Columbia University [website]
CIG was originally envisioned as a close partnership between Solid Earth and Computational Science to develop advanced, well documented and tested computational tools, together with the education and the training required to enable innovative, reproducible science for the broader Earth science community. Although the world of open-source software has changed dramatically since the early days of CIG, this vision remains as relevant as ever and I welcome the opportunity to help extend it into the next generation. My experience includes most aspects of CIG governance (EC and SSC) as well as involvement in independent open-source software development for geodynamics and computational thermodynamics. My dual position at the intersection of Earth Sciences and Applied Mathematics should also be useful for building further collaborations essential for the continued success of CIG.
Vote for 1 candidate for each seat.
Science Steering Committee
SSC1 (3 years)
Jacky Austermann, Columbia University [website]
My research focuses on using computational models and statistical approaches for data – model integration to better understand solid Earth deformation and past sea level and climatic change. I have a specific focus on modeling glacial isostatic adjustment and mantle convection and its interaction with surface processes, particularly those related to climate. I’ve used ASPECT for a variety of my research, contributed to some of the initial code base, and participated in a series of hackathons. The community and support behind this code, which reflects CIG, has set a high standard for how I think about community code development and code best practices. The research interests of my group further extend to Citcom, SELEN, BurnMan, PISM, and SPECFEM and I have also developed my own codes and included them in lectures and workshops. I am honored to be nominated as a candidate for the Science Steering Committee. CIG is a unique organization that has been instrumental in education and geophysical discovery. I would be excited to further CIG’s mission in leading software development, developing metrics for recognizing code contributions, fostering an inclusive community, and educating the next generation of solid Earth geophysicists.
Rene Gassmoeller, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel [website]
I am honored to stand for election to the Science Steering Committee of the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics. I am a computational geodynamicist and aim to understand our Earth and other planets through models that describe their deformation history over time. Specifically, I focus on the accuracy and reliability of the mathematical methods that we use to create these models, and on improving our research software and research software development processes. With years of experience as a project scientist at CIG headquarters and later as the technical lead of CIG and member of the CIG IV proposal writing committee, I have a deep understanding of CIG processes and the importance of advancing computational tools for geodynamics research. Currently a senior scientist at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany, I remain committed to fostering collaboration in the geodynamics community world-wide and improving CIG's open-source community software projects, many of which I have personally contributed to. If elected, I will work to ensure that CIG infrastructure continues to support cutting-edge scientific research and student education and remains responsive to the evolving needs of the geodynamics community.
SSC2 (3 years)
Joyce Sim, Georgia Tech [website]
As a geodynamics working on understanding two-phase flow processes across planetary systems, I have been involved in CIG early on as a graduate student working with one of the software, TerraFERMA. CIG has been instrumental in developing my academic career, providing the funds for workshops that allowed for crucial interactions and a chance to present and learn about the latest research from my colleagues. I especially appreciate the groundwork CIG has laid out in terms of normalizing best practices for software in the Earth Sciences community and building/training a strong community around it. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to work with an excellent group of undergraduate students and their mentors in the CIG undergraduate Summer research program SMOREs. It is honestly inspiring to see these students genuinely excited about computational Earth Science. CIG is in a unique position to foster connections between sometimes disparate groups and also to train and influence the next generation of computational Earth Scientists. I am honored to be nominated to be a candidate for the CIG Science Steering Committee. If elected, I am committed to advocate for best practices for software and building a diverse, equitable, inclusive and welcoming space at CIG that allows for interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary discussions that can spur innovations in our field. I also hope to leverage my expertise on magma dynamics and reactive thermodynamics to facilitate and support the continued development of sustainable open-source community software in CIG. Having been shaped by the CIG community, I am inspired to promote more community building especially for students and early career scientists.
D. Sarah Stamps, Virgina Tech [website]
As a geophysicist with specialties in geodesy and numerical modeling, my research encompasses problems in plate kinematics, continental rifting, upper mantle dynamics, fault mechanics, volcano-tectonic interactions, and processes driving vertical land motion such as glacial isostatic adjustment. My research group and I use several CIG software packages to address hypotheses related to these topics, in particular ASPECT, PyLith, and SELEN, along other software packages such as dMODELS, Coulomb, GAMIT-GLOBK, and TDEFNODE. Beyond leveraging CIG software, I have had the honor of serving as a CIG Distinguished Lecturer, am currently a member of the CIG Education Working Group, and am actively serving on the organizing committee for the 2025 CIG meeting. If elected to the CIG Science Committee, I would be honored to assist in determining and prioritizing infrastructure development for CIG from the perspective of the Earth and computational sciences.
SSC3 (3 years)
Kate Rychert, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [website]
My research focuses on seismically imaging Earth’s interior to constrain its physical and chemical properties and understand its dynamics to address some of the current grand challenges in Earth Science. These include imaging the pathways of fluids through the lower and upper mantle, the crust, oceans and atmosphere, understanding the factors that control volcanism at subduction zones, investigating the earthquake cycle with an eye to hazard mitigation, and constraining the lithosphere-asthenosphere system, plate tectonic processes and their relationship to hazard and climate. My research most relevant to CIG involves both global seismic imaging and developing new methods and approaches, including, for instance, improvements to SPECFEM. My work also utilizes and integrates geodynamic models of mantle convection for understanding tectonic processes. I use HPC facilities at a local and national level, and I have benefitted greatly from these resources. I would very much like to advocate and facilitate the continuation of HPC facilities for future generations. I am a current chair of equity, diversity, and inclusion at the journal SEISMICA, and I am leading a task force at my institution to foster mentoring. Using this experience, I will advocate for policies and practices that increase equity, diversity, and inclusion. I will promote and facilitate collaborative efforts that enhance the impact of scientific CIG research. I will encourage and foster the availability of open-source codes. I will encourage policies that support students, post docs, and early career scientists. I will also enhance engagement with the broader computational community to ensure best practices. Finally, I will work to facilitate workshop and community activities to enhance collaboration, learning, and engagement. I am inspired by the collaborative efforts in CIG and endeavor to continue, enhance, and expand them.
Julien Thurin, University of Alaska Fairbanks [website]
I am an applied and computational seismologist focusing on earthquake source characterization and seismic imaging with a research emphasis on uncertainty quantification methods. My interest in CIG and my application to the Science Steering Committee are driven by my desire to provide accessible workflows and training for the community. As one of the lead developers of the moment tensor inversion and uncertainty quantification code MTUQ, which interfaces with CIG's SPECFEM3D and SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, I aim to provide users with end-to-end workflows to lower the barrier of entry to open source ecosystems. To support this goal, I also created specfem_tomo_helper to simplify importing IRIS EMC tomographic models into SPECFEM3D and contributed to improving model importing routines in SPECFEM3D_GLOBE. Through my involvement in SCOPED (Seismic Computational Platform for Empowering Discovery), I have had the privilege of organizing and leading workshops to provide training for MTUQ, which have been highly beneficial for both the community and the code itself, a testament to the importance of nurturing the relationship between codes and their user base. If elected to the SSC, I'd like to focus my efforts on CIG engagements toward outreach, training, and mentoring programs with a global vision. This includes organizing workshops and training sessions at times convenient for researchers worldwide, providing recorded sessions leveraging community efforts to provide resources in multiple languages, and developing teaching materials that don't require extensive computational resources. Open-sourcing our codes is just the first step; we should aim to make them user-friendly and accessible.
SSC4 (1 year - early career)
Simone Puel, Moody's [website]
I am a computational geophysicist dedicated to advancing theoretical and modeling techniques to better understand earthquake processes across spatial and temporal scales, with the goal of mitigating seismic hazards. I believe that integrating physics-based tools with the growing wealth of data presents a unique opportunity to deepen our understanding of natural processes. After recently transitioning from academia to industry, I now work as an Earthquake Risk Modeler at Moody’s (formerly Moody’s RMS), where I develop solutions that assess and quantify seismic risk, with tangible impacts on the insurance, reinsurance, financial sectors, and governments worldwide. During my Ph.D. at UT Austin and postdoc at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory, I developed open-source libraries for forward and adjoint-based inverse models to address earthquake short-term deformation and seismic cycle modeling. I started my Ph.D. using the CIG software PyLith and have closely followed its evolution, with the aim of contributing to future advancements in inverse methods. If elected, I will bring my expertise in open-source, physics-based software development and a fresh industry perspective to help shape the next phase of CIG, contributing to tools that serve a broader audience and enhance societal impact.
Andrea Adams, University of San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography [website]
During my postdoc, my primary research focus has been studying the coupling between surface and interior processes on Venus. Specifically, I am interested in using numerical models to understand how Venus recycles its lithosphere and whether this occurs through regional-scale delamination or subduction. I have nearly 10 years of experience using high-performance computing tools to run geodynamic modeling codes such as StagYY during my PhD and MVEP2 during my master’s degree. I am honored to be nominated as a candidate for the Early Career Representative on the Science Steering Committee. During my PhD, I was fortunate to receive support from CIG early career funding, which allowed me to attend two of the Ada Lovelace Workshops on Mantle and Lithosphere Dynamics. These workshops provided opportunities to present my research and connect with other early career researchers. If elected, I will advocate for the continued support of early career researchers in computational geosciences and promote diversity and inclusiveness within our community.