Mostafa Naghizadeh has received the 2011 SEG J. Clarence Karcher Award. Mostafa is a University of Alberta postdoctoral fellow with the Department of Physics, working in a collaboration with Dr. Mauricio Sacchi of the U of A and Dr. Kristopher Innanen of the University of Calgary. From 2005 to 2009, Mostafa worked on applied seismology as part of the the Signal Analysis and Imaging Group under Dr. Sacchi's supervision. Prior to his return to the U of A, Mostafa spent a year as a postdoc at U of C, working with CREWES, the Consortium for Research in Elastic Wave Exploration Seismology.
Mostafa was recognized for developing algorithms for multi-dimensional seismic data reconstruction. His work has been studied world-wide because of its importance to solving this ubiquitous seismic imaging problem.
The award was established by the SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) to honour the memory of Clarence Karcher, who pioneered the development of reflection seismography, and his enormous contribution to exploration geophysics. The award recognizes significant contributions to the science and technology of exploration geophysics by a young geophysicist of outstanding abilities who, in the unanimous opinion of the Honors and Awards Committee and the Executive Committee, merits such recognition. Recipients must be less than 35 years of age on November 1 of the year preceding presentation of the award. A maximum of three awards can be given each year.
This is not the first time that a U of A PhD graduate has received this important award. The Clarence Karcher award was presented in 1998 to Dr. John E. Eastwood (PhD 1991 with Dr. Tim Spanos) and in 2004 to Dr. Henning Kuehl (PhD 2002 with Dr. Sacchi). In addition, two of our undergraduates went into research careers that also lead to this award: Drs. Ken Matson (BSc, Geophysics U of A, 1989) and Rob Vestrum (BSc, Geophysics, U of A, 1992).