Rock Physics Influencers 

Rock Physics Influencers program (RPI) is an initiative to provide short interview statements from nominated and selected eminent scientists who have been recognized to have made significant contributions and impacts that influenced changes to the rock physics community. The same set of questions was asked to capture different views from the selected influencers who work on various rock physics sub-disciplines. The influencers are invited to share their pathway for success, viewpoints they see in rock physics challenges, and advice they have for aspiring rock physicists. The program honors the prestigious scientists for their long standing research and continuous contributions in the area of rock physics. The profile is updated on a bi-monthly basis. 


21RPI, January-February 2019

Jack Dvorkin 

Jack’s undergraduate and M.S. degrees were earned in 1974 at Moscow Lomonosov (State) University at the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics, Division of Mechanics. The topic of his M.S. thesis was the impact of a rigid wedge  Read more ...

https://sites.google.com/a/rockphysicists.org/rp-official-site/rock-physics-influencer-profiles/the-22nd-rpi-for-march-april-2019-mark-g-kittridge

22RPI, March-April 2019

Mark G. Kittridge 

Mark Kittridge is currently a Petrophysical Consultant with Occidental Oil & Gas Corporation, as well as Founder and Principal Petroleum Engineer at MUREX Petrophysics & Rock Physics, LLC.  He earned both BSc and Professional degrees ...  Read more ...

19RPI, September-October 2018

Doug Angus 

I am currently Director of R&D at ESG Solutions after having left the University of Leeds in 2016 as an Associate Professor of Seismic Geomechanics. I have been working on developing and applying new technology in the field of seismic  Read more ...

The 20th RPI for November-December 2018: Lev Vernik

20RPI, November-December 2018

Lev Vernik 

After launching my career as a wellsite geologist on the Kola Superdeep Scientific Drilling Project in the Soviet Union, gaining expertise in petrophysics and rock physics, and finally expanding into seismic modelling and inversion,   Read more ...

The 17th RPI for May - June 2018: Dr. Rune Holt

17RPI, May-June 2018

Rune M Holt 

As a high school student in the 60’ies, Rune was fascinated by the ongoing space exploration as well as atomic scale physics. His favourite topic was math, and through his physics teacher he discovered that mathematics was not only... Read more ...

18RPI, July-August 2018

Dario Grana 

Dario Grana is an associate professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wyoming. He received a MS in Mathematics at University of Pavia (Italy) in 2005, a MS in Applied Mathematics at University of Milano Bicocca  Read more ...

The 15th RPI for January-February 2018: Paul Hatchell

15RPI, January-February 2018

Paul Hatchell 

I joined Shell in 1989 after receiving a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin. I started my career at Shell’s Technology Center in Houston and worked on a variety of research topics including shear-wave logging, Read more ...

The 16th RPI for March - April 2018: Dr. Tiziana Vanorio

16RPI, March-April 2018

Tiziana Vanorio 

Tiziana got her MS and PhD from the University “Federico II” in Naples, Italy. She then joined the Rock Physics group at Stanford for her post-doctoral research, working on the rock physics of volcanic rocks and clay-bearing analogues. Read more ...

The 13th RPI for September-October 2017: Boris Gurevich

13RPI, September-October 2017 

Borish Gurevich 

Boris Gurevich obtained his Diploma (Russian equivalent of MSc) at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1981 and started his career at the Moscow Institute of Geosystems. His early work included numerical analysis of NMR signals, and application Read more ...

The 14th RPI for November-December 2017: Ran Bachrach

14RPI, November-December 2017 

Ran Bachrach 

Ran received his B.Sc. in geophysics and planetary science in 1993 at Tel Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in Geophysics, with a Ph.D. Minor, in Civil Engineering, in 1998, from Stanford University. His doctoral dissertation was titled “High Resolution  Read more ...


The 11th RPI for May-June 2017: James Berryman

11RPI, May-June 2017

 James Berryman

Jim has undergraduate degrees in Math and Physics from the University of Kansas (in Lawrence Kansas). His advanced degrees are in Physics (major in solid state physics) and an Electrical Engineering minor (in nonlinear electrical systems).  Read more ...

The 12th RPI for July-August: Michel Kemper

12RPI, July-August 2017 

Michel Kemper 

Michael Kemper is a geoscientist/petroleum engineer with 28 years’ experience in geophysics, petrophysics, and reservoir engineering. He spent the first 13 years with Shell International in The Hague, Nigeria, and London, during which time he  Read more ...

The 9th RPI for January-February 2017: Bill Goodway

9RPI, January-February 2017 

Bill Goodway

I grew up and was educated in the UK near London. My early introduction to science came at Brentwood School, a 550-year-old boarding school in County Essex, just east of London where two imaginative teachers made physics, astronomy and Read more ...

The 10th RPI for March-April 2017: Manika Prasad

10RPI, March-April 2017 

Manika Prasad 

Manika started her career with a geology degree from Bombay University. After hearing about plate tectonics from her undergraduate professor (Dr. Sethna), she was hooked! That fascination took her to Germany to study Marine Geophysics and Geology. Read more ...

The 7th RPI for September-October 2016: Colin Sayers

7RPI, September-October 2016 

Colin Sayers

Colin Sayers was born in the North West of England, and obtained a B.A. in Physics from Lancaster University in 1973. He then moved to Imperial College, London, where he received a D.I.C. (Diploma of Imperial College) in Mathematical Physics  Read more ...

The 8th RPI for November-December 2016: Per Avseth

8RPI, November-December 2016 

Per Avseth

Per Avseth is currently an independent geophysical consultant based in Oslo and an adjunct professor (since 2008) in reservoir geophysics at NTNU in Trondheim. Per is an expert in rock physics and quantitative seismic interpretation. He has been  Read more ...

The 5th RPI for May-June 2016: Jean-Pierre "JP" Blangy

5RPI, May-June 2016

Jean-Pierre "JP" Blangy

It took me about ten years to find a scientific problem that I really wanted to solve, that morphed into identifying other problems, and it all turned into a passion: that of using rock physics, in some form or fashion, to solve practical  Read more ...

The 6th RPI for July-August 2016: Serge Shapiro

6RPI, July-August 2016 

Serge Shapiro

Serge A. Shapiro is a full Professor of Geophysics at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and since 2004, Director of the PHASE (PHysics and Application of Seismic Emission) university consortium project. His research interests include  Read more ...

The 3rd RPI for January-February 2016: Erling Fjær

3RPI, January-February 2016 

Erling Fjær 

Erling Fjær is a chief scientist at SINTEF Petroleum Research in Trondheim, Norway. He also holds a position as adjunct professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. For the last 30 years, he has been working within the areas   Read more ... 

The 4th RPI for March-April 2016: Jorg Herwanger

4RPI, March-April 2016

Jorg Herwanger

When I started to study Geophysics, I knew one thing for certain: “I will not work in the Oil industry”. This was just after the Exxon Valdez oil spill and at the onset of the decommissioning debate of the Brent Spar. Big Oil was evil. Geophysics Read more ...

The 1st RPI for August-September 2015: Dave Dewhurst

1RPI, August-September 2015 

Dave Dewhurst

Dave Dewhurst is a senior research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and is based in Perth, Australia. He has a long standing interest in clays and shales, dating from the early 1990s, where he worked   Read more ...

The 2nd RPI for October-November 2015: Leon Thomsen

2RPI, October-November 2015 

Leon Thomsen

Leon’s undergraduate degree was earned in 1964 at the California Institute of Technology, then and now a pre-eminent center of excellence in geophysics. In those days, the real excitement was in plate tectonics, planetary exploration, and Read more ...