Jean-Philippe Avouac

Biosketch

Jean-Philippe Avouac is the Earle C. Anthony Professor of Geology and Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Jean-Philippe Avouac graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (Palaiseau, France) in 1987 He received his Ph.D. in Geology from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France, in 1991. He joined the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique in 1991 until he moved to Caltech in 2003. He was the director of the Caltech Tectonics Observatory from 2004 to 2014. He worked as the BP-McKenzie Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge (2014-2015). He is a former president of the Tectonophysics section and member of the council of the American Geophysical Union. Jean-Philippe Avouac has been co-Editor-in-chief of Earth and Planetary Science Letters since 2018, and he served as co-Editor-in-chief of Tectonophysics from 2014 to 2018. Jean-Philippe Avouac is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He has received several international awards and honors (Gaspard Monge invited professor, Ecole Polytechnique, France; Wolfson Merit Award of the Royal Society, UK; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Senior Scientist Award).

Research Interests

Jean-Philippe Avouac uses geological, geodetic, seismological and remote sensing methods to study earthquakes, crustal deformation and landscape evolution. He has in particular developed optical and radar image correlation techniques to measure deformation due to earthquakes and geomorphic processes, such as dune migration on Earth and Mars. He also developed methods to image earthquake ruptures and postseismic deformation. At the longer time scale, he has developed methods to quantify folding and rifting processes based on deformed geomorphic features such as river terraces, alluvial fans or volcanoes. The Himalaya has been a central focus of his research. Thanks to field studies, the deployment of seismological and geodetic stations and dynamic modeling, he seeks a better understanding of mountain building processes and seismic hazard. His more recent research has been focused on the impact of subsurface fluid injection and extraction, for geothermal energy production or CO2 storage, and the development of physics-based models to forecast natural and induced earthquakes.