Person - Warner College of Natural Resources

About Rick

I am a geophysicist with interests in Earth and environmental science, including Earth structure, earthquakes, volcanos, oceans, and glaciers. My research has drawn significantly from seismological field studies in western North America, Italy, and Antarctica. I also have strong teaching and research interests in geophysical inverse and signal processing methods and am the lead author on the widely used reference volume and textbook "Parameter Estimation and Inverse Problems" (Aster, Borchers, and Thurber, 2018).

Website Google Scholar Profile CV

Interests

Earthquake and volcano seismology
seismic imaging
inverse problems
signal processing
environmental seismology
cryospheric seismology
fluvial seismology
Antarctic geophysics
seismic instrumentation

Education

Ph.D. , Earth Science - University of California
San Diego, CA, 1991

M.S., Geophysics - University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI, 1986

B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Additional Major in Physics - University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI, 1983

Graduate & Advisor Program

Peter Shearer
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego

Awards, Honors, Grants

Scholarship Impact Award for Career Achievement, Colorado State University, 2026
Harry H. Hess Visiting Faculty, Princeton University, 2024-2025
AGU College of Fellows Distinguished Lecturer, 2024-2025
Distinguished Lecturer, AGU College of Fellows, 2024-2025
Gordon E. Moore Scholar, California Institute of Technology, 2024-2025
Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 2021
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2021
Board Chair, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, 2019-2022
Fellow, Geological Society of America, 2018
Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Wisconsin, 2017
IRIS Leadership Award, 2014
New Mexico Tech Distinguished Research Award, 2010
President, Seismological Society of America, 2009-2011
IRIS/SSA Distinguished Lecturer, 2009-2010
Naming Designation: Aster Glacier, Antarctica, Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names, 2006
New Mexico Tech Faculty Award, 2005
NSF Antarctic Service Medal, 1999

Selected Publications

See Google Scholar Profile (khkdN24AAAAJ)

Selected Articles

Mount Erebus Volcano: An unparalleled natural laboratory to study alkaline magmatism and open-conduit volcano behavior

Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 0.1144/M55-2019-8, 2021

Sims, K., Aster, R., Gaetani, G., Blichert-Toft, J., Phillips, E., Wallace, P., Mattioli, G., Rasmussen, D., Boyd, E.

Achievements and prospects of global broadband seismographic networks after 30 years of geophysical observations

Reviews of Geophysics, 10.1029/2021RG000749, 2022

Ringler, A., Anthony, R.E., Aster, R.C., Ammon, C.J., Arrowsmith, S., Benz, H., Lau, H.C.P., Lekic, V., Richards, P.G., Valée, M., Yeck, W.

Observed rapid bedrock uplift in Amundsen Sea Embayment promotes ice-sheet stability

Science, 335, 10.1126/science.aao1447, 2018

Barletta, V., Bevis, M., Smith, B., Wilson, T., Brown, A., Bordoni, A., Willis, M., Khan, S., Rovira-Nararro, M., Smalley, B., Kendrick, E., Konfal, S., Caccamise, D., Aster, R.C., Nyblade, N., Wiens, D.

Increasing ocean wave energy observed in Earth’s seismic wavefield since the late 20th century

Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-023-42673-w, 2023

Aster, R.C., Ringler, A.T., Anthony, R.A., Lee, T.A.

Parameter Estimation and Inverse Problems, Third Edition

Elsevier Academic Press, 392 pp., 2018

Aster, R., Borchers, B., Thurber, C.