JOINT MASTER APPLIED GEOPHYSICS
General information
Applied Geophysics
General information
General information
Applied Geophysics is concerned with the development and application of exploration techniques suitable for investigating from a few meters to several kilometers of the Earth’s subsurface, which is a region of vital interest for a broad range of issues that have a critical relevance to the human society and environment.
Global Opportunities
The IDEA League Joint Master in Applied Geophysics offers a unique international and multifaceted education in the theoretical and practical aspects of Applied Geophysics. The curriculum covers methodological elements in the physical, mathematical, computational, and signal-processing foundations of Applied Geophysics. Furthermore, theoretical and methodological aspects are put into practice in hands-on exercises and fieldwork.
The programme is run in close collaboration with industry. Companies support the programme by providing opportunities for research projects and scholarship grants. Experts from industry and governmental agencies deliver special lectures and are involved in co-supervising master thesis projects.
The IDEA League Joint Master in Applied Geophysics provides students with a combination of study and research, leading to an outstanding qualification in Applied Geophysics. This qualification is relevant for careers in the areas of Earth resource exploration and management, environmental and engineering investigations, and industry. The graduates are internationally oriented and attractive for positions in industry and government/public organisations. They are also well prepared for doctoral studies in Earth sciences around the world.
Why Applied Geophysics?
Applied Geophysics is concerned with the exploration and monitoring of the Earth’s subsurface
• to realise the energy transition and exploit natural resources in a responsible way
• to respond to the effects of climate change
• to monitor natural hazards
• to provide critical data for infrastructure building and maintenance
• to understand the internal structure and processes of the Earth and planets and other bodies in space
• to develop novel sensing technologies and numerical methods to study the subsurface of the Earth
The three partner universities
The city of Delft offers a wonderful blend of ancient canals lined with merchant houses and modern architecture.
Key courses cover seismic and electromagnetic theory, as well as signal analysis.
Zurich has a natural beauty of all seasons – inviting for a swim in the lake in the summer and nearby Alps for the winter season.
Key courses cover seismic data processing, numerical modelling and inversion, and a one-month geophysical field course.
The city of Aachen situated on the rim of the Eifel mountains is a historical spa town and home of a world heritage cathedral.
Key courses cover numerical methods, machine learning, hydrogeophysics, and borehole geophysics.
Faculty members
Cedric Schmelzbach is a senior scientist at ETH Zurich and is responsible for the ETH part of the IDEA League Joint Master in Applied Geophysics. His main research interest is geophysical exploration of the near-surface, with applications in natural hazard investigations, studying the cryosphere, and imaging geothermal and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) reservoirs.
Deyan Draganov is an Associate Professor at TU Delft and is also the programme director and coordinator for the IDEA League Joint Master in Applied Geophysics from TU Delft. His main research interest is in theory and applications of seismic interferometry with active and passive sources at different scales – from millimetres and centimetres (ultrasonic laboratory experiments), through metres and tens of metres (near-surface geophysics and mining) and hundred of metres and kilometres (exploration for resources, geothermal, CO2 storage) to hundreds of kilometres (core, mantle, Moon).
Florian Wagner is a Full Professor at RWTH Aachen University and former graduate of the Joint Master programme. He leads the group “Geophysical Imaging and Monitoring” (www.gim.rwth-aachen.de), which develops approaches for the combination of multiple methods for high-resolution characterization of the subsurface in the context of environmentally relevant applications ranging from the safe geological storage to monitoring climate-induced near-surface changes and related geohazards.
Industry relations
The Joint Master in Applied Geophysics programme is run in close collaboration with industry. Companies actively support the programme through internships, research projects, and grants for scholarships. Industry experts contribute special lectures and participate in co-supervising master’s thesis projects.
Programme
The students study and move together between universities as a group to complete the Master programme. A complete overview of the courses for 2021-2023 can be found here. An overview of the courses for 2022-2024 can be found here.
First term at TU Delft
You start your education on September 1 at TU Delft. The first term is focused on signal analysis, seismic and electromagnetic theory and exploration geophysics.
Second term at ETH Zurich
You have two weeks to move to Zürich where your education continues at ETH Zurich with courses on modelling, processing and inversion of geophysical data. It is during this period that you design and execute geophysical field work during a practical summer course. The course work at ETH Zurich ceases at the end of June.
Third term at RWTH Aachen University
After the summer break, you continue your programme at RWTH Aachen University in October. The Aachen term centred around specialised applied and numerical methods (like machine learning in Geosciences), hydrogeophysics, engineering geophysics and borehole logging.
Fourth Term: Master’s thesis
In the last semester, you will write your Master’s Thesis at one of the three universities, other approved universities or industry laboratories.
To fully benefit from the Joint Masters programme, it may be necessary for you to review some appropriate convergence courses that are available online. More information about these courses will be sent to all students accepted to the programme and can be found here.
Language of instruction
The language of instruction is English. All teaching, exercise and practical material are provided in English.
Most students originating from EU/EFTA countries as well as students from English-speaking countries can assume that they have sufficient proficiency in English to register and participate in the Joint Masters Programme. Other students need to submit English language test results as evidence of their proficiency. On a case-by-case basis, as determined by the respective student advisor, students whose first language is not English may be required to attend remedial English-language classes before or during the first study period.
Degree Certificate
Students who have successfully complete the 120-ECTS IDEA League Joint Master in Applied Geophysics programme receive at the end a joint diploma from all three universities awarding the title “Master of Science in Applied Geophysics”. In addition, the three universities issue a single Diploma Supplement in which all courses taken during the programme are listed with the grades obtained and in which it is indicated that these courses together constitute the IDEA League Joint Masters in Applied Geophysics.
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