Our People
Administrative Staff |
 Dalena Blitenthall joined AfricaArray in September 2007. Based at the University
of the Witwatersrand(Wits), Blitenthall has administrative and financial responsibility for the AfricaArray program at Wits. She also oversees the annual AfricaArray workshop held each year. She can be reached at africaarray@wits.ac.za. |
 Antonia (Toni) Mooney, who joined the AfricaArray team in September 2008,
has financial and administrative responsibilities for the AfricaArray program at Penn State.
Mooney has served as an administrative assistant at Penn State for 12 years. She has extensive
knowledge and experience working with undergraduates, graduates, staff and faculty. She can
be reached at aqm3@psu.edu. |
Technical Staff |
 Zibusiso Gumede serves on the AfricaArray technical team. A doctoral student in geophysics
atWits, he is responsible for the installation and maintenance of AfricaArray seismic stations deployed across the African continent. Gumede previously worked in industry (DeBeers Groups Services), developing geophysical technology to support mining operations. He joined AfricaArray in April 2008 and can be reached at Zibusiso.Gumede@wits.ac.za. |
 Gerhard van Aswegen began work at the Council for Geoscience in late 2005
as the AfricaArray staff member responsible for helping to develop and maintain the permanent
AfricaArray seismic stations. Since 2005, van Aswegen has assisted with station installation
and maintenance in Rwanda, D.R. Congo, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia. His position
is funded primarily by the Council for Geoscience. Prior to taking this position, Gerhard worked
as a seismic analyst for ISSI. He can be reached at gvaswegen@geoscience.org.za. |
Academic Staff and Faculty |
 Dr. Gordon Cooper: Gordon Cooper, Professor, School of Earth Sciences and Chairman of the Geophysics group at the University of the Witwatersrand. Some of his research interests are
image processing ; sunshading, feature detection, textural analysis, PCA;
Signal processing ; fractional calculus, wavelets;
Inverse theory ; connections with chaos theory and fractals;
Miscellaneous ; Euler deconvolution, climatology, cellular automata. He can be reached at: gordon.cooper@wits.ac.za |
 Dr. Raymond Durrheim: Professor Ray Durrheim holds the South African Research Chair in Exploration, Earthquake and Mining Seismology at the University of the Witwatersrand and is a Fellow in the Natural Resources and the Environment Unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He has participated in many studies dealing with deep level mining and rockbursting. From 1998 to 2002 he was the manager of the DeepMine and FutureMine Collaborative Research Programmes. In 2005 he was commissioned by Chief Inspector of Mines to lead an investigation into the risks to miners, mines and the public associated with large seismic events in the gold mining districts. He is currently the leader of the research project entitled “Minimising the Rockburst Risk”, sponsored by the Mine Health & Safety Council. This project encompasses research on topics such as seismic source mechanisms, the dynamics of fault zones, rockburst damage mechanisms, and seismic hazard assessment methods. He can be reached at: rdurrhei@csir.co.za |
 Dr. Michael Jones: Michael Jones, is a Senior Research Officer at the University of the Witswatersrand.
His research interests are thermal structure of the crust and upper mantle; geodynamics and plate tectonics; recent climatic history and heat flow applications in mine refrigeration. Dr. Jones' main field of specialization is terrestrial heat flow. He can be reached at: michael.jones@wits.ac.za |
 Dr. Jordi Julià: Jordi Julià is a Research Assocate in the Department of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. His research interests lie mainly in: earthquake seismology, especially in the seismic imaging of the continental crust and upper mantle; geophysical inverse theory, with emphasis in the joint inversion of geophysical data sets; and, most recently, mining seismology. His participation in the AfricaArray programme is through the Mine Seismicity Project and the supervision of AfricaArray graduate research at Penn State. He can be reached at jjc22@psu.edu |
 Dr. Peter C. La Femina: Professor Peter La Femina is an Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania State University, Department of Geosciences. His research interests are
GPS applications, plate boundary zone deformation, transient deformation, magma-tectonic interactions and physical volcanology. He can be reached at :pcl11@ psu.edu |
 Dr. Mark van der Meijde: Professor Mark van der Meijde is an Associate Professor on
'3D geological modelling' in ITC's department of Earth Systems Analysis.
Main research interest is the making the link between remotely sensed
surface and subsurface information. Fields of application focus on
geophysics, 3D geological modelling, integrating space (satellite
gravity) and airborne remote sensing with seismology for geo-hazards and
tectonics, and 3D environmental modelling, particularly focussing on
detection of natural and man-made hydrocarbon leakages. He can be
reached at: vandermeijde@itc.nl |
 Susan Webb: Sue Webb, Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Her current research is focused on the application of 3D modelling of the southern African regional gravity field to constrain properties of the Kaapvaal tectosphere. These gravity models are constrained by and integrated with the results from the seismological and geochemical studies of the Kaapvaal project. I am particularly interested in projects integrating diverse data sets, including geophysical, geological, petrologic, isotopic and geochemical information.On a smaller scale I am currently developing a consistent gravity, magnetic and seismological model of the Bushveld Complex that accounts for thickened crust under the Bushveld.I am also interested in the integration of geophysical methods applied to exploration, environmental and archaeological problems with a special focus on potential field methods. This includes high-resolution studies, including the practical aspects of data collection. She can be reach at: susan.webb@wits.ac.za |
| Post Docs |
 Dr. Samantha Hansen: Samantha Hansen is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Geosciences Department at the Pennsylvania State University. Her primary research interests are earthquake seismology, active tectonics, and the analysis of seismic data to investigate Earth’s structure. Current, AfricaArray-related projects include the investigation of lithospheric structure using S-wave receiver functions and tomographic modeling of P-wave velocity variations. She is also currently funded through NSF’s Office of Polar Programs to investigate the crustal and upper structure of Antarctica. She can be reached at: seh24@psu.edu |