Frederik J. Simons is a Flemish Belgian geophysicist. He is a professor at Princeton University in the Department of Geosciences.[1] From 2010 to 2013, Simons was the Dusenbury University Preceptor of Geological & Geophysical Sciences.[2] From 2004 to 2006, he was a lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London. Between 2002 and 2004 he was a Harry H. Hess Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geosciences and a Beck Fellow with the Council on Science and Technology, also at Princeton University.

Frederik J. Simons
Born (1974-08-05) August 5, 1974 (age 50)
Antwerp, Belgium
NationalityBelgian
Alma materKU Leuven (BS), (MS)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Known forMERMAID
Scientific career
FieldsGeoscientist
InstitutionsPrinceton University (2006-present)

Simons has worked on a variety of theoretical problems in solid-earth geophysics, seismology, geodesy, and geomagnetism.

He has made numerous contributions to the study of Earth's mantle, continental structure and evolution using seismic tomography, [3][4][5][6] the analysis of sea level change in the Last Interglacial[7][8] and of ice sheet mass variations though the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment,[9][10] and to the theory of spatiospectral localization via prolate spheroidal wave functions.[11][12][13]

Simons is involved in the design of marine instrumentation for recording earthquakes, specifically iterations of MERMAID.

Education

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Frederik Simons was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He graduated primus perpetuus from Our Lady College, Antwerp Jesuit School in 1992. Simons earned his Bachelor's and Master's of Science from KU Leuven in 1996, and his Ph.D. in Geophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002.

Academic career

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Simons has worked on a variety of theoretical problems in solid-earth geophysics, seismology, geodesy, and geomagnetism. Also involved in the design of instrumentation, he founded the international EarthScope-Oceans consortium, devoted to instrumenting the oceans for global geophysics. A well-known example is the MERMAID (Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Divers) instrument, a passively drifting autonomous mid-column hydrophone. The idea of collecting earthquake data for global tomography by robotic drifters is credited to Guust Nolet, a Princeton Professor of geophysics emeritus, who was Simons' postdoctoral advisor.[14] With their colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, they launched the first MERMAID prototype in 2003.[15][16][17][18] The second-generation MERMAID was built by Teledyne Webb Research with support from the European Research Council. The third-generation MERMAID was developed with Yann Hello [1] and is commercialized by French engineering company OSEAN SAS.

The fourth generation is a dual-use instrument equipped, in addition to the hydrophone package, with a conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensor capable of carrying out hydrographic profiles down to 4,000 m depth, adding to the Argo fleet.

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ "Frederik J. Simons". Princeton University. 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  2. ^ "Frederik J. Simons". Princeton University. 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  3. ^ Simons, Frederik J; Zielhuis, Alet; van der Hilst, Rob D (1999). "The deep structure of the Australian continent from surface wave tomography". Lithos. 48 (1–4): 17–43. doi:10.1016/S0024-4937(99)00041-9.
  4. ^ Simons, Frederik J.; van der Hilst, Rob D. (2003). "Seismic and mechanical anisotropy and the past and present deformation of the Australian lithosphere". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 211 (3–4): 271–286. doi:10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00198-5. hdl:1874/8003.
  5. ^ Zhang, Zhendong; Irving, Jessica C. E.; Simons, Frederik J.; Alkhalifah, Tariq (2023-03-27). "Seismic evidence for a 1000 km mantle discontinuity under the Pacific". Nature Communications. 14 (1). doi:10.1038/s41467-023-37067-x. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 10042893. PMID 36973245.
  6. ^ Burky, Alexander L.; Irving, Jessica C.E.; Simons, Frederik J. (2023). "The mantle transition zone beneath eastern North America: Receiver functions and tomographic velocity models". Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors. 340: 107035. doi:10.1016/j.pepi.2023.107035.
  7. ^ Kopp, Robert E.; Simons, Frederik J.; Mitrovica, Jerry X.; Maloof, Adam C.; Oppenheimer, Michael (2009). "Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage". Nature. 462 (7275): 863–867. doi:10.1038/nature08686. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 20016591.
  8. ^ Kopp, Robert E.; Simons, Frederik J.; Mitrovica, Jerry X.; Maloof, Adam C.; Oppenheimer, Michael (2013-05-01). "A probabilistic assessment of sea level variations within the last interglacial stage". Geophysical Journal International. 193 (2): 711–716. doi:10.1093/gji/ggt029. ISSN 1365-246X.
  9. ^ Przybylak, Rajmund; Wyszyński, Przemysław (2020). "Air temperature changes in the Arctic in the period 1951–2015 in the light of observational and reanalysis data". Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 139 (1–2): 75–94. doi:10.1007/s00704-019-02952-3. ISSN 0177-798X.
  10. ^ Harig, Christopher; Simons, Frederik J. (2015). "Accelerated West Antarctic ice mass loss continues to outpace East Antarctic gains". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 415: 134–141. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.01.029.
  11. ^ Simons, Frederik J.; Dahlen, F. A.; Wieczorek, Mark A. (2006). "Spatiospectral Concentration on a Sphere". SIAM Review. 48 (3): 504–536. arXiv:math/0408424. doi:10.1137/S0036144504445765. ISSN 0036-1445.
  12. ^ Simons, Frederik J.; Wang, Dong V. (2011). "Spatiospectral concentration in the Cartesian plane". GEM - International Journal on Geomathematics. 2 (1): 1–36. doi:10.1007/s13137-011-0016-z. ISSN 1869-2672.
  13. ^ Simons, Frederik J.; Dahlen, F. A. (2006). "Spherical Slepian functions and the polar gap in geodesy". Geophysical Journal International. 166 (3): 1039–1061. arXiv:math/0603271. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03065.x.
  14. ^ "Catching a (seismic) wave: Simons measures earthquakes in the oceans". Princeton University. 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  15. ^ "For geoscientist Simons, Earth's deepest secrets may come from the Sea". Princeton University. 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  16. ^ "MERMAIDs detect earthquakes". University College London. 2006. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  17. ^ "MERMAIDs detect distant earthquakes". Nature. 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  18. ^ "Global seismic network takes to the seas". Nature. 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  19. ^ "IUGG Commission on Mathematical Geophysics (IUGG-CMG)" (PDF). The IUGG Electronic Journal. 22 (4). April 1, 2022.
  20. ^ "Distinguished Lectureship – Speakers: Dr. Frederik Simons". IRIS Consortium. 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  21. ^ "Fulbright Commission in Belgium". Commission for Educational Exchange between the United States, Belgium, and Luxembourg. 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2019.