Department, College launch Geo-Mathematical Imaging Group

06-05-2007

Purdue University's College of Science and the Center for Computational and Applied Mathematics (CCAM) of the Department of Mathematics announced in March the launch of the Geo-Mathematical Imaging Group (GMIG).

"GMIG will put significant resources into multi-scale approaches to (elastic) wave-equation modeling, scattering, inverse scattering, and tomography," according to Maarten de Hoop, professor and director of Purdue University's Center for Computational and Applied Mathematics.

De Hoop has set up global partnerships that involve researchers and leading energy-production oil companies. ExxonMobil, Total, and BP have entered into agreements with GMIG for the purpose of collaborative research.

De Hoop will serve as the director of GMIG. Mathematics professors Antonio Sa Barreto and Steven Dong will serve as research leaders along with de Hoop. The program in CCAM has been developed in conjunction with Purdue's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, the Department of Physics, and the Department of Statistics. Physics professor Laura Pyrak-Nolte, Statistics professor Chong Gu, and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences professor Robert Nowack comprise this interdisciplinary team. Additional institutions involved in the research are MIT, Lund University (Sweden), and the University of Washington.

An advisory board has also been formed. ExxonMobil, Total, and BP will each have corporate representation on the GMIG advisory board. Jeffrey S. Vitter, Frederick L. Hovde Dean and Professor of Computer Science, is the chair of the GMIG advisory board.

"The launch of the Geo-Mathematical Imaging Group is very exciting for Purdue University and the College of Science. Maarten assembled the team of researchers and industry partners shortly after his arrival at Purdue. Things have moved swiftly since then," Vitter said. The first GMIG advisory board meeting took place March 5 and 6. Active research will begin in the fall of 2007.