CMG Training: Summer School in Geophysical Porous Media: Multidisciplinary Science from Nanoscale (Clay) to Global (Magma) Migration

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

Rarely do students working on multidisciplinary math/geophysics projects get the whole picture of the problem and hence a full understanding of it. This summer school is designed to begin overcoming this dual-mode, mathematics vs. geophysics, way of doing science by providing an environment that encourages the geoscientists to look more seriously at the theory and the mathematicians to look more seriously at the physics while learning to communicate in each others languages. To help reach this goal, basic tutorials will be prepared and presentations will be given by experts in the fields of mathematics and geophysics working on common problems. These will expose the participants to the current limitations in the application field and show the two groups how to communicate with one another. The 'capstone' experience of the school will be collaborative student projects that can't be completed without close collaboration between geophysics and mathematics students. These projects will be small research efforts directed at one of the themes presented in the overview talks. The student teams will be guided by two faculty mentors (a mathematician and a geoscientist) and will make a presentation to the school on the final day. While it is hoped that these team projects might be the seed of new research efforts, the primary goal is to give the students the experience of working closely with researchers having different background than their own, i.e. to teach them to do multidisciplinary science. Projects will be chosen that can not be completed without a serious collaborative effort. Geophysical porous media on scales ranging from the nano to the global will be the focus area. Most graduate students working on multidisciplinary projects focus on a piece of the project of relevance to their major field of study, either applied math or geophysics. For example, mathematics students tend to neglect or over simplify the physics so they can prove a theorem, while geophysics students tend to neglect mathematical rigor in their modeling efforts so they can get a better understanding of the real physics. This summer school is designed to begin overcoming this dual-mode way of doing science by providing an environment that encourages the geoscientists to look more seriously at the theory and the mathematicians to look more seriously at the physics while learning to communicate in each others languages.