jeff@giseis.alaska.edu
Phone 907-474-7286
Fax 907-474-5618
Office 307C Elvey
The Freymueller boys, March 1999 
Married, two children (photo). I really like living in Fairbanks, even in the winter. Summer has never-ending daylight, winter has skiing, the World Ice Carving Championships, and, yes, "cold snaps" where the temperature can drop to below -50° F. For more information, see my personal page.
Amazing Ice Sculpture
Education and Interests:
I have been at the Geophysical Institute as a Professor of Geophysics since May 1995. I received a Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1985, and MS and PhD degrees from the University of South Carolina in 1988 and 1991 respectively. Following my PhD, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University for three and a half years.
I am interested primarily in studying active crustal deformation in plate boundary zones. For the last few years, I have focused my efforts at understanding the earthquake cycle at subduction zones, and the behavior of active arc volcanoes before, during and after eruption. The main tool for my research is a satellite-based surveying system, the Global Positioning System (GPS). Using GPS it is possible to measure relative positions between GPS sites with a precision as good as a few millimeters. By repeating these surveys over a period of time, we can watch as plates move and the earth deforms.
Current Graduate Students:
Sigrún Hreinsdóttir (Ph.D student) is studying the 2002 Denali fault earthquake, the 2001 El Salvador earthquake sequence, and the subduction zone in southern Alaska.
Julie Elliott (M.Sc. student) is studying coseismic displacements caused by the 2002 Denali fault earthquake using SAR data.
Tom Fournier (Ph.D student) is studying the deformation of Okmok volcano in the eastern Aleutians.
Samik Sil (M.Sc. student) is studying the effect of poroelastic deformation following the 2002 Denali fault earthquake.
Jill Shipman (Ph.D. student) has just arrived. She plans to work with GPS and seismic data from volcanoes in Alaska.
Ryan Cross (M.Sc. student) has just arrived. He is currently a Teaching Assistant and is still deciding on a project.
Past Graduate Students:
Hilary Fletcher (Ph.D., 2001) studied the tectonics of southern Alaska using GPS. Hilary now works as a researcher at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, New Zealand.
Doerte Mann (Ph.D., 2002) studied volcanic deformation in Alaska using SAR and GPS. Doerte is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University.
Qizhi Chen (Ph.D., 2002) studied the kinematics of the Tibetan Plateau using GPS.
Chris Larsen (Ph.D., 2003) studied the uplift history of the Glacier Bay region using GPS, tide gauges, and raised shoreline data. Chris is now a Research Associate at UAF.