Geodesy Lab
People
Center Staff and Doctoral Students
Tim Dixon received a B.Sc. degree in 1974 from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, and Ph.D. degree in 1979 from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. From 1979-1992, he worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. From 1992-2010 he was at the University of Miami. Since January 2011 he has been at the University of South Florida, where he is a Professor in the Department of Geology.
Rocco Malservisi received a Laurea in Fisica (Physics) from the University of Bologna in 1996 and his Ph.D. in the Geosciences from Pennsylvania State University in 2002. From 2002-2004 he worked as a post-doctoral associate at the University of Miami. From 2004-2010 he was a Junior Professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. Since 2010, he has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of South Florida.
Taha Sadeghi Chorsi is a PhD candidate at the school of Geosciences, USF. He is working on different projects including earthquake modeling, volcano and permafrost degradation monitoring. He is interested in integration of remote sensing data in geophysical modeling.
Robert Van Alphen is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in geospatial and geophysical science with expertise in UAV-based remote sensing, environmental change detection, and geomagnetic surveying. His Research spans coastal, wetland, permafrost, and volcanic environments across multiple federally funded field campaigns. He is interested in studying how surface and subsurface conditions and change in those conditions can be detected and characterized.
Bauyrzhan “Baur” Rustembek is a Ph.D. student in Geology at the University of South Florida. He received his B.S. in Meteorology from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU) in Kazakhstan and his M.S. in Geophysics from the University of Pisa in Italy. His research focuses on geodesy, GNSS, InSAR, seafloor motion, and crustal deformation.
Lab Alumni
Denis Voytenko received his Ph.D. in 2015 under Dr. Dixon. He earned his B.S. in Geology in 2009 and his M.S. in Geology in 2011 from the University of South Florida. Before becoming interested in geodesy, his work focused on modeling hydrographs. After completing his Ph.D., Denis worked as a postdoctoral researcher at NYU with Dr. David Holland, applying radar remote sensing techniques to studies of the Greenland ice sheet.
Qian Yang received her Ph.D. in Geophysics. Her research focuses on the use of space geodetic techniques to study crustal movements associated with ice sheet melting and carbon sequestration.
Makan Karegar received his Ph.D. from the School of Geosciences at USF. His research interests include applications of geodetic techniques such as GPS, InSAR, and satellite/terrestrial gravity measurements to modeling surface deformation.
Nick Voss received his Ph.D. working under Dr. Dixon. He graduated in 2013 with a B.S. in Geology from the University of Miami. Before coming to USF, his research involved looking into the effects of large earthquakes on aquifer systems. Here at USF he worked with the Geodesy group to study subduction zone earthquakes, specifically the 2012 M 7.6 Costa Rica Earthquake.
Ophelia George received her Ph.D. and was involved in two projects investigating volcano-tectonic interaction: the Tohoku Volcanic Arc finite element project and a long-term study of volcanic hazards on the island of Dominica, Lesser Antilles. Her research interests included volcano-tectonic interactions, volcanic hazards, and geophysical modeling.
Surui Xie received his Ph.D. in 2020 from USF. He was a Scripps Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, San Diego, where he worked on instrumentation and data analysis of seafloor geodetic systems.
Fanghui Deng received her Ph.D. in Geology from the University of South Florida in 2020. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego, where she worked on subsidence in the Mississippi River Delta, mainly using satellite data.
Mitchell Hastings received his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of South Florida in 2022. He worked with Dr. Dixon and Dr. Malservisi and was interested in earthquake and volcanic deformation at plate boundaries. He received his Bachelor's of Science in Geosciences from The Pennsylvania State University in 2017 where he worked on the modeling the state of stress in the Aleutian Arc Subduction Zone as a result of large earthquakes over the last century.
Mahsa Afra received her Ph.D. from the School of Geosciences at USF. She received her master’s degree in Geophysics/Seismology from the University of Tehran in 2015. She worked on subduction zone earthquakes and modeling of surface deformation