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Dr. Ben Mather

Computational Geophysicist

EarthByte Group

Biography

I am a Postdoc in the EarthByte Group at the University of Sydney. I am interested in the inversion of thermochemical properties of the lithosphere subject to available geophysical data and their uncertainties. Inversions that couple multiple datasets ultimately improve the precision and understanding of the thermochemical evolution of the Earth.

I am passionate about open source software! On this website you will find links to repositories where source code is available with examples of how to reproduce peer-reviewed benchmarks and published results. You will also find code snippets that I have found useful - and maybe you will too!

Interests

  • Data assimilation
  • Bayesian inversion
  • Thermochemical evolution
  • Geothermal heat flux

Education

  • PhD in Earth Science, 2016

    The University of Melbourne

  • Bachelor of Science (Hons), 2011

    Monash University

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Computational Geophysicist

Sydney Informatics Hub

November 2018 – Present Sydney
Coupling of geodynamic codes with surface processes and groundwater flow.

  • Applied to the Sydney Basin.
  • Parallel computing frameworks built on PETSc.
  • Optimisation using deep learning algorithms.
 
 
 
 
 

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

June 2017 – October 2018 Dublin
3D integrated geothermal modelling of Ireland.

  • Forward and inverse modelling of geothermal heat flux.
  • Assimilate Curie depth, seismic velocity, gravity anomly, surface heat flow data.
 
 
 
 
 

Research assistant

University of Melbourne

February 2016 – June 2017 Melbourne
Developer of Quagmire, a code for parallel surface processes modelling

  • Multiple meshing algorithms for unstructured, regular, and orthogonal meshes.
  • Mesh decomposition and solving routines built on PETSc.
  • Landscape evolution using stream flow algorithms.

Recent Posts

Turning up the heat on Earth temperature modelling

Dr Ben Mather and Prof Louis Moresi from AuScope’s Simulation, Analysis and Modelling (SAM) program have recently developed a novel, …
Last updated on Thursday, 13 Feb 2020 4 min read

Introducing Stripy

Geodynamicists from Sydney and Australian National universities have developed Stripy, a software module that allows scientists to …
Last updated on Thursday, 13 Feb 2020 2 min read

Continuous Integration with Travis CI

A bit of a late-comer to this game, I've just discovered the merits of so-called “continuous integration”. In a Journal of …
Last updated on Thursday, 06 Jun 2019 2 min read

May the 4th be with you...

In an Underworld release far, far away… Geodynamicists struggle to model planetary dynamics due to the Cartesian Empire. …
Last updated on Friday, 07 Jun 2019 1 min read

Multiprocessing in Python

Most of the codes I develop run in parallel using MPI (Message Passing Interface) using the python wrapper, mpi4py. There is a reason …
Last updated on Sunday, 25 Nov 2018 3 min read
See all posts

Recent Publications

Adjoint inversion of the thermal structure of Southeastern Australia

An efficient inversion framework that gives improved estimates of the thermal state of the crust in Victoria using heat flow …
PDF Project DOI

PyCurious: A Python module for computing the Curie depth from the magnetic anomaly

PyCurious is a Python package for computing the depth to 580°C from maps of the Earth's magnetic anomaly using a Bayesian inference …
PDF Code Project DOI

Stripy: A Python module for (constrained) triangulation in Cartesian coordinates and on a sphere.

The triangulation of scattered points is a common problem in science and engineering when local neighbourhood information is required …
PDF Code Project DOI

Constraining the geotherm beneath the British Isles from Bayesian inversion of Curie depth: Integrated modelling of magnetic, geothermal and seismic data

The temperature distribution in the crust, and associated uncertainty, was simulated from the ensemble of Curie depth realisations …
PDF Code Dataset Project DOI

Probabilistic surface heat flow estimates assimilating palaeoclimate history: new implications for the thermochemical structure of Ireland

Regions where surface temperature has increased since past glaciation events, such as Ireland, underestimate the heat output of the …
Preprint Project DOI
See all publications

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Intraplate volcanism triggered by subducted volatiles during bursts in slab flux
Tuesday, 04 Feb 2020 2:15 PM — 2:30 PM Q-Station
The Role of Stagnant Slabs at the Transition Zone on Widespread Volcanism in Eastern Australia and Zealandia
Wednesday, 11 Dec 2019 2:00 PM — 6:00 PM San Francisco, Moscone South
Stagnant slabs at the transition zone linked to widespread volcanism in Eastern Australia and Zealandia
Tuesday, 19 Nov 2019 2:30 PM — 2:45 PM Port Lincoln, South Australia
All models are wrong: Testing your assumptions (keynote)
Friday, 01 Nov 2019 3:00 PM — 3:30 PM UNSW, Sydney
The origin of intraplate mafic volcanism along the eastern margin of Australia
Thursday, 11 Apr 2019 12:12 AM Vienna, Austria
See all talks

Projects

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All Ongoing Completed

Basin Genesis Hub

Coupling the evolution of mantle flow, crustal deformation, erosion and sedimentary processes using open-source modelling tools.

G.O.THERM.3D

To develop a robust and unique model of temperature within Ireland's crust and to produce a 3D temperature atlas of the country.

Underworld

Computational tools for the geodynamics community. Built in Australia, used all over (and under) the world

Tags

adjoint basin modelling Bayesian inference Curie depth fortran geophysics geothermal git heat flow intraplate volcanism mesh numerical modelling palaeoclimate parallel programming pyGPlates python statistics surface processes underworld

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