Dr. Rasheed Ajala

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where I am working on developing state-of-the-art geophysical techniques and using artificial intelligence to decipher the enigmatic geology and tectonics of the African continent and Madagascar. I received my Ph.D. in May 2022 for seismic inversion and modeling in Southern California and the Indo-Burma subduction zone, where I spent several months deploying and maintaining a broadband seismograph network.

My research focuses on deriving the most accurate image of the Earth’s interior and coupling that information with numerical modeling to understand the nature and evolution of our planet across all scales. Doing this requires advances on numerous fronts, including developing scalable imaging algorithms, designing and deploying optimal surveys for recording various geophysical signals, and adapting creative solutions to problems that otherwise require unattainable computational resources.

Before joining the group, I worked as a seismologist quantifying seismic risk in an insurance company, as an exploration geophysicist tackling complex imaging problems in the energy industry, and as an earthquake seismologist on a U.S. government contract.