Alireza Malehmir

• Research Director of Smart Exploration Research Center (funded by SSF for 2024-2029)
• Former chair and co-chair of Near-Surface Geoscience Division of EAGE
• Practical & theoretical aspects of hardrock seismic imaging: from prototypes to pilot studies: Smart Exploration, SIT4ME, UPPLAND, FUTURE
• Multicomponent seismic studies for near-surface and CCS applications in noisy environments, over 20 projects in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, South Korea ...

Research Director of SSF-funded Smart Exploration Research Center:

Funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) and involving 9 partners from Sweden, the center aims to innovate and generate basic science for exploration of critical raw materials.

Professor (since March 2016) and sensior lecturer in applied geophysics:

Geophysics, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, since October 2012.

Rehabilitation (Docent/associate professor):

Solid Earth Physics, appointed by the Faculty of Science and Technology, Uppsala University in May 2011.

Assistant professor:

November 2008-October 2012.

Post-doc experience:

Post-doctoral fellow at the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), Ottawa-Canada: 3D seismic reflection imaging of VHMS deposits, awarded by GSC and Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), year 2008.

Formal education:

• PhD in Geophysics, controlled-source seismology, Uppsala University, Department of Earth Sciences, Geophysics, Uppsala-Sweden, September 2007.
• MSc degree in Mining engineering-exploration, Amir Kabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran-Iran, 2002.
• Bachelor degree in Mining engineering-exploration, Amir Kabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran-Iran, 2000.

Honors & awards:

• Uppsala University Innovation Prize Hjärnäpplet (October 2024)

• Uppsala University Attractive Innovation Award for SeisMove® (May 2024)
• EAGE Conard Schlumberger Award (June 2024)
• Member of Danish and Norwegian Research Councils (2021-2024)
• Member of Docent Committee of TEKNAT-UU (since 2021)
• SEG 2019 and 2020 most improved and best student chapter awards, respectively (founded and acting as an adviser)
• SEG 2020 Distinguished Achievement Award for Smart Exploration project
• Educational award for the academic year of 2007: by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Foundation, subject to maintenance of a scholastic record and courses of study satisfactory to the SEG Scholarship Committee.
• Leading Edge Bright Spot mention for articles published in Geophysics (2009, 2012, 2013).
• Co-author of one of the four best papers of the Near Surface Geoscience 2013 by Krawzcyk et al. Bochum, Germany.
• Main author of one of the top 30 paper presentations of the SEG Annual Meeting 2013, Houston, USA.

Editorial duties:

• Editor-in-Chief of Geophysical Prospecting (2024-present, formerly deputy editor from 2020)
• Editorial board member of: Nature Scientific Reports (2014-2020);
• Guest associate/editor of: Geophysics (2012),
• Interpretation (2014-2015)

My research covers both basic and applied exploration seismics. From crustal-scale studies to environmental and engineering applications including mineral exploration, CCS site selection, landslides, groundwater to geothermal site characterizations. I supervise students but also make sure solutions find their ways to the industry.

Former PhD students:

Saeid Cheraghi, Seismic investigations in the Brunswick No. 6 mining area, Canada (March 2013); Magnus Andersson, 3D structure and emplacement of the Alnö alkaline and carbonatite complex, Sweden (May 2015). Shunguo Wang, Multiple geophysical methods (Sept. 2017); Suman Mehta, Boat-towed RMT modeling/inversion (Oct. 2017); Bojan Brodic, multicomponent seismics landstreamer (Feb. 2018); Silvia Salas-Romero, Geophysical and property measurements of quick clays (March 2019); Georgiana Maries, Near-surface and hardrock seismics (June 2020, awarded Bjurzons premium prize); Sebastian Buntin, Seismic structures of the Svecofennian lithosphere (Dec. 2021); George Donoso, Hardrock seismics (Sept. 2022); Magdalena Markovic, 2D/3D and deep-learning hardrock seismics (Nov. 2022, awarded Bjurzons premium prize); Tatiana Pertuz, Hardrock and ultrahigh resolution seismics (Feb. 2024).

Post-doc collaborations:

Joachim Place, hardrock seismics (2013-2016); Emil Lundberg, urban and near-surface seismics (2014-2016); Mahdieh Dehghannejad, urban and hardrock seismics (2014-2016); Omid Ahmadi, hardrock seismic modeling (2015-2016); Magnus Andersson, planning of a crustal seismic profile (2016-2017); Hannes Mattsson, petrological studies within StartGeoDelineation (2017-2018); Peter Holmes, project/innovation manager of Smart Exploration (2018-2019); Alba Gil de la Iglesia, hardrock seismics (2018-2021); Bojan Brodic, seismic solutions (2018-2022); Yinshuai Ding, hardrock seismics (2020-2022); Myrto Papadopoulou, near-surface seismic applications (2021-2024); Michael Westgate, Geological carbon storage (2022-2025); Grzegorz Paletko, Instrumentation (2022-2023); Magdalena Markovic, Hardrock seismics (2023-2025); Liuqing Yang, Machine-learning solutions (2024-2026).

Patents, Prototypes and Methods:

• Trademark (Swedish Intellectual Property Office, PRV, 2024, application number: 2024-03782): “Locktid”.

• Trademark (Swedish Intellectual Property Office, PRV, 2024, application number: 2024-03781): “SeisSolo”. • Patent (pending, 2023), entitled “A new seismic landstreamer design and method”.

• Trademark (Swedish Intellectual Property Office, PRV, 2023, registration number: 625506): “SeisMove”. • Patent (Swedish Intellectual Property Office, PRV, granted on 17-11-2020), SE 543 288 C2 entitled “Mining and mineral exploration system and methods for performing time-accurate measurements in a mine”.

• A state-of-the art MEMS-based 3C seismic landstreamer (2014) for urban underground infrastructure planning and high-resolution imaging projects (used +20 projects in Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Norway, South Korea).

• UAV-based magnetic survey tests for mineral exploration (see SEG-TLE issue of July 2017).

• Downhole physical property logging, plotting and synthetic scripts.

• For slimholes modular-based geophysical system co-developed with BitSim (2019). • Various seismic synthetic modeling scripts.

• Nordic Geophysics (a spin-off consulting from Smart Exploration founded in 2018). Example consultancy services to C&H, Geopartner, BHP, Anglo, De Beers and GEUS. Moving towards a start-up.