CV

Contact Information

Name Ian Vandevert
Professional Title PhD Candidate, Seismology
Email ivandevert@gmail.com
Location San Diego, California
Website https://ianvandevert.com

Professional Summary

Data scientist and software engineer completing a PhD in seismology (defending June 2026), specializing in building analysis pipelines for large scientific datasets (~775,000 events and ~12 million records). Experience spans the full stack of scientific computing: ingesting and cleaning messy real-world data, designing efficient numerical algorithms, and building analysis and visualization workflows. Comfortable working across Python (NumPy, pandas, SciPy, ObsPy, GeoPandas), high-performance computing environments, Linux, and real-time data streams. Author of peer-reviewed publications and open-source scientific tools.

Experience

  • 2021 -

    San Diego, California

    Graduate Student Researcher
    Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
    • Developed methods for characterizing earthquake source properties, applied to catalogs of ~775,000 events and ~12 million seismograms
    • Introduced the normalized frequency index (nFI), a metric distinguishing spatial variations in earthquake source physics; released as an open-source end-to-end Python pipeline (py-nfi)
    • Contributed to the SCEC/USGS Community Stress Drop Validation Study, a multi-institution comparison of stress-drop estimation methods applied to the 2019 Ridgecrest sequence
    • Participated in the SCEC Array of Arrays field deployment (2024), assisting in the installation of ~400 temporary geophones across five Southern California sites
    • 4 peer-reviewed publications and 10 conference presentations (AGU, SCEC, SSA, EGU)
  • 2018 - 2019

    Santa Barbara, California

    Undergraduate Research Assistant
    University of California, Santa Barbara
    • Worked with Prof. Toshiro Tanimoto on cross-correlation of seismic noise in the Los Angeles basin
    • Worked with Prof. Robin Matoza on elastic wave propagation simulation
    • Presented results as a poster at the SCEC Annual Meeting (2018)
  • 2019 - 2020

    Campbell, California

    Geotechnical Associate
    C2Earth, Inc.
    • Built an internal project-tracking web application (custom HTML/JS frontend, MySQL backend) deployed on the company’s local network; replaced a single overloaded spreadsheet of thousands of projects with searchable, editable records adopted by the firm
    • Supported residential and commercial construction projects through field and laboratory work: conducted soil compaction and soil analysis tests, and generated settlement contour maps from hydrostatic level surveys of existing buildings

Education

  • 2021 - 2026

    San Diego, California

    Ph.D.
    Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
    Seismology
    • Dissertation: “Spatial Variations in Earthquake Source Properties”
    • Advisors: Profs. Peter M. Shearer and Wenyuan Fan
    • Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP)
  • 2016 - 2019

    Santa Barbara, California

    B.S.
    University of California, Santa Barbara
    Earth Science (Geophysics emphasis)

Awards

  • 2024
    Outstanding Student Presentation Award
    American Geophysical Union (AGU)

    Seismology section; awarded to the top 3–5% of student presenters.

  • 2026
    Student Travel Grant
    Scripps Institution of Oceanography

    For 2026 EGU General Assembly.

  • 2023
    Student Travel Grant
    Seismological Society of America (SSA)

    For 2023 SSA Annual Meeting.

Publications

Skills

Programming Languages (): Python (primary), MATLAB, Fortran
Python Libraries (): NumPy, pandas, SciPy, Matplotlib
Geoscience & Geospatial (): ObsPy, PyGMT, GeoPandas
Data Engineering (): Concurrent and parallel processing, Pipelines for large datasets (10M+ records)
Environment (): Linux, Remote workflows
Methods (): Spectral analysis, Time-series analysis, Signal processing, Spatial statistics, Inversion methods

Projects

  • py-nfi

    End-to-end pipeline for computing the normalized frequency index (nFI) across large seismic catalogs. Python, ObsPy, NumPy, pandas, PyGMT, GeoPandas.

    • Processes 30 years of California seismicity: ~775,000 events and ~12 million seismograms, from raw waveform download through source-property estimation
    • Concurrent FDSN metadata and waveform ingestion, frequency-domain instrument response correction, noise analysis, and spectral computation; vectorized NumPy for efficient processing at catalog scale
    • Geospatial analysis of source-property variations across California fault systems using PyGMT and GeoPandas
  • seisplot

    Interactive seismogram visualization and analysis tool. Python, ObsPy, Tkinter.

    • GUI application for exploring, filtering, and quality-controlling seismogram data, with built-in record section, PSD, spectrogram, and filter response plotting
    • Plugin architecture enabling extensible analysis workflows (e.g., phase arrival overlays, seismogram stacking) without modifying the core codebase
  • sdpy

    Teaching materials for spectral decomposition workshop at the SCEC Annual Meeting. Python, ObsPy, Jupyter.

    • Three-notebook didactic pipeline: waveform download, spectral computation, and spectral decomposition for source parameters
    • Designed as a hands-on starting point for workshop attendees learning spectral decomposition methods