Award
Seismology project headed by Prof Céline Hadziioannou granted with €4 million
(© Céline Hadziioannou)
Prof Céline Hadziioannou
The Seismological Parameters and Instrumentation (SPIN) network, headed by project coordinator Prof Céline Hadziioannou, has secured €4 million worth of funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 program. The project aims to develop new sensor technology that will help authorities across the globe better evaluate the risk of natural hazards, such as landslides and volcanoes, as well as the stability of bridges and buildings.
The project will run over a four-year period and will be spread over nine European research institutions. Prof Hadziioannou is specifically hoping to take advantage of the fibre-optic cables already wired through major cities and use them to pick up seismic waves. “There is a huge amount of exciting information hidden in this data,” she said in a press release. “The technology is ready for use. Now, we will develop a concept on how best to deploy it.”
Prof Hadziioannou usually dedicates her time to studying seismic noise caused by ocean waves interacting with the seafloor. This is a constant background, distinct from the signals observable during earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. She is particularly interested in seismic noise sources that generate a special type of wave called a Love wave; an area of seismology which is poorly understood. Additionally, she works on extracting information from the seismic noise about the structure of the Earth’s crust, with the aim to learn more about changes to its subsurface.
Prof Hadziioannou is based at the University of Hamburg as a Junior professor in the Institute of Geophysics. Before her current position, she spent time at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich as a Principal Investigator on an Emmy Noether Research Fellowship. (© AcademiaNet)
