Elmer Ruigrok

SM Seismology

The 2017 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Elmer Ruigrok for pioneering contributions to the methodology of retrieving seismic-reflection responses from passive seismic data, including ambient noise, and to its application at global, regional and basin scale.

Elmer Ruigrok, during an early stage of his PhD research, derived the general theory for retrieving global-scale reflection responses for long period ambient noise and coda wave data, to develop a methodology for global-scale seismic interferometry. Following this theoretical work, Ruigrok applied seismic interferometry to basin and regional-scale seismicity and to ambient noise data.
Moreover, Ruigrok did not limit his applications to surface waves only, suited for tomographic inversion, but he was one of the first to retrieve high-resolution body-wave reflection responses. This deviation from the “mainstream’‘ research in seismic interferometry makes Ruigrok’s research truly groundbreaking. His work has resulted in an impressive number of journal papers on a variety of applications, like basin delineation using microseisms, imaging the Moho below the Himalayas and Tibet, high-resolution lithospheric imaging, and scanning for velocity anomalies in the crust and mantle using diffractions from the core-mantle boundary. Altogether, his work has led to 20 journal papers in high-rated journals, and he (co-)authored numerous conference presentations. Ruigrok’s work is not only interesting scientifically, but has also important applications in frontier exploration of hydrocarbon resources. With his PhD research and his postdoc work, Ruigrok has proven to be an excellent independent researcher with many groundbreaking ideas, who is capable to translate these ideas into a new methodology for seismic imaging of the Earth’s interior at different scales. Today, Ruigrok s internationally recognised as an expert in the field of basin, regional and global-scale seismic interferometry.