Advertisement
Top geophysicist Niu Fenglin leaves US for prestigious China role
Award-winning seismologist and prolific researcher departs Texas after 22 years, during which he carried out pioneering work on earthquake prediction
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
41
After more than two decades of distinguished work in the United States, geophysicist Niu Fenglin has returned to China to join Earth and space sciences school at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).
The award-winning scientist left his full professorship at Rice University in Houston, Texas – where he had worked since 2002 – in November, according to the USTC website.
Niu is the third person to be awarded the distinguished chair professorship at USTC, one of China’s top universities, located in the southeastern province of Anhui.
Advertisement
He is well known for his research on the deep structures within the Earth. Niu has been developing imaging techniques to map the seismic diversity of the Earth’s interior at various depths and scales to better understand the chemical and physical processes inside our planet.
Born in east China’s Jiangsu province in 1966, Niu graduated from USTC in 1988, and earned a PhD at the University of Tokyo in 1997. In 2002, he joined Rice University as an assistant professor.
Advertisement
In 2008, Niu published research in the journal Nature that analysed 10 years of data from a portion of California’s San Andreas Fault that showed that subtle seismic changes that preceded earthquakes could be measured. The article, titled “A new step forward in earthquake prediction”, was widely reported internationally.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x