Lars Nielsen

CV

Current position: Professor and Deputy Head of Department for Research, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen (http://ign.ku.dk), Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Phone: +45 24424706, email: [email protected].

Education and work

Abbreviations used below:

GI: Geological Institute; DGG: Department of Geography and Geology; IGN: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.

1998    PhD awarded on 26 November, Faculty of Science, Univ. Aarhus

1998    Postdoc, GI, Univ. Copenhagen (financed by the Carlsberg Foundation)

2001    Assistant professor, GI, Univ. Copenhagen, financed by the Danish Natural Science Research Council/Danish Council for Independent Research (‘Steno’ stipend)

2004    Associate professor (lektor), GI, Univ. Copenhagen

2008    PhD Coordinator, DGG and now at Geology Section and Geography Section of DGN

2012    Deputy Head of Department for Research, DGG and now IGN, Univ. Copenhagen

            (Acting Head of Department of DGG from 1 October to 31 December 2012)

2014    Professor of Geophysics, IGN, Univ. Copenhagen

Leave

Paternity leave: 10 weeks during summer and autumn of 2008.

Geophysical Research

Development of a joint inversion method for simultaneous estimation of seismic velocity and density structure and application of this method for interpretation of by data from the Central Graben area of the North Sea.

Waveform modeling of super long-range “peaceful nuclear explosion” (PNE) seismic data for estimation of upper mantle and crustal heterogeneity with implications for modeling of the crust-mantle transition, the lithosphere, and the top of the mantle transition zone.

Waveform modeling of reflection seismic data for improved understanding of how interference from sub-resolution layering influences seismic observations and may give rise to caveats in geological interpretation of seismic data.

Development of tomographic inversion methods for proper account for correlated data errors. Inversion approach has been applied in least-squares-based interpretation of cross-hole radar data and tailored to work also in stochastic modeling of the same type of data.

Tailoring of stochastic modeling algorithms for interpretation of cross-hole radar data in relation to description of sediment heterogeneity.

Characterization of onshore chalk deposits with ground-penetrating radar and seismic methods with implications for hydrocarbon reservoir characterization in the North Sea and groundwater reservoir characterization onshore Denmark.

Establishment of sea-level markers from ground-penetrating radar imaging of coastal deposits. Application of this method for establishment of Holocene relative sea-level curves recording vertical land movement patterns and sea-level change in southwest Scandinavia.

LN has authored 61 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books (incl. three editorials). 60 of LN’s publications are listed in Web of Science, where LN’s h-index is 19. 

LN was Honorary Visiting Fellow at Department of Geology, University of Leicester from 21 October 1994 to 10 December 1994.

Invited lecture on fault detection at conference held in the Royal Society, London in 1999.

Guest lecture at Rice University in 2000.

LN was granted a prestigious ‘Steno’ stipend from the Danish Council for Independent Research in 2001.

Invited lecture at Univ. Texas at Austin in 2003.

Paper by Nielsen and Thybo was selected as a highlighted paper of Geophysical Research Letters in 2004.

Invited speaker at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in 2006.

In 2010, LN was elected chairman of the Geological Society of Denmark (term ends in 2014).

PI for different research projects:

2001–2004:   Near-surface Geologically Applied Geophysics. Assistant professorship and research funding (‘Steno’ stipend) financed by the Danish Natural Science Research Council/Danish Council for Independent Research. 1.6 MM DKK.

2006:             Acquisition of ground penetrating radar for near-surface geological studies. Financed by the Danish Natural Science Research Council/Danish Council for Independent Research. 0.5 MM DKK.

2008–2009:   Geophysical imaging of Chalk Group heterogeneity. Financed by Faculty of Science, Univ. Copenhagen. 0.5 MM DKK.

2008–2011:   Near-surface geophysical investigations of dynamic Earth processes. Framework grant financed by the Danish Natural Science Research Council/Danish Council for Independent Research. 0.8 MM DKK.

2011–2014:   Differential Vertical Movements in the Danish Area: Geophysical and Geological Interpretation of Sea-level Curves for the last 7000 Years. Major research project financed by the Danish Natural Science Research Council/Danish Council for Independent Research. 3.4 MM DKK.

2015-      :    Differential vertical land movement at Greenland margins during the past ~10,000 years. Research project financed by the Danish Natural Science Research Council/Danish Council for Independent Research. 2.5 MM DKK.

Participation in other research projects and centres

1994–1998: MONA LISA project (PI’s: Hans Thybo, Univ. Copenhagen; Niels Balling, Univ. Aarhus). 1998–2001: Centre for Tectonophysical studies of the Tectosphere (PI: H. Thybo, Univ. Copenhagen). 2004–2007: Centre for Integrated Geophysical and Tectonic Studies (PI: H. Thybo, Univ. Copenhagen). 2006–2007: Origin and Genesis of coastal Barrier Systems (OBS) (PI: Morten Pejrup, Univ. Copenhagen). 2006–2009: Hydrogeophysics (PI: Karsten. H. Jensen, Univ. Copenhagen). 2008–2010: REFLEKS (PI: Morten Pejrup, Univ. Copenhagen). 2011– : Centre for Cross-disciplinary Chalk Research, project financed by Maersk Oil (PI: Lars Stemmerik, Univ. Copenhagen). Reservoir analogous (Co-PIs: Lars Stemmerik, Klaus Mosegaard, Lars Nielsen, Univ. Copenhagen) financed by DHRTC - LN part amounts to 5.5 MM DKK.

Editorial work, reviewing, assessments, and conference session organization

2007–2009:   Managing Guest Editor, Journal of Applied Geophysics, special issue on near-surface seismic and georadar techniques.

2009–2010:   Co-Guest Editor, Journal of Applied Geophysics, IGC special issue on near-surface geophysics.

2010–2011:   Managing Guest Editor, Journal of Applied Geophysics, special issue on near-surface seismic and georadar techniques.

2016-      : Editor for Advances in Geophysics.

 Scientific Editor (geophysics section), Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark.

LN has reviewed papers for several international peer-reviewed journals, including Scientific Reports (Nature), Geophysical Research Letters, Geophysical Journal International, Geophysics, Tectonophysics, Journal of Applied Geophysics, Journal of Sedimentary Research.

LN has been evaluator of 7 PhD thesis.

LN has evaluated 5 senior researcher position applications.

LN has evaluated a research proposal submitted to different international funding agencies.

LN has been convener of shallow seismics and georadar sessions of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) since 2004. LN was co-convener of a near-surface geophysical session of the 33^rd International Geological Congress.

Supervision

LN is currently the main supervisor for 6 PhD students.

LN has supervised 2 postdocs and 1 assistant professor.

Teaching at University of Copenhagen

LN has taught several BSc and MSc level courses on acquisition, processing, modelling, and interpretation of geophysical data (including ground-penetrating radar, seismic, geoelectrical, magnetic, gravity, and logging methods).

LN has supervised/co-supervised several MSc and BSc students.

LN has organized international PhD courses .

Short presentation

My research is focused on:

- Development and application of geophysical methods within a broad range of geophysical research fields: waveform modeling of seismic and radar ground-penetrating radar data; processing of seismic and ground-penetrating radar data; tomographic inversion of seismic and ground-penetrating radar data; tailoring of stochastic modeling algorithms; joint inversion of seismic and gravity data.

My current research projects are focused on:

- Establishment of sea-level markers from ground-penetrating radar imaging of coastal deposits. Application of this method for establishment of Holocene relative sea-level curves recording vertical land movement patterns and sea-level change in Greenland and southwest Scandinavia. (Financed by the Danish Agency for Idenpendent Research (FNU) and Geocenter Copenhagen).

- Characterization of onshore chalk deposits with ground-penetrating radar and seismic methods with implications for hydrocarbon reservoir characterization in the North Sea and groundwater reservoir characterization onshore Denmark. (Financed by the DHRTC – the Danish Hydrocarbon Research and Technology Centre).