Frederik J. Simons - About Me
Frederik J. Simons joined the faculty in September 2006.
Previously, he was a Lecturer at University College London, a Princeton Council of Science & Technology Beck Fellow and a Department of Geosciences Hess Post-doctoral Fellow. His Ph.D. in Geophysics is from M.I.T. and his M.Sc. in Geology from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, of which he is a native.
His research encompasses various aspects of solid-earth geophysics. Most notably, he studies the physical properties of the terrestrial lithosphere, focusing in particular on the elastic and thermomechanical properties of the continents by seismic tomography and the spectral analysis of gravity and topography. To further these goals, Frederik and his colleagues are developing mathematical methods for the spectral analysis of geological processes on the sphere, as well as designing wavelet-based signal processing methods for seismology and developing oceanic instrumentation to close the seismic coverage gap over the Earth's oceans. You can read more about the latter project here, in the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, and also in The Economist.
At Princeton, Frederik has taught Global and Introductory Geophysics (GEO320 & GEO371/PHY371), Data, Models & Uncertainty in the Natural Sciences (GEO422), and co-taught Fundamentals of the Geosciences I and II (GEO505, GEO506) and the Freshman Seminar Earth's Changing Surface & Climate (FRS149 & FRS145).
A more comprehensive vita can be found here.