Juan M. Lorenzo
Biography
Juan M. Lorenzo was born in Spain; raised in Wollongong, Australia; and became a geologist through the University of Barcelona in 1983. His interest in geophysics was kindled after a summer internship in Italy with Western Geophysical in 1982. The following year he came to the United States as a Fulbright scholar; he concentrated on marine seismology for his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He has participated in seven marine geophysical and drilling cruises in all the major oceans except the Arctic. Lorenzo commenced his first land-seismic field experiments in 2001, also while on a Fulbright Award, to conduct research and teach at the University of Chile, in Santiago. Since then, he has developed three seismic facilities to investigate near-surface processes over a wide range of physical scales: (1) a hydraulic fracturing lab that investigates centimeter-scale processes (2) a robotic seismic sand tank for hydrogeophysics in the kilohertz (< 1 meter) range; and (3) a mobile field laboratory vehicle, nicknamed the “Seismeauxbile,” that allows near-surface seismic investigations down to 30 meters (2–100 hertz range). Lorenzo’s former graduate students (5 Ph.D. and 17 M.S.) are now employed at all levels of industry by national and international companies or have their own company. He enjoys teaching seismic acquisition and processing during the orientation week for the IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) Internship Program (2014, 2017, 2018, and 2019) in Socorro, N.M.
Honors/Awards
- Ernest & Alice Neal Professorship in Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University
- Adjunct faculty member in the Department of Petroleum Engineering
- 2019 Marshall Space Flight Center Faculty Fellow
Affiliation
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University
Location
Baton Rouge, La.