Teaching and Mentoring

Teaching at UT (GEOL codes)

• Physics and Chemistry of the Mantle (GEO391): F19
  • Undergraduate major/graduate seminar on deep Earth topics, focusing on the Earth's mantle, including the transition zone and core-mantle boundary dynamics.
  • syllabus, class material on Canvas
• Sustaining a Planet (302P/J): S18, S19, S20
  • Undergraduate intro class on natural disasters, hazard, and risk.
  • syllabus, class material on Canvas
• Tectonic Geodynamics (371T): S19, S20
  • Undergraduate major and grad student class on mantle and lithospheric dynamics.
  • textbook draft/lecture notes
  • syllabus, class material on Canvas
• Geodynamics (371T/391): F17
  • Undergraduate major and grad student class on mantle and lithospheric dynamics.
  • textbook draft/lecture notes
  • class syllabus, material on Canvas
• Introduction to Geology (303): S17
  • Undergraduate intro class introducing the solid Earth sciences across the scales.

Classes taught at USC (GEOL codes)

• Numerical Modeling of Earth Systems (557): F05, F08, S13, S16
  • complete lecture notes/textbook draft
    • Becker, T. W. and Kaus, B. J. P (2020): Numerical Modeling of Earth Systems: An introduction to computational methods with focus on solid Earth applications of continuum mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, v. 1.2.2, 2020. (PDF, accompanying Matlab code for exercises)
    • Becker, T. W. and Kaus, B. J. P (2015): Numerical Modeling of Earth Systems: An introduction to computational methods with focus on solid Earth applications of continuum mechanics. figshare, doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.1555628, 2015. (PDF)
  • syllabus, course web site
• Crises of a planet (108): F11, F12, F13, F14, F15
• Engineering Geology (305L): S07, S09, S10, S12, S13, S14, S15
  • San Andreas Fault Field Trip, 2009
• Quantitative methods in the Earth Sciences (425): F09
  • syllabus.
• Geophysics (440): S05, S14, S16
  • Death Valley field work pictures (S05)
• Lithospheric Deformation (534, Geodynamics I): S06, F07, F09, F11, F14
  • Notes on: heat transport, thermal convection. Also see the more extensive subduction zone modeling short course slides.
• The Mantle System (540, Geodynamics II): S09
  • syllabus
• Introductory Grad Student seminar (505): F11
  • Syllabus
• Graduate seminars (599)
  • Subduction: S12
    • syllabus, reading
  • Strain-localization: F09
    • course web site, reading, other material
  • Plate tectonics over time: F06
  • Deep Earth Dynamics: S09
  • Geophysics/Earthquakes Seminar (609): F05, S06, F06, S07
  • Topics in Geodynamics (790): S05
    • course web site

Summer schools and short courses

• Doctoral training, Solid Earth

  I participated in L. Husson and T. Bodin's Doctoral training school for Solid Earth graduate students in Barcelonette, France, in October 2019. Lectures were on
  • An Introduction to Mantle Convection doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.20150.24642,
  • Global Mantle Circulation Modeling doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.33572.01924, and
  • From Global to Regional Geodynamics doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.11761.63849.

• Cooperative Institute for Deep Earth Research (CIDER)

  • Cin-Ty Lee, Richard Allen, and myself chaired the 2013 CIDER summer program From mantle to crust: continental formation and destruction.
  • I have also been an intructor and participant at several other CIDER summer schools:
    • Subduction Dynamics, June 2017, Berkeley, CA.
      • Becker, T. W.: Geodynamics I: Subduction zone dynamics and global mantle flow, lecture at CIDER, doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.30080.02562, 2017. (PDF)
    • Flow in the Deep Earth. June 2016, KITP, Santa Barbara, CA
      • Becker, T. W.: Geodynamics III: Integrating Geophysical Observations into Global Mantle Flow models, lecture at CIDER, doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1082.5209, 2016. (PDF, movie)
        
        
    • Dynamics of Mountain Building. June 2011, Berkeley, CA
    • Water and volatiles in the earth's mantle and core, June 2010, KITP, Santa Barbara, CA

• Summer short course 2012: Mapping and Modeling Earth Science Data

  Short course at the University of Rome Three, June 2012. Provides a brief introduction to UNIX, shell scripting, programming, the Unified Geodynamics Earth Science Computing Environment, making maps with GMT, and other data analysis and visualization tools.
  • course web site with lecture notes and other material

• Summer short course 2011: Subduction zone modeling

  Short course held the University of Roma TRE, April 2011, on numerical and analog modeling of subduction zones and slab dynamics on regional on global scales. Part of the Geodynamics Graduate School at Roma TRE.

  Lecture slides:

  1. Earth structure and rheology
  2. Fluid dynamics and mantle convection
  3. Regional subduction zone models
  4. Global subduction models
  5. Integrated subduction zone modeling

Computing and scientific visualization in the Earth Sciences

• Unified Geodynamics Earth Science Computing Environment (UGESCE)

  A VirtualBox Linux install including a range of solid Earth science software and datasets, including SEATREE and iGMT.

• Computing and mapping lectures and notes

  • Short course on Mapping and Modeling Earth Science Data (06/2012) Introduction to UNIX, shells, shell scripting, and programming along with a tutorial on GMT, UGESCE, mapping, and some comments on data analysis and visualization.
  • Short course on GMT and mapping (without intro to UNIX, S12): tutorial slides on GMT and iGMT.
  • Short course on C programming: S09
  • Numerical Geodynamics lecture notes

• The Solid Earth Research and Teaching Environment (SEATREE)

  A python-based graphical and script-driven interface to solid Earth geodynamics and seismology modeling tools. The goal is to provide easy but transparent access to research tools for teaching, and to facilitate interdisciplinary research.

• iGMT: A graphical user interface for GMT

  iGMT provides a graphical user interface for the Generic Mapping Tool (GMT) routines and can be used to learn and teach GMT.
  • The iGMT web page

• Maps, movies and visualizations

  • Global tectonic maps for download
  • Other teaching visualizations

Community and outreach activities

• Guest lecturer, Computer Science and Modeling of Earth Systems Cate School, Carpenteria, November 2014.
• Leader for "Michael Heizer: Actual Size, Gallery Walkthrough" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 2012.

Meeting of Young Researchers in the Earth Sciences (MYRES)

Mentoring and Training

• Advising (superscript numerals refer to joint publication arising from supervised work)

  • Summer undergraduate interns:
    • At UT Austin: Dorothy Linnemann (2017, Scripps College, with Lavier)
    • At USC: Fabienne Stockmann (2014, Münster University), Simon Schneider (2013, Münster University), Kevin Milner³⁵ (2008, USC), Jared Sain³⁵ (2008, USC), Hannah Waterhouse³⁵ (2008, Bryn Mawr College), and Katrin Plenkers (2005, Karlsruhe).
  • Undergraduate advisees:
    • At UT Austin: Jake Goins (research committee member, 2020 - ), Zel Hurewitz (BSc 2019, Physics; grad school SI)O
    • At USC: Bradford Foley⁴¹ (BSc 2008; Assistant Professor, Penn State)
  • MSc students:
    • At UT Austin: Antoine Demont (visiting from ENS Paris, 2020), Kunpeng Liao (MSc 2018; CGG)
    • At USC: Zi-Yu Wu (MSc 2010; Guosen Securities) and Claire Steedman³² (MSc 2006; Iris Environmental)
  • PhD students:
    • Supervised:
      • current: Wanying Wang¹²⁵ (2016 -), Erin Heilman (2018 -), Simone Puel¹²⁸ (2018 -), Ethan Conrad (2019 -, co-advisor), Edward Clennett (2020 -)
      • At USC:
        • Adam Holt^{87,89,90,92,105-107,113,115} (PhD 2016; Assistant Professor, U Miami)
        • Michael Kaplan (PhD 2015; post-doc, Duke)
        • Mélanie Gérault^62,121 (PhD 2014; post-doc, MIT)
        • Thomas Goebel^{61, 69, 75, 77, 80, 111} (PhD 2013; Assistant Professor, U Memphis)
        • Lisa Alpert^51,63,73 (PhD 2012; Aera Energy Llc.)
        • Iain Bailey^38,47,51,63 (PhD 2009; Swiss Re).
    • Committee member/examination chair:
      • At UT Austin: Eric Hiatt (external chair, 2020 -), Chenyu Tian (2020 -), Keith Minor (external chair, 2019 -), Alexandra Lachner (2019 - 2020), Yanyao Zhang (2018 -), Kristina Butler (external chair, 2018 -), Chang Lu (2018 -), Brandon Schuck (2018 -), Lily R. Serach (external chair, 2017 -), Brooklyn Gose (2017 -), Chujie Liu (2017 - 2020, Phd 2020), Peter Nelson (2017 - 2020, PhD 2020).
      • At USC: Jessica Stellman⁹³ (2014 -), William Schmidt (2015 - 2016), Xinjiang Xiang (2015), Xin Song (2014 - 2015), Xin Liu (2014 - 2015), Beth Paulson (2014 - 2016), Chris Milliner (2013 - 2015), Haoran Xia (2013 - 2015), Francoix Cadieux (PhD 2015), Feng Wang (PhD 2013), Prabu Sellappan (PhD 2013), Whitney Behr (PhD 2011), Zheqiang Shi (PhD 2008), Adam Fischer (PhD 2008), Jeremy Zechar (PhD 2008).
  • External PhD reviewer: Angela Maria Gomez Garcia (U Medellin, 2016), Juliane Dannberg (GFZ Potsdam, 2016), Raquibul Hassan (U Sydney, 2016), Rene Gassmöller (GFZ Potsdam, 2014), and Sabin Zahirovic (U Sydney, 2014).
  • Member of the Board, International Graduate School, Department of Earth Sciences, Universita di Roma TRE, 2014 -.
  • Post-docs:
    • Antoniette Grima (2020 -)
    • Silvia Brizzi (2020 -)
    • Rob Porritt^88,100,124 (2017 - 2019; research associate, UT Austin).
    • Matt Weller¹²² (2016 - 2019; post-doc, Brown)
    • Lukas Fuchs^122,125 (2016 - 2018; post-doc, U. Frankfurt)
    • Attreyee Ghosh^{44, 68} (2008 - 2010; Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
    • Boris Kaus^{20,31-33,40,62} (2005 - 2006; Professor, Mainz University)
    • Jules Browaeys²² (2006; Geophysicist, Total E&P Norge AS)

• Undergraduate and graduate research opportunities

  • Please see the News Page for undergraduate and graduate study opportunities and how to get involved with research at UT Geodynamics.