Dr. Pascal Edme

Current research

Pascal Edme is a senior scientist working in both the Seismology and Wave Physics (SWP) and Exploration and Environmental Geophysics (EEG) groups at ETH Zurich.

Pascal’s main research focus is on the development of disruptive concepts and technologies potentially benefiting (or enabling) a wide range of seismic applications (e.g. exploration, geothermal, near-surface characterization and imaging, natural hazard monitoring, seismology).

He is an expert in multi-measurement acquisition and processing and proposes innovative approaches to extract as much information as possible from multiple sensors at the same location (e.g. 6C with rotation vector) or multiple sensors distributed in space (large arrays), both at the surface or in boreholes.

One key aspect he’s investigating is the value of fiber-optic sensing to provide unprecedented spatial resolution and unconventional data (like the curl, the divergence or any other spatial gradients related components) for improved wavefield identification, characterisation and therefore interpretation.

Pascal is involved in a wide range of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) field experiments and pilot tests to study urban seismicity, glacier dynamic, characterise and detect avalanches and monitor volcanic activity or other natural hazards, in collaboration with various colleagues and groups (e.g. SWP, EEG, WSL, SED, UniGE) as well as industrial partners (e.g. Swisscom, Omnisense, Services Industriels de Geneve).

Pascal’s implication typically covers the full spectrum from the preliminary survey design and the field work to the subsequent detailed data analysis with innovative approaches. Pascal is very enthusiastic about those emerging optic-fiber based technologies and believes further applied research and development (in labs to test prototypes as well as in realistic environments to further prove the concepts) can have a significant societal impact in the future.

Experience

Pascal received his PhD from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) in 2007 for his work on wavefield decomposition based on the Receiver Function approach applied to Ocean-Bottom-Cable data. This was part of an industry funded consortium (LITHOS), led by prof. Satish Singh, in between IPG in Paris and Bullard Laboratory in Cambridge UK.

Pascal then joined the R&D Geophysics Department of Schlumberger (Cambridge UK) in 2007 as research scientist to work predominately on the development of WesternGecos’s next generation land seismic acquisition system, dealing with rotational seismic and several hundreds of thousands live sensors. In this context, he patented a number of inventions and worked closely with both engineering (prototyping evaluation) and operation (pilot testing).

Pascal joined ETH Zurich mid-2018 and since enjoys collaborating with various groups on various relevant projects while further developing and sharing his expertise on new types of sensing and associated processing techniques, for instance around optic-fiber based technologies.