Costas (Konstantinos) Papazachos
Professor of Physics of the Lithosphere, Seismology
& Applied Geophysics, Aristotle Univ. Thessaloniki
Email: kpapaza@geo.auth.gr
Phone: +30-2310998510
H-Google: 44, Citations-Google: 6637
H-Scopus: 35, Citations-Google: 3676
H-Scopus*: 29, Citations-Scopus*: 2727
*(no self-citations)
Career
- Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Geological & Geophysical Sciences, Princeton University, USA (1994-1995)
- Researcher D’ (1995-1998) and C’ (1998-1999), Institute of Engineering Seismology & Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK), Greece
- Assistant Professor (1999-2005), Associate Professor (2005-2010) and Professor (2010-present), School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
- Meierjurgen Fellow at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon, USA (February-June 2017)
Positions of responsibility
- Chairman of the Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2019-2022)
- Director of Geophysics Laboratory, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2017-2023)
- Chairman (2018-2019), Vice-Chairman (2017-2018) and member of the Digital Governance Committee (DGC) at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2012-2017, 2019-present).
- Member of the Quality Assurance Unit -MO.DI.P AUTH (2023-)
- Former member of the Scientific Council of the WEGENER subcommission of IUGG
- Former member of the board of directors of the Institute of Technical Seismology & Antiseismic Constructions (ITSAK)
- Former member and deputy member of the board of the Organization for Antiseismic Planning and Protection (OASP)
- General Secretary of the Institute of Study and Monitoring of the Santorini Volcano (ISMOSAV) and its scientific committee
- Member of the coordination board of the Unified National Seismograph Network (EEDS).
- Former member of the Board of Directors of IGME.
Research interests
- Structural studies (mainly tomographic) of the crust and upper mantle
- Propagation of seismic waves and simulation of groung strong motion using local and teleseismic data.
- Investigation of tlocal site effects using seismic records and ambient noise data, including geophysical structure inversion using joint (active/passive) data inversion.
- Development and application of Applied Geophysics techniques (seismic, electromagnetic, gravitational, etc.) for the study of near-surface formations.
- Studies of active crustal deformation
- Seismotectonic regime and seismic hazard of the broader Aegean region, including studies of seismic sequences.
- Time-dependent seismicity and seismic hazard using seismicity and probabilistic models.
- Study of the characteristics of seismic waveforms and their automatic processing.
- Study of volcano seismotectonics and related volcanic phenomena
Education & Supervision of young scientists
- Teaching Applied Mathematics, Programming, Geostatistics, General Physics, Seismology, Applied Geophysics and Physics of the Earth Interior to graduate students (since 2005) and undergraduate students (since 1992). Visiting professor in the graduate program of the University of Potsdam and instructor at the University of Oregon (2017).
- Member of the advisory committee for PhD candidates for ~30 geologists and engineers in the Schools of Geology in Thessaloniki and Patras, as well as the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Thessaloniki. Supervision of 12 PhD theses (9 completed), and participation in several PhD examination committees.
- Member of advisory and examination committees for M.Sc. Theses for ~30 geologists at the School of Geology of A.U.Th., serving as the supervisor for 11 M.Sc. theses (10 completed).
Field Work
Organization and participation in several field experiments related to seismotectonic studies, geophysical surveys (seismic, gravity, magnetic, electrical), field experiments for geological, geotechnical and archaeological research.
The most important field experiments concern the participation in the large-scale networks SIMBAAD and EGELADOS (2006-2008), the largest network of land and seabed stations ever installed in the Aegean, as a member of its steering committee and responsible for the operation and maintenance of a large part of the network.
Member of the PROTEUSexperiment, which took place in 2016 in the wider area of the Santorini volcanic complex, in collaboration with the University of Oregon, Imperial College and EKPA.
Member of the AdriaArray Initiative, which at the end of 2022 completed the installation of ~35 new broad spectrum seismic stations in Greece, 15 under my coordination.
Responsible for the operation of the Strong Seismic Motion Network of the Institute of Seismology & Earthquake Engineering-ITSAK (1995-1999).
Participation in the operation of the Seismological Network of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1990-present), with extensive experience in various aspects of the operation and development of the network.
Member of several Greek and international seismic-geophysical-geological associations (AGU, EGU, SSA, etc.). Member of various geophysical and geoscientific committees of Greek universities and research institutions. Participation in various coordinating committees responsible for the reform and submission of projects for the Department of Geology (including three projects for the restructuring of the undergraduate program), responsible for the development of the IT infrastructure of the Department of Geology (Computer Cluster, etc.), and member of several IT and Quality Assurance committees in the Aristotle University.
Chairman of the School of Geology for the period 2019-2022, during which the Certification of the Undergraduate Study Program (USP) was completed by an international committee (highest rating among all Geosciences School in Greece), including the restructuring of the USP was implemented and the fully remote USP organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Director of the Geophysics Laboratory at AUTh, coordinator for the daily operation of the Seismic Network of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, member of its advisory committee, coordinator for the data collection and dissemination system, and participation in daily/weekly seismicity analysis services.
Communication with state services (government and local-regional authorities) and the general public in Greece regarding strong seismic activity (major earthquakes, aftershock sequences) in the wider Aegean region. Speaker at public schools, professional organizations, municipalities, etc., on various topics such as General Geophysics, Seismology in Greece, and Earthquake policy.
My research activity has been carried out on the topics of Physics of the Lithosphere, Seismology and Applied Geophysics. My research work was realized during my stay in the four main research institutions in which I have worked, namely the Department of Geophysics of A.U.Th., ITSAK, the Department of Geosciences of Princeton University (USA) and the Earth Science Department of the University of Oregon (USA). This research work was implemented through research programs, on the topics of Physics of the Earth’s Interior (mainly Physics of the Lithosphere), Seismology (General Seismology, Engineering Seismology, etc.), Applied Geophysics, but also subjects of more specialized or related branches of Geophysics (Soil Dynamics, Environmental Physics, etc.).
The main research subjects I have focused concern the:
- Structure of the crust and upper mantle, mainly using tomographic methods
- Study of the propagation and simulation of seismic waves, as well as the effect of local geology on strong and weak seismic motion using instrumental data (earthquakes and ambient noise), as well as simulations
- Study of radiation, attenuation and impact of strong seismic motion using macroseismic and instrumental data
- Study of the time-dependent seismicity and deformation of the lithosphere
- Active deformation, seismic risk and seismotectonic regime of the wider Aegean area
- Study of seismic sequences
- Study of the characteristics of seismic records and their automatic processing
- Earthquake catalogs and their characteristics
- Study of the seismovolcanic activity and structure of the Santorini volcano
- Use of Applied Geophysics techniques (seismic, gravitational, magnetic, etc.) to study the near-surface layers, mainly for archaeometric, geotechnical and geological purposes
Author of ~200 journal articles, books and conference proceedings, ~2600 citations without self-citations (h-factor=30 in Scopus without self-citations). Participation in more than 40 conferences (chairman in many sessions of ESC, IUGG, etc.) with more than 80 presentations, including invited talks. Invited speaker in many other European Departments of Geophysics and Seismology. Author of a book on the Physics of the Earth’s Interior (in Greek, used as a textbook subject in Greece in all Departments of Geology), 2 atlases of macroseismic data, 2 maps of seismic active faults and more than 100 technical project reports. Author of the national report for Greece for the IASPEI International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering Seismology (Eds. W. H. K. Lee, H. Kanamori, P. C. Jennings and C. Kisslinger).
Reviewer for the European Union, the ESF, as well as several scientific journals. Also reviewer for a large number of special volumes and books (TransMed Atlas, Developments in Volcanology, Active Volcanoes of the World, etc.), member of the organizing committee of national and international conferences (IASPEI 1997, Greek Geophysical Union 1993, Greek Geological Society 2004, Carpathian-Balkan Geological Society 2010, etc.). Organizer of the workshop “EGELADOS-Exploring the GEodynamics of subducting Lithosphere using an Amphibian Deployment Of Seismodynamics” (Thessaloniki, 2007) and of the “Beyond Alparray Workshop: The AdriaaArray initiative” and member of the committee of the Adria Array initiative (Thessaloniki, 2019), which led to the creation of the EGELADOS and AdriaArray networks.
Best Review Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for the journal Geophysical Research (Solid Earth) in 2001. Associate Editor of Pure and Applied Geophysics (PAGEOPH), and formerly of the Geophysical Journal of the Balkan Geophysical Society and Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences. Award for the best work of a young geoscientist from the Hellenic Geological Society for 1996-1997.
